its because they design new cars around an outdated technology and recycled metals. it has been proven that a human can survive large amounts of g forces for small amounts of time. if you build a ridged frame. make it to withstand high forces. and immobilize the human body. you can with stand crashes of 4,5,6 g forces and higher. around 150mph headon. these are the principles at work in modern racing.
one of the first aircraft enigneers discovered that when a plane crashed at speeds of 60mph or less that pilots were dieing in far to many numbers. he found that because the technologies of the plane dictated its design, pilots were left with no safe ridged frame to oppose the force of a crash. they must make the lighter framework absorb as much of the impact threw colapsing frames. uncontroled and high impacts will kill regardless.
an automotive engineer saw what the airplane was doing and thought that if he converted an automobile to do the same he may save lives. unfortunatley the impacts of automobiles where usually high enough to fall into the kill zone regardless when using the airplane theory, 2 3ton cars at 60mph, kinda like a 6ton plane at 120mph.
then the auto boys made cars lighter to lessen the impact, now 2 2ton cars at 60. by making the cars lighter they made them less strong.
what a safe vehicle needs is a solid ridgid framework of steel or stronger alloys. they need to build for strengh. that wiil cost a great deal of resources to operate(gas). so much so that it would fail government standards. if they converted to electricity and advanced the technology forwards they would be able to comply with standards and build safe luxury tanks with 5point harnesses. i love mine.
they will not converet to electricity because they have been before congress and the senate for 30 years testifing that thier designs are the best and they will achieve an unrealistic goal with them. if they came out with basically an electric powered nascar that was economical the auto manufacturers would look foolish and untrustworthy.
i hope this answers your question on car safety. now i need another beer. where's my car keys?
druken milkmen driving drunk.
oh btw: the aftermarket tubular framework inside most modern import cars is not nearly strong enough to help with medium impacts, or high impacts.
the NASCAR, FORMULA 1 or NHRA rules manual is a good guide for building strong tubular framework that will withstand high impact. i recomend to everyone. funny thing, you can build a rigid 180 mph, 10 sec 2.2 ton car with 22mpg for under $20,000. it can go headon at 150 mph and i will survive. i dont understand import racing.
[ July 20, 2003: Message edited by: avello500 ]
