Fat Fat Fatty Fat Fatty Fatty Fat Fat

[7shades]

 

Current Corolla: Bigger and heavier than an SV21 Camry. Sad.

[ke70dave]

yep, thats whats called being eco friendly!

 

lets make cars bigger, and with more weight, include technology in the engine to decrease the fuel consumption. but becuase they weight so much, end up with using about the same amount of fuel as the cars of 1989! (my mates sv21 with the 3sfe used hardly any fuel, especailly on the highway)

 

imagine todays technology, in cars that weighed the same and used the same amount of materials as those of 20yrs ago. or potentially lighter if everything was made of plastic, could be using bugger all petrol..and using less materials to do it.....

[7shades]

Yeah but making cars lighter and smaller would make them less safe... And that would mean people may actually have to learn to f*cking drive instead of relying on the car to drive them, and protect them when they run into things.

 

Can't have that now, can we.

[GJM85]

Fortunately we can ALL be the best at controlling our vehicle.

Unfortunately we cannot control the other vehicles on the road. That's where the safety is relied on. I've been in a 100kph to 0kph impact crash before and I wasn't driving. But...

...if i'd have had an air bag in front of me, my sternum wouldn't have shattered when it touched my spine, tearing the right ventricle in my heart and compressing 3 vertibrae....

This is the reason I bought a modern Camry for my family to get around in, also the reason I could afford that Camry and the reason I can now build the car of my dreams.

 

I completely agree with you though, 7shades. That's why i'm going classic, not plastic.

Edited December 15, 2010 by GJM85

[B.L.Z.BUB]

Yup GJM85, I have a KE70 but my family has a Falcon.

 

Other drivers freak me out, especially tailgating 'SUV' 4x4 drivers in torrential rain without their lights on. :huh:

[PHATKE20S]

^^^^

Totally agree with you there Reed.

Whatever happened to safe following distance 2 seconds........

I drive early in the mornings through to around 7am & it's incredible how many people get in their car and just put the parkers (or not even that) on before the sun is even up :bash: It's seriously not that hard to twist the switch people :wtf: & most cars have a warning buzzer so you don't leave them on......

[cinky]

blzbub666. I'm the same dispite there being anchor points for seats in my ae71 i refuse to let my kids travel in it sipmly because its not the safest vehicle so they stay in the family car so unfortately i go cruising alone

Edited December 15, 2010 by cinky

[philbey]

Yeah but making cars lighter and smaller would make them less safe...

 

One word - INERTIA. I'd take a safe small car over a safe large car any day.

 

http://www.ancap.com.au/crashtestrecord?Id=249

 

http://www.ancap.com.au/crashtestrecord?Id=223

 

In my materials science class I did a project on steel vs aluminium/composites for building cars. High strength low alloy steels meant they could make 25% lighter vehicles. You know what the trend was across the auto industry - 25% bigger cars.

 

If you can make the same car 25% lighter, you're safer already.

 

 

Look at the stats from this report. Chances are you're more likely to get killed in a single car crash (hitting trees etc) and if that's the case, less inertia = better chances.

Edited December 16, 2010 by philbey

[ke70dave]

i think all your comments are good,

 

but i also think that some people tend to rely on safety features of cars as a substitute for driver ability.

 

when you hear of "single vehicle rollover" and "a car has plowed into a tree" or "a car has lost control" you have to wonder what is going on there....

 

sure its great that the safety features could very well have saved a life, or saved someone from serious injury. (air bags are a great invention, and ABS is quite possibly the greatest car safety invention ever) howeever we shoudlnt rely on these things or become complacent with driving safe, which i think is what is happening. or our current "Training" of drivers is somewhat lacking, and i think some of the reason is "Well cars are safer now, therefore we don't need as much training"

 

only have to watch people driving in the rain to realise this, tailgating, accelerating fast around corners, watching the stability control light flashing like crazy...

 

edit: philby missed your post (i took to long to post mine..) you make excelent points.

 

i think crumple zones are quite good safety feature.

 

arbatary numbers here, but rather than going from 100-0 in 0.2secs, with crumple zone 100-0 could be achieved in 0.5secs.

 

now considering a single car that smashes into a tree, more inertia may actually help you, since the car will tend to keep going, thus reducing your deceleration time. but if you design a light car with appropriate crumple zone...then you may be better off again.

 

but light costs money (alloy is just not viable for every production car), so we stick with big massive heavy cars with 16 airbags and a massive crumple zone, and hope for the best.

Edited December 16, 2010 by ke70dave

[cinky]

the crumple zones and air bags arent for my driving its for the rest of stupid drivers to protect the little ones from them

[GJM85]

 

I can't 100% agree with this as its the higher inertia of your vehicle the better. I was travelling in the drivers side rear of a N15 pulsar when it hit the front quarter of a Jeep Cherokee that pulled out in front of us. If our vehicle had of been heavier, more energy would have been transfered into the 4WD instead of the crumple zones of the pulsar. My friends in the front had airbags and escaped with bruises. The inertia was transfered to my corner of the vehicle where I sustained the most injury.

 

If we had been in a ke55 or ke70 we would not have been anywhere near so lucky.

 

My grandparents were killed in Ballina in March this year when their blue VP commodore was struck head on by an identical vehicle travelling well over the speed limit. The P platers in the offending vehicle escaped with their lives.

 

In multi-vehicle accidents speed and weight will work in your favour and against the others. In single vehicle accidents it doesn't help at all.

Edited December 16, 2010 by GJM85