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What good is a broken grille?
Roadmaster Crash pic (TAKE A LOOK AT THIS)
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I did not look to see if it was broken.
I'm a little bit confused when it comes to the alleged safety of these older full-frame cars.
Yes, the car itself is stronger and more durable. Isn't that exactly what makes them unsafe? The newer unibody cars are designed to crumple around you like a big aluminum cushion with airbags coming at you from every direction. With a full-frame steel car, the full force of the impact is transferred to the driver.
This video illustrates my point:
One thing that our cars DO have going for them is their weight. I am not a scientist or a physicist, but if your car is bigger and heavier than the other car, I'm pretty sure that's a plus. Of course, extra weight comes with the disadvantage of decreased braking performance. Pick your poison.
Yes, the car itself is stronger and more durable. Isn't that exactly what makes them unsafe? The newer unibody cars are designed to crumple around you like a big aluminum cushion with airbags coming at you from every direction. With a full-frame steel car, the full force of the impact is transferred to the driver.
This video illustrates my point:
One thing that our cars DO have going for them is their weight. I am not a scientist or a physicist, but if your car is bigger and heavier than the other car, I'm pretty sure that's a plus. Of course, extra weight comes with the disadvantage of decreased braking performance. Pick your poison.
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There are some things that the older car could probably be fitted with, like seat belts, and locking seats, so the test has some items that are controversial. With seat belts, and locked down seats (no rust). The driver may get more of the impact if it hits another car that weighs the same. If the other car is lighter, the energy transferred to the lighter car makes it effectively a higher speed impact for the lighter car. If you take that to the extreme, and you compare a Roadmaster and a Smart Car with both travelling at the same speed and in a head-on collision, the Roadmaster would continue travelling in its original direction, but at about a third of the original speed, and the Smart Car going backwards at that speed. The RM would see about 1/3 of the impact force, and the Smart Car 2/3 of the impact force. At 50 MPH each, the RM would have an impact force of 34 MPH, and the Smart Car about 66 MPH. No matter what crumple zones you have, the driver of the Smart Car would have almost twice the impact force as the driver of the RM.
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Well, i have been unlucky enough to have been in 2 severe accidents both involving the complete destruction on the vehicles... I was t-boned in a 96 roadmaster (hit by a 02 monte carlo head on into my drivers fender and door) and the second was my 92 Volvo 240 rear ending a 98 Audi A4 after they power braked with a manual trans to a stop in front of me (my antilock light came on earlier that day as i pulled into work) and I slid into them going 50mph on my way home.
The volvo did exactly what it was supposed to being one of the safest cars of its time right into the new millennium.. front collapsed into itself, airbag went off, although so did my drivers seat (collapsed) and the inpact shot my radio and clock into my back seat... motor and trans were toasted, a shame as the car had 292,000 miles. I had a red mark from the airbag hitting my seatbelt on my chest and a sore back for an hour.
The roadmaster steering box took the hit but i didnt feel it in the cabin... the frame bent and the box went under like its supposed to... i didnt absorb the hit the car did, but in a very different way. I moved more as the larger sofa seats obviously aren't meant to grip you, but that helped my body not absorb the hit.. Oddly enough my airbags didnt deploy, I always wondered if the wire was cut before it could. I ended up having a sore shoulder but that was because the door was bent and i forced it open and it sprung back at me as i climbed out... my back was also sore for an hour but it was more from the door not the initial accident
All in all yes the unibody i felt protected me more, but both times the car was the same size or little smaller... I drive the highway everyday with huge semi trucks... do I risk being hurt a little bit more and a smaller accident or being hurt more or even killed in a larger accident. Trucks give my big car a lot more room so do other cars... I got a better chance of being knocked to the side then run over I've updated my brakes as I would any older car. As well as the suspension to give them a little better handling... as well as a trailer hitch simply to help protect the gas tank
I seen other accidents and I study cars enough the difference is there but it's not night and day like everyone believes... car from the early 50s then it's night and day but these are mid 90s cars packed with the engineering mated it to the old frame Style.. truly I feel it's the best of both worlds of the old and the new... oh yes it's a dinosaur all right but not a lumbering one like its earlier brotherin...
It might be partially a feeling of safety but none of this is black or white. But Ive come out better and was told both times if it was anything else, I would have been severely hurt or dead, and I feel that many new cars are so over-engineered that they invite people to take risks I just dont in my car. When the tech fails your at the mercy of the car and people rely to much on traction control antilocks and back up cameras. . there isnt that in these cars, i grew up driving them and know exactly how they handle and behave, even when sick or damaged and perhaps Im at the mercy of other cars, but theyre able to get out of theit own way ... i just feel these cars bring more to the table and are the best of gray
The volvo did exactly what it was supposed to being one of the safest cars of its time right into the new millennium.. front collapsed into itself, airbag went off, although so did my drivers seat (collapsed) and the inpact shot my radio and clock into my back seat... motor and trans were toasted, a shame as the car had 292,000 miles. I had a red mark from the airbag hitting my seatbelt on my chest and a sore back for an hour.
The roadmaster steering box took the hit but i didnt feel it in the cabin... the frame bent and the box went under like its supposed to... i didnt absorb the hit the car did, but in a very different way. I moved more as the larger sofa seats obviously aren't meant to grip you, but that helped my body not absorb the hit.. Oddly enough my airbags didnt deploy, I always wondered if the wire was cut before it could. I ended up having a sore shoulder but that was because the door was bent and i forced it open and it sprung back at me as i climbed out... my back was also sore for an hour but it was more from the door not the initial accident
All in all yes the unibody i felt protected me more, but both times the car was the same size or little smaller... I drive the highway everyday with huge semi trucks... do I risk being hurt a little bit more and a smaller accident or being hurt more or even killed in a larger accident. Trucks give my big car a lot more room so do other cars... I got a better chance of being knocked to the side then run over I've updated my brakes as I would any older car. As well as the suspension to give them a little better handling... as well as a trailer hitch simply to help protect the gas tank
I seen other accidents and I study cars enough the difference is there but it's not night and day like everyone believes... car from the early 50s then it's night and day but these are mid 90s cars packed with the engineering mated it to the old frame Style.. truly I feel it's the best of both worlds of the old and the new... oh yes it's a dinosaur all right but not a lumbering one like its earlier brotherin...
It might be partially a feeling of safety but none of this is black or white. But Ive come out better and was told both times if it was anything else, I would have been severely hurt or dead, and I feel that many new cars are so over-engineered that they invite people to take risks I just dont in my car. When the tech fails your at the mercy of the car and people rely to much on traction control antilocks and back up cameras. . there isnt that in these cars, i grew up driving them and know exactly how they handle and behave, even when sick or damaged and perhaps Im at the mercy of other cars, but theyre able to get out of theit own way ... i just feel these cars bring more to the table and are the best of gray
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in this video the car thats closer to the build of the 90s roadmaster would be the newer car not the older one
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only that the smarts biggest problem is that its way to stiff and does not have any space for crumple zones with new cars aside from the smart for two the impact force is absorbed by a crumple zone that works vary well with saying that the roadmasters of the 90s have crumple zones of there own even 80s cars did this is 70 tek we are talking about its been around a lot of years so i dont see why everyone is acting like the roadmater does not have crumple zones even with saying that i would put the roadmaster on par with the crown vick a car that i have seen match a lower 2000s toyota tacoma fore door pick up in a offset crash so its safe to say the roadmaster could match or beat and new car of today now trucks large vans and SUVs??? likely not then you have to factor in side impact and tests like the small overlap crash test a test made well after the last roadmaster was made its unlikely that the road master would face the new testing and pass but this does not mean it would not meet or beat just about anything in its class thats the flaws of crash testing they only show what happens if you hit a car just like the one you are in the more heavy the car the worse the test will look as the block cant brake and the heavy car will put out more force when hitting it then the small car will and that means vs sumthing it cant brake it will be takeing more force back from what i have seen on the road the roadmaster holds up to new cars well and thats all it was ever ment to do cars are not ment to fend off trucks in a crash
WHAT?
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