Ferrari Mailing List: Re: GM & Corvette NFC

[Ken Rentiers (rentiers]

Never put beans in the chili if you drive a Smart.  I thought Penske  
had the NAm franchise for those puppies wrapped up.

As for the Corvette, this is the last year they will run LM GT1 at  
Sarthe next weekend. Plans are for them to come back in 2010 in LM  
GT2. That would put them up against Risi and the boys.

Hope springs eternal :-)

uncle ken
http://www.lifeitsownself.com

On Jun 4, 2009, at 12:34 PM, Jim Conforti wrote:

> At 10:01 AM 6/4/2009, Michael James wrote:
>
> > If you saw a 'Smart' Car on a US Highway, then
> > it passed the EPA/DOT minimum crash-safety
> > standards prior to US importation by MB.
>
>   It would be DOT/NHTSA (EPA has nothing to do w/ crash ratings)
>
>   And when you look up the Smart ForTwo at NHTSA you find that
>   there are (curiously unstated) "safety concerns"
>
>   To quote the IIHS at http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr041409.html
>
> Laws of physics prevail: The Honda Fit, Smart
> Fortwo, and Toyota Yaris are good performers in
> the Institute's frontal offset barrier test, but
> all three are poor performers in the frontal
> collisions with midsize cars. These results
> reflect the laws of the physical universe,
> specifically principles related to force and distance.
>
>   My comment: They were engineered to "pass the test".
>
>   So if you happen to hit a concrete offset barrier at XYZ mph, you  
> should
>   be fine.  If however you get hit or hit another vehicle - you  
> likely will
>   NOT be fine.
>
>   further:
>
> Crash statistics confirm this. The death rate in
> 1-3-year-old minicars in multiple-vehicle crashes
> during 2007 was almost twice as high as the rate in very large cars.
>
>   and:
>
> Mercedes C class versus Smart Fortwo: After
> striking the front of the C class, the Smart went
> airborne and turned around 450 degrees. This
> contributed to excessive movement of the dummy
> during rebound  a dramatic indication of the
> Smart's poor performance but not the only one.
> There was extensive intrusion into the space
> around the dummy from head to feet. The
> instrument panel moved up and toward the dummy.
> The steering wheel was displaced upward. Multiple
> measures of injury likelihood, including those on
> the dummy's head, were poor, as were measures on both legs.
>
> "The Smart is the smallest car we tested, so it's
> not surprising that its performance looked worse
> than the Fit's. Still both fall into the poor
> category, and it's hard to distinguish between
> poor and poorer," Lund says. "In both the Smart
> and Fit, occupants would be subject to high
> injury risk in crashes with heavier cars." In
> contrast, the C class held up well, with little
> to no intrusion into the occupant compartment.
> Nearly all measures of injury likelihood were in the good range.
>
>   Translation: Hope that hospital bed feels
> comfy to you... or worse that casket.
>
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