Ferrari Mailing List: Re: GM & Corvette NFC

(continued)

Speaking of Penske, it looks like he is buying the Saturn side of GM along 

with some friends...

I hope his past successes translate to Saturn....

LarryT

----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Ken Rentiers" <rentiers [at] mac.com>

To: "Larry Turner" <l02turner [at] comcast.net>
Cc: "The FerrariList" <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 5:15 PM
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] GM & Corvette NFC

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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Re: GM & Corvette NFC	<– Date –> <– Thread –>
From: LarryT (l02turnercomcast.net)
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 03:48:39 -0700 (PDT)