M50 By Day - Skangers Paradise By Night

SouperComputer

As my dad always tells me, cars were designed to be driven, not crashed!

Your dad was right cars WERE designed to be driven. They are now moreso designed to crash

ABS may stop you skidding, but it also adds to the stopping distance, and is very offputting when it kicks in.

Unless you're super good with cadence braking, generally ABS is better. In a mix of random situations, im pretty sure that the best of circuit & rally drivers would fair worse than ABS.

Statistically, ABS is good at reducing collisions not neccecarily because it reduces the braking distance, but becuase inexperienced or panic'd drivers can turn to take evasive action while braking.

As far a NCAP goes, granted its relatively low speed, but if you google for a couple of videos have a look at the BMW E30 compared to modern cars you will see the difference in safety is stark. Suffice to say a collision with most older cars at 30MPH is much more likely to badly injure\kill you than a modern car. For higher speeds, you can do the math as they say.

when did you last see an old car involved in a fatal accident? or a serious one for that matter?

I hope this isnt the basis of your assumption! Information like this is only relevant if considering other factors. At the very least it should consider the % of cars on the road from the vehicles eire\year. Otherwise its a pointless comparison.

Ciaran500

breanoh wrote:

Airbags can do more harm than good.

Surely you would risk a broken nose or hearing damage to have a higher chance of survivng a crash.

zilog_jones

I've heard of people having weird experiences with ABS on bumpy roads - a friend in his Octavia did this and it seemed to go a bit spasticated (braking was intermittant). It's not a perfect system but in most cases it's designed to reduce braking distance.

And airbags doing more harm than good? Jesus, where did you hear this, in The Sun? Any research proving this is utter bollocks - in most cases the worst an airbag can do to you is burn your hands (from the explosives that deploy it). My uncle was in an accident with an airbag in his car ('97 Corolla), and was pretty much unscathed. It may have saved his life - other people died in the crash (it involved a tractor).

You mean newer cars are safer? Well I never....

I'm just saying that small Japanese cars are particularly less safe than anything else. Except for Mazdas, apparently - the '89-'95 323 and Mk. II 121 ('91-'97) seem to have fared better compared to their contemporaries.

I don't know what the NCAP rating has to do with the cars handling at speed

I'm just saying that after they were introduced, car manufacturers seemed to get their act together with regards to safety in smaller cars. But besides this, cars are only designed to be somewhat safe at reasonable speeds - if a Daihatsu Charade does poorly in crashes around 50-80km/h.

As my dad always tells me, cars were designed to be driven, not crashed!

That's besides the point - anyone could be in an accident.

when did you last see an old car involved in a fatal accident? or a serious one for that matter?

It's usually not reported what age the car is in the news. I've seen a pile-up involving an early '90s Pajero, which is a design of similar age to your Charade. And there's the fact that there's just not many cars over 10 years old on the roads any more.

Undercoverguy

Christ! I dint expect this thread to be this popular... even if it did spin wildly off topic lol Anyways, I was driving a 1/1.2 lt Courtesy Fiat Punto and was pottering alonf at about 115 km/h the Micra was hitting 130km/h and screaming like something outta a horror movie lol I didnt inform the guard around 10min later at a garda checkpoint.... Having no mobile phone with me at the time i cant think of a better or faster way on getting the message the them.

As for car speeds i drive a little Punto Sporting 1.2 16v..... Nippyish car alright with just me in it and because of its light weight you can something "Lose" yourself in it. I always kinda thought "Puntos Wernt Build for Speed" and way thankful that 1.2 16v was the fastest they made.....

Untill i drove one of these. Its the excact same as a normal Punto Sporting only with a 1.8 engine wacked into it. Top speed is only around the 200km/h mark.... BUT anything speeds up to around 100-110 km/h and shes fast! I present the Fiat Punto 1.8 HGT

Its like driving a empty tin can getting shot out of a gun!! SCARY!
Puntos shouldnt travel at speed and if they do they need to be made more heavy!