Quote:
Originally Posted by BWillie
Just cuz its small doesnt mean its totally unsafe. Sounds like the Derp derp ur god damn right I drive that there pick up crew is intimidated with practicality. This is certainly better and safer than a motorcycle
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But physics would argue vehemently on the unsafe part..... You can't underestimate how much mass and crumple room effect a wreck. Preparation for many demolition derbies back in the day taught me that. The more mass a vehicle has, the less it will absorb energy. This is a huge factor in dynamic energy. And one of the most beneficial aspects of common car safety is crumple energy capacity. How the metal reacts to a crash, being compressed and squished. A huge amount of engineering goes into how that metal is squished and compressed in a wreck, and how it can benefit and protect the driver. And very little of that is possible with little light weight vehicles like this, which offer very little space for crumple compression in the case of a wreck.
They rate the crash ratings of vehicles like this as compared to other vehicles of the same class. So small lightweight vehicles like this and the "Smart" car get much better ratings than what are actually comparable against cars of greater mass. When compared to greater mass cars though, you see how terrible the safety aspect is...