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Old 10-25-2009, 05:15 PM   #341 (permalink)
theunchosen
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Also... for 40K you can definitely build an aluminum car.

Comparing a car to an airplane's rated lifetime is off-color. An airplane's satefy tolerances are very small. As small as is judged as "safe." Its important to stay as lightweight as possible and any "extra" safety features are removed.

The danger to aluminum in aircraft is fatigue because the stress loads approach their limits not frequently but 1-2 times per flight(take off and landing) and gradually generate stacked dislocations. Given enough time as you said it becomes a problem. This is more a cause of fatigue than vibration.

I for one don't even consider a safety rating on a car. The only thing I am concerned about as for car safety is "Does it have a likely failure that could cause an accident?" As long as the car is solid and nothing is going to break on its own and force a wreck thats enough safety for me.

I know SUVs can do damage, I drive a Del Sol I can see under alot of them... Someone has to take the first step with driving lightweight cars. I'm willing to be one of those people. I mean look at Formula one cars. They can stop painfully quickly. Of course I am not advocating the highway be at a speed limit of 120 or anything, but if all the cars were lighter we could stop quicker, avoid more accidents, and use alot less fuel.

I don't want air bags to be honest. Over the last 6 months I have had 5 friends in life-threatening car accidents. 4 of which were caused by drunk drivers and the other was my friends fault. 3 of those were 4 were t-boned on the driver's side. 2 had air bags and 1 didn't. The one that didn't was hit at 60 from the side in a civic. The wreck broke her left leg. She got a cast and was out the next day. The other two spent a week in the hospital each after being hit by cars at lower speeds with fractured disks in their necks from the air bags. The two not involved in T collisions did not have air bags and were just bruised one at 65 highway speed the other at 45 on a rural road.

I'll stick with a 5 point harness to an air bag any day...

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