Mini and MINI - Comparison

[NachtRitter]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

And it can grumble (it's a Diesel) up to a giddy 45 kp/h carrying two people (not sure both if at once...)

With one pushing?

[Arragonis]

Just coming back to some of the comments on the original contrast between the Mini and the MINI (aka BINI).

A lot of them focus on the new car being much safer - which it is. The designer of the original Mini (and my online "nickname" namesake) had a very stark view of driving safety. He thought cars should be primarily safe due to good handling - understeer, lift off = tuck in etc.

He didn't believe too much in secondary safety such as cages, seat belts or air bags - his solution was to make drivers more safety concious, he even suggesting (not perhaps totally seriously) fitting a line of carving knives on the dashboard so that drivers could appreciate the risks.

OK he was joking but the debate is still open - hoe much should people driving be more responsible for their own safety by taking more care versus the idea that every car should be an armoured metal cage ready to engage in wrestling type moves with every other one.

If we all drove cars with razor edged dashboards, thin metal doors, no monocoque, no air bags, nothing at all to protect us - in fact welcome to the 1940s (or if in America the 1960s) - then maybe we would drive safe too.

That tapped authorities in both the US and UK felt that road safety and manners had deteriorated so much in the late 30s that they made films on how to behave on the road. The Internet archive has loads of them (mainly US, some rest of world).

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

He didn't believe too much in secondary safety such as cages, seat belts or air bags - his solution was to make drivers more safety concious, he even suggesting (not perhaps totally seriously) fitting a line of carving knives on the dashboard so that drivers could appreciate the risks.

OK he was joking but the debate is still open - hoe much should people driving be more responsible for their own safety by taking more care versus the idea that every car should be an armoured metal cage ready to engage in wrestling type moves with every other one.

At a certain point he was right. There are not enought passive safety devices or nanny-state regulations to prevent drivers from doing stupid tricks that, in a way or another, would put their lives at risk.

[niky]

People drive too fast and too recklessly because cars nowadays feel too slow.

Give them a car whose engine is screaming at eighty and they will slow down.

Give them a car that wanders on the freeway at any speed over sixty and they will slow down.

Give them a car that feels like the semis hemming it in on the highway will squash it flat, and they will slow the hell down and pay more attention to the road, besides.

In other words, let them all drive Mirages...

[Arragonis]

^^ describes pretty much every car on the road pre-1940, and people were "driving too fast" even then.

[niky]

And too close together, to boot. It's funny looking at vintage photos and videos of US highways and seeing cars with brakes barely capable of stopping a car within a quarter mile sitting inches off each others' bumpers.