integra vs. beetle
 

there was an accident outside my school the other day (amazingly enough, the teenager coming out of the school was not at fault). the kid from the school was in a one-model-year-older-than-the-newest integra and was making a left turn, and the beetle guy came over a hill into the intersection and was going quite a bit too fast. The integra kid had already well started making his left (two lane road either way) and went straight into the driver's front quarter panel/frontish (old) beetle. They were both ok.

now, the results of the accident were highly surprising. the beetle won. the sub-2000 pound tiny 70s car won. the front end of the integra was absolutely gone; both quarters, the bumper, wheels were wierd-like, engine was completely exposed and turney.... I know that new cars are meant to absorb the impact, but the damage to the beetle wasn't nearly as much. The rear-engined car that had just been somewhat hit head on had little more than bashed up panels, a broken light, and the driver's front wheel was a little squirley it looked like.

I don't doubt that there was more damage underneath, but what is up? are japanese cars really that wussy? is that really how much new cars disintegrate? japanese cars don't seem to be built very stoutly......

There are many factors involved here.

Yes cars are designed to "crumble" to reduce the impace to the passenger.

The beetle actually has a bumper.

The angle the intregra was hit could play a large roll in the damaged too. Hitting head on the beetle may have had an advantage.

There are a lot of factors involved in an accident. Safety ratings don't always paint a true picture either.

------------------
1995 Mustang GT

Japanese beer cans are no longer made of tin, so when they recycle them to build their Acuras, they're just not as sturdy as they used to be.

~C

------------------
Retired Moderator
MustangNet

My site: Peckerwoods Pit Stop

My teams site: Jim Porter Racing

RACECAR spelled backwards is RACECAR

HEY !!! Are you ASE Certified ??? If you are, ask me about iATN.

Another factor is how the Integra was basically not moving, and the Beetle was. It transferred all it's energy to the Integra's body. Ouch. LOL! Shitbox.

The laws of physics say that both cars experienced the same forces (impulse) on impact. The Beetle being in better shape than the Integra after the crash just means that the driver of the Beetle was jarred much more violently than the driver of the Integra (of course angle of impact has a lot to do with how a car fares too). You could make a super-strong car that can hit a brick wall head-on at 50, but this would just promote live cars and dead drivers.