General Car Discussion

Discussion in 'Automotive' started by HadACoolName, Mar 6, 2015.

  1. Rainvest

    Rainvest
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    Aren't airbags there to stop idiots from getting hurt who don't wear their seatbelts? Or just for everybody in general?
     
  2. aljowen

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    Nope. An airbag is a secondary safety device. If you aren't wearing a seatbelt you are screwed no matter how many airbags your car has, they aren't designed to hold you in position. All they do is cushion an impact. Front airbags stop your head hitting hard surfaces such as the steering wheel or dashboard. Curtain and side airbags are to stop your head from hitting whatever hit you (aka, prevent skull on steel contact by putting a balloon in the middle to spread the impact over a larger time period and drastically improve survival chances).
     
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  3. mms

    mms
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    moo BigMoo_1.jpg by the way this is my dream car. it's boring and it's moo.
     
  4. aljowen

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    To add to what I said. The point of all crash safety systems in cars is to spread the impact out over as long a time period as possible and as much contact area as possible.

    The easy ways to think of it is:
    • Spreading impact over time: Punching a wall bare handed hurts, doing it with gloves on hurts a little less, strap loads of foam padding to your hands and it hurts less. The reason is because rather than the entire impact happening in 0.0001 seconds it was spread out over 0.1 seconds. As such it hurt less.
    • Spreading impact over surface are: Give someone a high 5, probably not going to cause any one too much of an injury. Now do it with a sharp chopstick in your hand at the same speed (pls don't actually do this though). You would notice the second impact is going to hurt way more. This is because it happened over a smaller surface area.
    Nowadays cars are moving towards trying to prevent crashes before they happen. This is because applying the brakes slows you down much slower than you hitting the wall, therefore it goes from hurting a lot, to not hurting at all (other than your ego I guess).

    So if your head were to hit a steering wheel, one small section of your skull (or nose) would take the full impact over a very short time period. This equates to having a very bad day. With an airbag the impact happens over a much longer time period and is spread out over your entire head. While this doesn't equate to having a good day, it will be much better than without one.

    The seatbelt will hold your body in place, however it doesn't work like strapping a rope round both yourself and a b pillar (unless you are sitting in the rear seat of an EU spec Ford Mustang, then it basically does [but with the c pillar]). Since seatbelts usually have pretensions that tighten rapidly as an impact starts, grabbing your body quickly, this means they can start to slow you down earlier, earlier they start, the longer they have to do their job. Then they also have load limiters that prevent your body from having too much force exerted over a short time span, so after the pre tensioner has grabbed you, it will not try to hold you to the back of the seat, it will allow your body to move forward while trying to slow your velocity as much as possible in the space and time span available.
     
    #7684 aljowen, Jul 14, 2017
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2017
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  5. Potato

    Potato
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    I don't wear seatbelts because it's safer to be thrown free of the crash.
     
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  6. aljowen

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    I'm just gonna hope that is bait. Either that or you like riding motorbikes more than you let on :p (then again was it you or someone else who came off a motorbike because of a dog? )
     
  7. Potato

    Potato
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    It's a joke.
    And that was indeed me.
     
    #7687 Potato, Jul 14, 2017
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2017
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  8. NGAP NSO Shotgun Chuck

    NGAP NSO Shotgun Chuck
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    Come on... give in and become a nationalist. You'll love it.

    RE: Airbag discussion. My hatred for that regulation has nothing to do with armed explosives near my face or anything else. It's just because I don't like modern stock steering wheels. They're big and fat and ugly and festooned with buttons, and may or may not be too thick-rimmed. Racing steering wheels tend to not have airbags, thus, they run foul of that regulation. Thus, I don't care much for that regulation (and some people don't bother to follow it).
     
    #7688 NGAP NSO Shotgun Chuck, Jul 14, 2017
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2017
  9. skodakenner

    skodakenner
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    On the topic of chrashes: Found my old car recently when i drove home the guy who owned rear ended a woman whilst looking the other way and supposedly pushed her quite a bit around. If hed had a front radar assist with emergency brake nothing would have happend
     

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  10. Fast-Subaru71

    Fast-Subaru71
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    Is this considered a Canadian car ? Or just an American one ?
     
  11. ktheminecraftfan

    ktheminecraftfan
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    #7691 ktheminecraftfan, Jul 14, 2017
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2017
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  12. aljowen

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    The new Audi A8 looks pretty damn incredible: https://arstechnica.co.uk/cars/2017/07/2018-audi-a8/

    Both the V6 Petrol and Diesel models are hybrids. Using the engine to charge the batteries when not in heavy use as well as charging them under breaking.
     
  13. Slammington

    Slammington
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    Manufacturers have been getting really good at hiding the airbags lately though.
    If you look at the new Miata, for example, the airbag is very minimalistic (it's clearly there but it doesn't assault your eyes like those mid 90s pillow airbag wheels), and the rim of the steering wheel isn't awfully thick either :)
     
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  14. skodakenner

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    VW Said that nearly all new moels will now have so called mild hybrids with a 48V electrical system and all wich supposedly saves fuel
     
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  15. Fast-Subaru71

    Fast-Subaru71
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  16. opkraut

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    My Subaru's airbags aren't super obnoxious in placement (Although that airbag recall sucked). The steering wheel isn't the sportiest in the world, but I'm happy with it.
    The ones in most new sports cars are even more well hidden. The new WRX does a decent job tucking them away, as does the Camaro and Corvette.
     
  17. Bubbleawsome

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    Also on the topic of safety and airbags and seat belts and all that, remember force isn't a linear thing. A 60mph impact isn't twice as powerful as a 30mph impact, it's many many times worse. An emergency braking system might only bleed off 5mph, but 5mph plus the impact reduction from the seat belts and airbags drastically increases survivability.
     
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  18. Ulrich

    Ulrich
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    Hey anyone know a good brand of "Mastic" or whatever it's called in English ?
     
  19. HadACoolName

    HadACoolName
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    Whoever made the CHiPs movie, I have to thank them for this
    Chevy SS in action scenes
    3.png
    Chevy Malibu when its torched
    IMG_5695.jpg
     
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  20. gigawert

    gigawert
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