Re: [AMC-list] Safety Weinie

[Marc Montoni <Freedom@xxxxxxxx>]

One of the things one must keep in mind regarding safety equipment is that the government, inadvertently or not, set up a self-feeding regulatory loop.  A change in one regulation would affect the car's compliance on other ends of the car, requiring changes on the other end, which forced changes on the first end again, etc.  For instance, emissions regulations came into full force between 1971 and 1975.  This was the period where the "low-hanging fruit" was addressed.  By the end of this era, cars were fully smogged and had catalytic converters.  But the emissions regs cam at a cost, because they strangled power and lowered fuel mileage.

On the flip side, Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations went into effect in 1975, which required automakers to sell more cars with better mileage.  The immediate effect on the industry was obvious.  AMC dropped almost all of its heavier cars because it didn't have the money to redesign them to comply.  Other makers made their standard cars smaller.

It became almost immediately clear to NHTSA in 1976-1977 that accident fatality rates for new cars, which had been falling for years, were rapidly trending upward for the first time in years.  Insurance companies noticed it also.  Lobbying congress [by government employees and insurance groups] to require more safety features to be built into cars was thrown into fever pitch.  The big push for set belt laws and child safety seats began in earnest in 1977, as did demands for side impact door beams, the first demands for air bags, and so on.

As the weight of features piled on, plus the effect of ever-ratcheting emissions requirements, the cars got steadily smaller, and fatality rates continued rising.

AMC, which had produced a full range of vehicle sizes in 1974, was building just one ten years later (the Alliance/Encore).  Yeah, when the 1985 cars got in what would have been a fender-bender for one of the cars built in 1975, the result was like a crushed beer can.

When I step into my Ambassador, my "crumple zone" is, usually, THE OTHER CAR.

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If you want to talk real safety, the thing to do is to start with what race cars get.  A sturdy roll cage, 5-point belt, helmet, etc.  The reason race car drivers often walk way from 150-mph crashes has less to do with fancy technology than it does with old-fashioned stiffening.


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MARC MONTONI
Richmond VA
http://FreeVirginia.blogspot.com/
Freedom.  Responsibility.  www.LP.org 
Cu vi parolas Esperanton?
I'd rather push a Rambler than drive a Toyota.
Visit www.AMCRC.com or www.AMONational.com .
http://RichmondRambler.tripod.com/
http://Hasdrubal.tripod.com/Index.htm
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