Crash resistance and survivability and the e30

[Kevinl]

And the US was so proud of those diving boards
Somebody should be in jail for what was done to 70-80' German cars because of those dumb regulations

[redhatpat]

It's true, although, IMHO, for the high end series they could develop an airbag system that *would* work in racing. You certainly don't want a street car system in a race car.

Maybe, but airbags are one time use. We've all seen race cars bounced around a few times before stopping.

[E30_Pare]

never had an airbag car. nor do i ever want an airbag exploding in my face.. ive been in my share of accidents & have to say im more afraid of the airbag that the impact

[defaultName]

Bad comparison since the new cars are all plastic. Who knows what the styrofoam looks like under the covers. Yes, your E30 took a beating, but since the others are largely made of plastic in the front and rear, its going to pop back most likely, hiding the damage below it. The other thing is that both the other cars have a lot more mass and therefore will do more damage to whatever they hit or hits them (an object in motion tends to stay in motion until acted on by an equal or greater force.) I'll bet either one of those cars is close to double the weight of your car.

Will

It actually is a fair comparison since the odds of an E30 crashing into a new car are pretty high (as opposed to crashing into an older car). Unless OP is wondering what it would be like to crash an E30 specifically into cars that were made in the '80's?

Plus I highly doubt that the Benz or Audi have anywhere near the amount of structural damage that the E30 does underneath their plastic bumpers.

Given the choice I'd much rather be replacing some styrofoam and repainting a bumper then fixing the damage that the E30 has.

In terms of weight the B8 A4 weighs between 3,100-3,700 lbs so nowhere near double. The Mercedes weighs around 5,000 lbs so about 2,000 lbs more then an E30 convertible. But considering how many SUV, truck, and large sedans are on the roads, this is again somewhat accurate.