Vehicle Passive Safety - I am a Wimp - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Grizzly · 08-20-2007, 07:27 PM

Easy. There's no data 'cause we don't crash.

Peer · 08-20-2007, 07:38 PM

JCL12 wrote:
> have never really seen any ratings on the true passive
> safety and impact protection a boxster provides.

Well, I'm sure there must be some info out there. For example, once a read a research paper on the Boxster's rollbar, and at the same time also found this:

-- peer

JCL12 · 08-21-2007, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peer

JCL12 wrote:
> have never really seen any ratings on the true passive
> safety and impact protection a boxster provides.

Well, I'm sure there must be some info out there. For example, once a read a research paper on the Boxster's rollbar, and at the same time also found this:

-- peer

I am glad a boxster is unflippable unless you are on a slope because that rollbar looks like it has completely collapsed and killed the driver.

rick3000 · 08-21-2007, 04:14 PM

You don't really need safety rating if you think about it. In front of you and in back of you there is abou 4 feet of steel, an each side you have 8" of steel. The car is so wide with a low center of gravity you would have to make a sharp turn at 50mph+ to flip it.

racer_d · 08-21-2007, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JCL12

I am glad a boxster is unflippable unless you are on a slope because that rollbar looks like it has completely collapsed and killed the driver.

um.. no car is unflippable. Some cars simply resist flipping better than others in normal conditions. Hit a curb, bounce off a wall, truck, another large car, embankment, or simply drive off onto a soft shoulder and turn the wheel to sharply back onto the road and a flip/roll can occur.

The boxster may not (and likely isn't) is safe as a coupe. However, given its rollbar and general high rigidity, it likely fare's better than other "like" cars.

Physics is still physics and no car can defy them. All you can hope is the car does its job giving up its life, to protect the soft, fleshy people inside.

J-RAD · 08-21-2007, 04:43 PM

The rollbar in Peer's photo looks to have done it's job just fine. It is not collapsed at all. It's very much intact and, provided he/she wasn't ejected, I'm sure the driver and/or passenger are far from dead.

JCL12 · 08-21-2007, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J-RAD

The rollbar in Peer's photo looks to have done it's job just fine. It is not collapsed at all. It's very much intact and, provided he/she wasn't ejected, I'm sure the driver and/or passenger are far from dead.

I hope you are right - but from my perspective, it looks like the bar was compressed too far. I hope I am wrong!

racer_d · 08-21-2007, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JCL12

I hope you are right - but from my perspective, it looks like the bar was compressed too far. I hope I am wrong!

While it is a fantastic picture, we know nothing about what happened to the car, do we? was it a 100mph collision? 30mph? Was the driver drunk? Exceeding road conditions? Was it a hit and run? There is too much unknown to speculate how any occupant faired.

JCL, I would encourage you to find a car that you would feel more comfortable driving if you can't find the info you want on the Boxster. I am sure M-B will be happy to tell you how wonderful their SLK is

J-RAD · 08-21-2007, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JCL12

I hope you are right - but from my perspective, it looks like the bar was compressed too far. I hope I am wrong!

You are. Are you sure you're not looking at the foam piece laying on the folded top? The rollbar is very much intact.

Same car from another angle:

Racer_D, I believe we do know the story on that one. From Wrecked Exotics:
http://www.wreckedexotics.com/boxster/boxster_121102_005.shtml
"Driver Comments: "These pitures were from my accident on July 4 2002 in my 2002 Porsche Boxster. My girlfriend and I were going to my parents house out in the country. As usual I was pushing the car to the limits. When going around a corner we lost control, spun out, went through the road, up an embankment and then kicked back out to the road upside down."

Injury Report:
No injuries "

There's also this one (different accident):
http://www.wreckedexotics.com/boxster/boxster_20050809_001.shtml
"Going around a sharp turn in the rain with loose gravel the car lost traction and flew about 50 feet into a 20 foot deep ravine. Broke through a small tree on the way, landed on the nose and flipped upside down. Luckily the driver and passenger came out with only minor scratches and bruises. "

Moral of the story? Don't buy a Midnight Blue Boxster.

...oh yeah, and don't drive like an a$$hat.

pteam · 08-22-2007, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J-RAD

The rollbar in Peer's photo looks to have done it's job just fine. It is not collapsed at all. It's very much intact and, provided he/she wasn't ejected, I'm sure the driver and/or passenger are far from dead.

I have to agree here. It looks like the rollbar did its job and did not waiver or break.

Dr. Kill · 08-22-2007, 09:48 AM

I have also looked for, and not found, crash test results - however, I think these are very safe cars. Crash "test" results are good indicators of a car's safety, but an even better indicator are actual injury/ death rates. In this category, the Box has done very well:

http://www.crashtest.com/porsche/ie.htm

Grizzly · 08-22-2007, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by racer_d

All you can hope is the car does its job giving up its life, to protect the soft, fleshy people inside.

Hey! Who you callin' soft and fleshy!

What's an a$$hat?

racer_d · 08-20-2007, 07:45 PM

It is a curiosity... IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) is a private "company" that is funded by insurance companies. It could be that in the overl cost of crashing cars, testing a car that sells 10-15,000 year isn't as "important" as the 250,000 civics, accords, camrys and F-150 pickups that are sold every year.

Oh, and on USA Today I saw an article from the IIHS telling us "small cars are not as safe as big cars"... duh, really? Once again, genius at work...

I am not sure why NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Agency) doesn't publish data, considering they are run by the DOT and the DOT requires "federalization" tests to be made before a vehicle can be sold here. I am not sure how that process works - ie Porsche must submit "X" number of various models for destruction or if Porsche can supply the data they receive from the German TUV rating agency in lieu of actual US Tests.

Then again, maybe "big brother" wants all Porsche owners to drive unsafe cars...

Cloudsurfer · 08-20-2007, 09:13 PM

An automaker cannot sell a car here unless it is federalized, and last I knew, TUV tests cannot be substituted for DOT tests (as obscene as that is). Also of note, the DOT considers manual and automatic cars different models in terms of federalization, and this is why you cannot buy a manual E or S class, A8, or other cars which are commonly found in manual form in Europe here. To their credit, BMW goes to great lengths to bring us manual 5 series cars.

Porsche's cars get tested like everyone else's, perhaps not by the IIHS for reasons discussed above, but you can be damn sure the cars are federalized. As to why you can't find the results, that is a bit puzzling.

Patrick