From Society of Automotive Engineers Magazine: Automotive Engineering December 2008
Article: Bodybuilding 101:
Steadily rising requirements for crash safety from both tough new government tests and from consumers who demand maximum scores on crash tests have led carmakers to place ever-higher emphasis on designing vehicles that are strong enough to protect their occupants, while being soft enough to cushion the blow of impact.
European pedestrian protection requirements and upcoming U.S. rear-impact and pole side-impact tests are incredibly high hurdles for engineers to clear when designing vehicles for mass production at a reasonable price with maximum fuel efficiency.
While the challenges are getting tougher, interest in smaller, more efficient cars is rising, creating demand for a product that is even more difficult to create. Volvo Cars found this to be the case when developing the C30 sport coupe from the S40 sedan platform. The coupe’s truncated tail made the U.S. government’s rear-impact crash test much more of a challenge because of the reduced amount of crush space, reported Thomas Broberg, Senior Technical Advisor for Safety for Volvo Cars.
“Rear impact, specifically in smaller cars, is a challenge,” said Broberg. “The shorter the overhang you have the more difficult the challenge.” The solution is in careful design of the load path.
“You have to be more clever in how you dissipate the load.”
------------
From Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:
Small cars have grown especially popular as gasoline prices fluctuate and consumers become more conservation-minded. Nolan cautions that even though current models do a better job of protecting people in front, side, and rear crashes than earlier ones, small cars inherently afford less crash protection than bigger, heavier vehicles. "There's no escaping the laws of physics,"
Nolan says. "People in larger, heavier cars fare better in crashes with other vehicles and in single-vehicle crashes than people in smaller ones."
----------------
Click HERE to see a small car that was rear ended.
Below are figures of my invention. Please click on the link at the bottom of the page to continue.
