young

if i were to go 75 mph and hit a immoval object (like a very thick wall), would i survive?

what do you think is the maximum speed that i could be going at that i would survive?

no braking, but crumple zone, airbags, seatbelts, and in the coupe.

any crash studies/statistics references would certainly be welcome.

we're having a "discussion" in our office about this... kind of related to people who go 100mph+ and what are the chances of survival if a deer pops out...

revstriker

Young, I like your new "status"!!

I think 75mph into a wall would be very hard to survive. Even with all the tech that MB has. I'm sure it's possible, but I would vote for unlikely. No scientific data to back it up though, just memories from various crashes that I've witnessed. Hmmm. Interesting query.

cbenz

columbus

Ohhh! Get the door - it's Domino's!

CunningLinguist

Is that an Orion Blue house ornament?

TimmyC230boy

as they say...

"Thats the beauty of Subaru All-Wheel Drive"

young

ha! there's been some mysterious re-calibration of the status names...

but, let's try to stick to the subject...

so you think, despite the crumple zone, seat belts and airbags, i'd be dead? i wonder how the g-forces would affect the internal organs, etc...

TimmyC230boy

head on or offset.

revstriker

I think crumple zones, airbags, etc are important safety features, and there's no doubt that they can save lives. But at 75 to a dead stop in a fraction of a second.... I just don't think that a normal car is built to withstand this kind of shock. Nor is the human body. I witnessed two cars that hit each other head-on going around 45 or 50 and the damage was unbelievable. You couldn't even tell what kind of cars were involved. One lady, who was wearing a seatbelt, did not make it. She was driving a minivan (ford I think). The other guy who did not have a seatbelt on actually lived, although he was thrown through the front windsheild. Not something I would ever want to witness again.

benzomonterey

Here is an E Class

timorgan

Aw, look at that nice custom leather!

Tim

benzomonterey

Kenneth Marshall Glass, the 16-year-old driver, was prohibited under the state's graduated driver's license law from driving with passengers under the age of 20, unless accompanied by a licensed driver 25 or older. He also was forbidden to drive between midnight and 5 a.m. His parents were out of town when the crash occurred.
The preliminary probe into the crash indicates that the 2001 Mercedes-Benz station wagon was traveling 106 mph when Glass lost control about 1 a.m. The vehicle slammed head on into a wall on Westlake Boulevard near Hillcrest Drive, a stretch of road with a 45-mph speed limit.
Glass and his friend, Jordan Bass, 16, died at the scene. Passengers Joshua Kuai, 16, of Westlake Village, and Jenae Chu, 16, of Thousand Oaks, survived but were hospitalized with injuries.

JustinTRW

It appears to be an E55, so that comes as std. if you select it. It's a shame though, I didn't know you could ruffle an E class like that!

tommy

it appears that there's only one way to really find out.

I'll start scouting for brick walls in the KOP area, and let you know. We all appreciate your sacrifice, and will miss you.

BTW: take out the aftermarket bulbs before hitting the wall. I'm sure that I could sell 'em. Thanks!

young

my curiosity only goes so far...

i guess that one has to be quite confident that an accident will not occur when speeding past 100mph. i've pushed my car past 100 but i did get nervous - didn't want to get a ticket and was passing others pretty quickly. but the thought of dying never entered my mind. (usually, it never does even if i do dumb things that are quite dangerous) only after i thought about it that i began to worry.

JustinTRW

The kid was only sixteen and had three buddies in the car obviously cheering him on. I think his inexperience combined with peer pressure caused the crash.

I regularly go above 100 mph, but only on empty roads with one or no passengers. I think the kid did not know basic physics and probably tried to turn. I mean, you can do over 120mph on the freeway easy if it is straight. Whether you should or not is another story. The key is to know your own limits, those of your car, and mind the safety of yourself and those around you. To me, a properly trained driver should be able to tame his car. Assuming conditions are good and the driver is paying full attention, triple digit speeds should not be overwelming and rather normal.

I am not saying that going to those speeds is not reckless, nor should it be approved for everyone. I'm just trying to make a point about driver skill and peer pressure. I don't think that if the boy's dad was driving, and had he gone to the same speeds, that the outcome would have been the same.

Mike T.

160+ km/h is a normal super-highway speed in many areas, and can be perfectly safe in the right conditions.

In North America, "the right conditions" would mean no other drivers on the (rural) freeway, as there is ZERO lane discipline or driving skill among 95% of drivers over here.

Driving fast in traffic in North America is like playing Russian roulette...with all 6 chambers loaded

JustinTRW

I regularly go driving in the moutains, and occasionally I have to pass slower cars when the yellow dotted line comes

I get up to triple digits speeds a lot on these runs. The only person I'm putting in danger quite honestly, is my self.

Spyke

Or maybe "The only person I'm FOOLING, quite honestly, is myself".

Mountain roads, passing, triple digit speeds, and YOU are the only one in danger? Please...

I used to be heavily into superbikes (still own a Ducati 996) and have spent my share of time on mountain roads, moving along at, shall we say, a touch faster than most other traffic. I'm not here to lecture you about driving fast, just to bring a little reality to your life. If a 420lb bike can kill a person in an oncoming car on impact, I know dang well your 3000lb car can do a hell of a lot of damage... and I can assure you bikes are lethal to more than just the rider... and please don't tell me you're aware of each and every other vehicle on that mountain road. It just ain't so.

JustinTRW

What would you say if I said I slow down as soon as I see another car....because that's what I do. The only passing opportunites I take are the ones where you can see for about a mile ahead of you. I make sure there are no cars oncoming, signal, make sure the driver in front knows I'm doing it, and it gets done. I usually match the car's speed in front of me before passing. The only places I get up to triple digits are these longs straights (when they are clear). I honestly try to be as safe and aware as possible, that's first priority.

Craig, do you have any mountain driving safety tips? Seriously, I'm all ears. These things are not exactly legal to begin with, but having done similar things yourself, certainly know why I enjoy this. It seems like bikers are the ones constantly going down, but I don't want to be the next driver. It's risky business, but that's the reason I bought my car to begin with. Thanks,

MB-BOB

Last time I saw double the double nickel was on a Tuesday morning on a rural Illinois after any semblance of rush hour was through (about 9:30). Straight road, veeeeery gentle rolling hill (maybe 10 ft higher than the rest of the road) two miles away. 300ZX 2+2. new tires, recently tuned...

110... 115... 120... 123... crest small hill.... whoa! STOPPED school bus about 1000 ft away... (Slight rise in road disguised it from view) WTH! Hit the binders bigtime. Stopped about 40 ft shy of Armageddon... My heartbeat returned to normal about an hour later. I NEVER suspected that bus would be there at that hour. I don't do this stuff anymore. Even when you think you've eliminated all the bad variables, there's always another hiding in the bushes.

Your sense of mortality doesn't really occur to you until you go to a funeral for someone your same age who died suddenly. Then you realize you're not 10 ft tall and bulletproof. Chase a few ambulances working for a TV station and you also come to realize how fragile life really is.

Sorry to be so philosophical...

JustinTRW

I actually need to hear more stories like this because I haven't had any close calls in a long long time, which only means that one is more likely to occur in my case. Mountain driving has so many blind turns, it's inevitable. I don't go full out around turns, only long flat straights, but it doesn't take that much to get in trouble anyway.

vinmanc32

There are all types of obstacles to look out for on the road. Deer, blind intersections, driveways, bikers, runners..... It is tough to find some very open road these days to really drive fast and not feel stressed. I like driving in the catskills in NY and I find myself moving slower now than I did about 10 yrs ago. On open road, I will confess that I find it hard to stay below 80. This car is a beast and makes me drive it fast. I dont drive my other cars this fast on average so trust me when I tell you... its the beast in the car.

Spyke

I am certainly not an expert rider/driver by any means, so I'm reluctant to offer any advice other than to take the high speed stuff to a race course.

But that's not going to happen, so I'll tell you my number one personal rule of driving. Never, ever, and I mean NEVER cross the centerline in a turn. Never. If this is hard to do, park the car and ride a bike for a few years. You'll either learn how to ride within your limits or become an example for the other guys. (Obviously there's much more to it than that, but it's a good start)

You may think you're very aware of all the vehicles around you, but sometime, somewhere, someone is going to come out of NOWHERE and scare the bejeezus out of you.

As for bikes crashing, I'm not so sure they make more mistakes than car guys do, but I am sure the bike's mistakes become much more obvious. (And bikes seem to have this fast forward thing going on that most cars lack. People talk about triple digits on long deserted stretches. You mean like an entrance ramp? Without trying? Been there.) Putting a wheel in the gravel in a C230 is one thing, doing it on a Ducati is quite another.

But a C230 won't wheelie coming out of the corners, so there ya go...

JustinTRW

Thanks for the advice. Some drivers try to cross the double yellows in order to use the driving line to their advantage, but I do not for obivous reasons.

One thing I learned for taking turns on the track is to leave yourself room for error by trailbraking and leaving some room to turn the wheel further. Likewise on a bike, if you trailbrake and are still going into the turn too fast, you can just increase your lean angle a little more (but only if you get into trouble). If your lean angle is already at max, you can do nothing. Of course on the road, I never threshold brake and give myself lots and lots of room to slow down.

BTW, I want to go to driving school badly, but they're darn expensive. I think skip-barber's three day school is $3000.

Of course, if you are Ralph Schumacher, you can skip the wheelie all together and start flying your car to its destination (tire wall).