knihc2008

speaking of side impacts, it doesn't look like this rx8 has any side airbags either. what the deal?

c170673

Certainly the Mazda Website seems to show the seats having side airbags built in.

And all of the literature says there are 6 airbags, two front, two side and two full length curtain airbags.

Chris

KEF

is the side air bag built into the side of the seat , some of the prototypes seem to show the side panel of the seat being slightly out of sync with the rest of the seat frame.

ps, the sliding seat belt system is pretty crap, it's the same as fitted to my mx-6.

Because the belt tension is almost perpendicular to the line of the floor rail, there is very little horizontal component of force to overcome friction between the belt loop and the rail, as a result it usually stops half way along, resulting in a trip hazard for rear passengers. (hopefully the opening arc of the rear door will reduce the problem, but that's typical of the small glitches you don't notice until you have to live with a car)

that's why i was so keen on the reaod and track prototype version.

Keeper

Nobody knows for sure, but if what I recall about the accident was correct he was probably doing about 40-50 in a 25 before slaming on his brakes -- he slid 2-4 secondsbefore the impact -- colliding into the driver's side of my car while I was making a left turn. The impact was enough to spin the car around, causing a secondary impact with the front bumper. I'd rolled backwards about 50 feet before I realized what happened.

Primary point of impact was about a foot behind the driver's side door. The seat belt mounting point hit the headrest. Since the belt is run through the side and anchored to the floor, the rest of the deformation on the side pulled the belt tight.

If you're feeling particularly morbid, click the links to see a few photos:
http://www.10south.net/~mprobins/ecl...t/DSCN1441.JPG
http://www.10south.net/~mprobins/ecl...t/DSCN1462.JPG
http://www.10south.net/~mprobins/ecl...t/DSCN1415.JPG
http://www.10south.net/~mprobins/ecl...t/DSCN1409.JPG

It looked worse in person than it did in the photos -- the pictures don't give you any sense of depth. Took the body shop $12,000 to fix it. You could look down at the rear driver's side tire and see it completely, alone with the suspension pieces. That tire was also about 15 degree's out of whack, and the ride hight at all 4 sides was off by at least half an inch. The tire itself was not hit (or at least, it wasn't damaged), which gives you an idea of how much things got bent.

The car itself did it's job well. If it weren't for the collarbone I would have walked away without a scratch on me. Now, mind you, I'm not saying that car companies are stupid or negligent for mounting the seatbelts where they do -- I, being the human crash test dummy, know that mounting the things further inside the car it would have been safer.

Also, they don't put you in a cast if you break a collarbone. There isn't much they can do for those things except sling your arm and hope that the two pieces join back up (otherwise they have to put you under the knife and put enough metal in you to set of the metal detectors in the airport...). They can also put you in what is called a figure 8 splint, but my doctor didn't think they were terribly useful.

KEF

ouch, sorry man I know 1st hand just how bad that can be,

I was really lucky (depending upon your point of view) in a brand new Audi when it suffered a suspension failure, resulting in a t-bone impact at a closure speed approaching 100mph

I was on the off side and suffered only a few bruises, while my grandad in the passenger seat took the brunt. Fortunately he suffered only concussions, but the though that he was dead was the hardest thing I've ever experienced.

To this day I don't know how we survived, both cars were beyond repair (the audi was about 2 foot narrower), but the only lasting injury was the broken finger the other driver suffered, poor guy couldn't have done a thing when faced with over a tonne of car spinning down the road at him.

A lesson to us all, drive carefully and pray that your machine stays together around you.

[personally i would never buy another audi, it may have saved my life, but it almost killed me in the first place.]

Keeper, hope you shoulder gives you peace.

neit_jnf

How did you find out it was a suspension failure? And, did you get any compensation from Audi?

Keeper

It's amazing how much an experience like that makes you think about things. I know my attitude/perspective on life changed quite a bit. Got incredibly lucky all around. Sounds like you had a similar experience. I hope that most people reading this never have to experience a serious accident. It isn't fun.

My shoulder has healed up very well. Accident was 8 months ago; started using the arm normally again last December, most pain was gone by the end of January, and I haven't had any discomfort since the end of Feb. My left side is still a lot weaker than the right side though .. difference of about 20lbs at the gym, but the gap is closing. If you look at me closely my left side looks off compared to my right side, but I doubt anybody but me would notice unless I pointed it out.

KEF

Accident investigator

good conditions, driving at a steady 50 in a line of traffic, irritating nosie then next thing the two of us are spinning down the road.

No I was only 17 at the time so the insurance company decided there was no value (hope of success) in pursuing a claim for the value of the car. (we're not big on personal injury claims in this country, well until recently, nowdays everyone seems to be heading out looking for cracks in the pavement to trip over)

frossie

Having been in an accident that totalled our MX-5, I am not going to complain in the slightest about how the car held up.

I was hid by some huge SUV (Nissan Pathfinder or such) that run a stop sign. That took care of the front left. The SUV pushed me onto a rock wall, which took care of the front right. By that point the SUV had spun, and rested on the rear right.

Aside from the coolness factor and the MX-5-with-4-seats appeal of the RX-8, the way that car held up was a major reason for chosing another Mazda sports car. I walked away with a minor scratch from the airbag and a couple of small bruises (my boyfriend who was in the passenger seat just had a cracked rib, probably a defensive wound)

For the non-squeamish see http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/~frossie/ex-car/

(The windscreen hole is a stress fracture - nobody's head hit the window!)

med_mx6

man, i'm glad everybody's alright. someone should start an "I survived my accident" thread in the lounge.

ps. are those beer bottles (!) in your trunk?!?!? omg! hahahahaha... at least they're unopened, right?

frossie

Well, they were unopened before the accident... at least one burst and ruined the stuff in the trunk, but hey - it's a Miata, not much stuff in the trunk anyway :-)

The MX-5 was crashed in early February - one week later we pre-ordered the RX-8. In the meanwhile we have been driving around in my offroader, a rusting Jeep Wrangler with no windows, no carpets, just an FM radio (that won't tune above 99.9) and a mileage that makes the RX-8 look like Environmental Car of the Year.

You think you guys will be glad when your cars arrive? Hah. I'm allready chilling the champagne.

zoom44

in the trunk of the miata?

eccles

Those photos reminded me of one particular difference I noticed between the Miata and the RX-8: When the passenger airbag deploys in a Miata, the lid smashes into the windshield necessitating a new windshield even in a fairly minor shunt. Yet in the photos posted elsewhere on the forum of the first wrecked RX-8, there was no sign of windshield damage despite both airbags having deployed. I guess they've either redesigned the lid, or located it sufficiently far from the windshield that it can blow open without smacking the glass.