Here is a nice picture from the NHTSA Rollover - FAQs page:



It's not surprising that cars like the RX-8 is getting 5 stars. We already had a preview of it's emergency lane-change prowess in Car and Driver's comparo against the G35 and Mustang Cobra. I expect all the cars that are frequently compared to the RX-8 (S2k, 350Z, STi, Evo8, Crossfire) to have the same 5-star ratings.

IMHO, cars like MCS, Civic Si, WRX, Mazda 3 might produce more interesting results since they have a higher center of gravity but at the same time have a pretty good suspension setup.

 

CARS.COM

http://cars.com/news/stories/060704_...y&aff=national

 

NYT article regarding SUV rollover rates mentions RX-8

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/08/bu.../08safety.html

 

A new government survey ranks the Mazda RX8 number one least likely vehicle to roll over in a single vehicle crash.
see link:
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/nhtsa/annou...e=pr34-04.html
Great news for the RX8! but of course we already new this!

 

I thought this was a repost, but the date released is today. Good find

 

Good find!

 

Did you notice the worse roll-over candidates? We all know this, but then again, I was still surprised that there is almost 20-30% chance of rollover in single vehicle crashes when driving an SUV.

 

OK, but that's only #1 of the 20 passenger cars they tested for the 2004 test series. Considering that #2 was the Acura TL, it's not a convincing victory. Maybe if they'd tested ANY other sports cars it would be more impressive! As it is, there was no competition. Once they've tested Mustang, Corvette, Porsche, 350Z, etc., then we'll see how it really ranks.

Regards,
Gordon

 

BTW, wasn't trying to hijack the thread. Hooray for the 8.

 

Good point Gordon...it would seem that by the 8 having 4 doors it throws it into the passenger car category as opposed to the sports car category. Guess the good news is that it helps justify the low insurance rating that the RX8 enjoys.

 

OK, this story about how the RX-8 has an 8% chance of rolling over is starting to annoy me. I'm thinking, hmmm, so what has a lower chance of rolling over? An Enzo? A Hummer? What are the characteristics that make a vehicle prone to roll over? High center of gravity is a given, but if you were trying to make an RX-8 less roll-over prone what specifically would you change? Stiffer anti-sway bars? I'm not saying 8% is bad but it's higher than I would have guessed.

More interesting would be what your survival chances are once you've rolled. I saw the oddest thing a few years ago, a Chevy Suburban had driven over the hood of an old style Volvo wagon and landed on its roof. Volvo needed a new hood. Suburban was totaled. Its roof was caved in. I wouldn't want to have been in that vehicle when it flipped, but it makes you wonder, just how strong your own car would be when its flipped upside down!

Keep your wheels on the road and beware of being squashed by rolling SUVs

 

Pictures of crash-tested RX-8 included!

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/NCAP/Cars/3005.html

Note that the RX-8 gets four and five stars across the board, and has a Static Stability Factor of 1.59, which indicates it is very unlikely to roll over. Most passengers cars rate between 1.30 and 1.50 (the higher the number, the less likely the car is to roll).

No rear-impact crash data is listed, but the fact that I'm here typing this is pretty good indication that the car deserves 4-5 stars there as well.

Edit: Aaack... I just noticed that they list the car as wrong-wheel-drive! I emailed them and asked them to fix that.

 

Good news. Thanks for the post, Aratinga.

 

make an rx8 that cant do more then 5mph

 

I'm not sure what's annoying about this article. It says the safest vehicle overall in the latest safety ratings is the 8, isn't that good? This is in reference to the recently released NHTSA testing where the 8 got a 5 star rating for rollover safety, passenger safety, but only a 4 star rating for the drive (Oh well, the risks you have to take for driving one of the coolest cars on the road). Don't dwell on the 8 percent figure, that simply applies to the test that is used to try it's best to roll it over, most other cars did much worse.

 

The way it reads to me is that the best car, with the least likelyhood of rollover is the 8 and it had an 8% chance of doing so. Ergo (insert Matrix reference), the best rollover percentage for any vehicle is 8%.

 

Yes the 8% does not mean anything close to 8% in the real world. It just means using the NHTSA test, THEY gauged the rollover rate at 8%. Better than any other car in this round of tests. It in no way means that in 8% of single car crashes that 8 % of 8s will actually rollover. At least I don't think it does. It may mean exactly that as I think about it and type this message. It might take into account all kinds of stuff like losing a wheel while hiting a pothole while at the same time being hit by another car. Any which way, a 5 star rating is the best, and I've never felt my 8 trying to roll over, and I really really push my car sometimes. I've even bought cones and set my own impossible course up to test the limits. I have never ever felt any lift during any manuvuer.

 

Yes, nice find. Keep up the good work.

 

I rolled my Fiat 124 sport spider. I thought that car would never roll over in a million years. Here's how it happened:
1) I was T-boned by a GMC utility truck, right in the passenger door. I was doing about 55mph, he was running a stop sign hoping nobody would come thru at the same time. I did. He had little time to slow down, so he was probably doing 40mph at impact, dunno.
2) I held on to the steering wheel, my head & upper torso instantly went into the cushion of the passenger seat, causing the wheel to turn sharply to the right.
3) Both tires on the driver's side were removed from their wheels.
4) I used the steering wheel to pull myself up out of the passenger seat and saw that I was skidding sideways. The wheels on the driver's sde were digging into the asphault. The passenger side was starting to lift into the air.
5) I went back down into the passenger seat, using the steering wheel as a brace to keep myself down with my arms.
6) The car flipped 2.5 times (I was told later), coming to rest sideways and upside-down in the roadside storm drainage ditch, the convertible roof fit the ditch nicely. I squirmed out of the torn plastic rear window like a snake, spitting safety glass & wiping glass out of my eyes & face & everywhere else, was even inside my underpants!
The girl who witnessed it was sure that anyone in my car would be dead. She was crying, running to my car. I got a bloody knee from the radio volume ****, a scrape on the side of my face from the passenger seat when it twisted as I went down into it, and buckshot wounds in the face from the exploding passenger-side window. Not bad!

Funny thing, as I was flipping, I was telling myself, "well, I won't have to worry about having to sell this car", then reminded myself that I might be dead by the time it stops.

So anyway, don't ever think your car can't flip over. Any car can, just give it the right event, it sure will.

 

I prefer traveling right side up. 8% is fine with ne and probaly lower than walking after having had a beer to drink.

 

I rolled my first car, a Mini when I lived in England. I was going too fast, rushing to get to work early on wet roads. I came around this sweeping bend and there was a trailer with an excavator on it parked on the road. I hit the brakes, ooops, don't do that when cornering on a wet road! The car lost traction and started to skid. I was thinking that if I had to hit anything, better make it not the excavator! I over corrected the skid and was on a trajectory to avoid the excavator when I noticed a car coming towards me from the other direction. There was no way to avoid both the excavator and the car, so I let the car slide into the ditch at the side of the road. I thought the car just spun, but the people who were unloading the excavator told me a rolled. Anyway, the car landed right way up, and the only injury I got was a bruise on my leg from my briefcase that flew during the accident. Funny thing was, just like you, I was thinking "well, this will be a good reason to finally junk this car". To this day I thank my lucky stars for missing the excavator and the other car. I learned a lot about car control that day and also the danger from unrestrained items in the car. I could have been so easily killed.

What was bizarre is how time slowed down and I felt like I had all this extra time to think about the situation and what to do about it. It really felt like slow motion.

I also saw and 18-wheeler roll, well more accurately it fell on its side. It was going around a corner and it clipped the curb and slowly it just started to lean more and more and then "wham!" it fell over. It was bizarre to see this huge truck fall over. The driver was strapped in when it landed fortunately so he was unhurt.

 

My issue with the 8% is that it's sort of a meaningless number because it doesn't tell you if its possible to score a 0% or a 100% i.e., will roll just by looking at it, like my dog The NHSTA fortunately does explain how the roll-over rating is determined but it's still an artificial measurement because it doesn't necessarily related to real world situations or driver skill. Nothing other than accident statistics will tell us that. Still, you're right, it's a good rating. It tells us that the RX-8 is more stable than the other vehicles tested but I'm still curious just how low on the scale it's possible to get.

 

bump. This was all posted back in June.

 

USA Today had an article stating the RX-8's higest rollover resistancy among vehicles tested by NHTSA.
It's pretty lame that they posted an RX-Evolv picture instead of a real RX-8 in the article though.

 

I flipped my RX-8 !