Just quickly, how safe is the FD?

Does anyone have any links to any crash test results or some safety reviews or something? Or any personally experience with FD Safety?

I mean it has airbags and abs and stuff but its kinda small lol.

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks

Vlad

 

id like to know the results too

 

damn edmunds doesnt have it

 

They tried to crash test it, but the 7 cant lose and this is what happened

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wkza181QY4

 

Edit: I need to read more

 

http://www.carfax.com/car_safety/rat...#SARcrashNHTSA

it wasn't tested by NHTSA. I checked www.safercar.gov and nhtsa.gov and got the same results.

 

I've been collecting pictures of FD wrecks for a while. I have a lot of FDs ripped in half, some rolled several times, etc....Out of probably 35 pictures I think 2 were fatal. IMO most accidents in the FD occur at high speeds so any test results you may find really don't apply.

 

oh ok, how about personal experiance then?

 

well I've never totaled an FD.....yet...

but I like to think of this thread, when I think of FD safety. Pictures are on the 2nd or 3rd page, it's hardly even recognizable anymore
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ntrol+accident

 

The individual situations will change affects also. My cousin was killed last year when his rx-8 left the road and went through a wooden fence. The car itself was for the most part unharmed, (minor dent on the front) but the fence post he hit split and went through the window and hit him.
Best thing you can do if your looking for saftey is drive safe don't get crazy under uncontrolled conditions and live life.
I've seen top of the line saftey measurements in brand new top of the line cars still be fatal. I've seen seatbelts crush the persons chest killing them. I don't have any experiance with a rx-7 crash but with all the different conditions out there that play factors in a crash, unless your car is built like a tank and can run through a concret barrier without a scratch there is always the possiblity of a fatality.
-Jonathan

 

I have never been able to find any published crash test results for the 3rd Gen RX-7. I have never heard anyone refer to them either.

From reading owners' reports of their accidents on this forum I've noticed a fair amount involve losing control of the rear in an oversteer condition, often in the rain or on wet pavement. The best thing you can do to minimize that risk, besides driving sensibly, is to make sure you have good tires on the car. Not just good tread depth, but fairly fresh, pliable rubber.

Tires get harder as they age. I know on my own car, even though the rear tires still had decent tread, on an off camber turn I could feel the rear slipping a bit on me. That didn't happen at the same speed when the tires were newer.

You also see a lot of FD's with aftermarket steering wheels with no airbag. You wouldn't want to be driving one of those come crunch time.

 

The FD is a pretty safe car for it's size. Mazda put a lot of work into the front crash zone - the motor is designed to crush backwards and down to absorb the blow.

Biggest for me is the ability to not get in a wreck in the first place. Great handling and great brakes will get you out of a LOT of bad situations.

A lot of the wrecks I see with FD's are from inexperienced drivers that aren't used to a rear wheel drive car with high horsepower. Inexperienced drivers in this car is IMHO the number one enemy.

Dale

 

well thats me then lol, I am not very used to driving rwd... but then again you only live once

 

i am VERY curious about this thread..... my father is a bio-dynamics engineer...... he studies/conducts crash tests and using certain tools like specific software (MADYMO) and physics and whatnot to re-enact a crash for legal cases and things

ill ask him if he can find anything on the RX7........... he did say in general the rare-er cars and exotics usually dont have crash tests conducted (like ferraris, lambos, and etc), not sure why... i think because most of the general public cant afford it, so there wont be to many on the road, and it costs major $$$ to conduct a crash test...... so thats why i think tests were never conducted on the RX7.... that scares me though.

 

yeah its a freaky thought, i am also hearing rumors
that in NZ RX7s are getting outlawed off the road... that cant be a good thing

 

It's publicly available crash test data we're talking about. If I remember correctly, the manufacturers are required by the Feds to conduct crash tests, but they're not required to publish the data. Most of the crash tests we see are conducted by an independent organization set up by the insurance companies. I think it's located in Maryland. That's what you see when some TV program shows a minivan running into a barrier at 30 mph and a crash test dummy hitting the steering wheel in slow-mo.

 

One of the biggest factors is mass. and velocity.

those 30-45 mph tests do not even equal the force of 2 lightweight rx7s, each traveling at 25 mph, hitting head on.

How often are we going 25mph in an RX7?

Not to mention, almost every other vehicle weighs more than the RX7. Which means the effective moment of inertia is going to be greater at the same or even lower speeds.

I do not believe that cash tests really illustrate the true dynamics of safety, just a general IF /THEN scenario.

 

The car has to pass several gov't crash tests to meet minimum standards. IIRC, both NHTSA and the IIHS publish ratings of their own crash tests on selected vehicles each year.
btw the IIHS web site has no info for any RX7, RX8, or miata.


The 30MPH test into a barrier is equivalent to a head-on between two identical vehicles, each doing 30. But, yes, the tests of lighter vehicles do not reflect that the "other car" will probably be heavier.