The Smart car is getting a lot of attention for its small size and style, and now it’s earning impressive crash test ratings. In recent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tests, the 2008 Smart Fortwo, the smallest car for sale in the US market, earned the top rating of good for front and side crash protection. Its seat/head restraints earned the second highest rating of acceptable for protection against whiplash in rear impacts.
Smart Fortwo is classified a microcar, meaning it’s smaller even than minicars. Weighing about 1,800 pounds, the Smart is more than 3 feet shorter and almost 700 pounds lighter than a Mini Cooper. It weighs about a third as much as one of the heaviest vehicles the Institute has tested, the BMW X5, a midsize SUV. As the price of fuel climbs and tougher federal fuel economy requirements kick in, auto companies are expected to introduce more small vehicles to the market. The Smart is the smallest car the Institute ever has tested.
"The big question from consumers is, ’How safe is it?’", says Institute president Adrian Lund. "All things being equal in safety, bigger and heavier is always better. But among the smallest cars, the engineers of the Smart did their homework and designed a high level of safety into a very small package."
The stunt man who was driving this unique DBS plunged into an Italian lake while filming one of the most difficult scenes in the movie. The driver of the Aston Martin was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
Deadlock for the biggest spy in the world! Agent 007 remained with no car while filming the "Quantum of Solace", the newest film in the 007 series.
The stunt man who was driving this unique DBS plunged into an Italian lake while filming one of the most difficult scenes in the movie. The driver of the Aston Martin was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
The accident has major consequences for the film. Italian reports say the car was the only one available for shooting, which has spanned the globe from England to Chile and Mexico.
The production has had some difficulties already. A shoot in the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru had to be scrapped in March due to bad weather. Spain is the next locale for the film, which has British actor Daniel Craig reprising his role as the suave secret agent.
Give it to the New York Times. They’ve manage to ignore Hillary’s tax return questions for a decade, but they’re right there with the biggest mystery of our day:
What was Jerry Seinfeld driving when he wrecked two weeks ago.
The Times has devoted large space to the issue: Is it a Fiat or a Ferrari?
Here’s how the Journal of the politically weird got to this point:
Jerry Seinfeld was driving some sort of Italian antique about two weeks ago when he went into the ditch. This resulted in the police being called to report the accident. They, being individuals with some level of discretion, neither saw a reason to make a big deal out of a one car accident involving an old car nor to question Seinfeld’s explanation: the brakes failed.
But, enter the New York Times, the publication that prints everything it hopes people will believe.
Jerry Seinfeld could have been killed after he realized the brakes on his 1967 Fiat BTM failed and he rolled and flipped to a complete stop.
Jerry Seinfeld escaped an awful and potentially fatal accident without a scratch after he turned his un-stoppable car away from oncoming traffic.
Seinfeld was driving alone when the brakes on his 1967 Fiat BTM stopped working Saturday evening, East Hampton Town Police Chief Todd Sarris told the New York Post. Seinfeld tried the emergency brake, to no avail, and then swerved to keep the car from careening into an intersection, Sarris said.
The two-door sedan flipped over and came to a stop just yards from the highway, Sarris said, adding that the comic’s maneuver "probably avoided a very serious accident."
The wreck was attributed to mechanical failure, and no summonses were issued, Sarris said. Seinfeld, 53, did not require medical attention and returned to his East Hampton home.
The comedian took the crash in stride.
"Because I know there are kids out there, I want to make sure they all know that driving without braking is not something I recommend, unless you have professional clown training or a comedy background, as I do," Seinfeld said. "It is not something I plan to make a habit of."
The Ferrari F50 was limited to only 349 units. And the result of this crash is one F50 less on the streets of the world. Go to minute 4:00 to see the crash.
If you can find any explanation as of HOW the car end up into the ditch, let us know. We are still wondering here!
For the ignorant, the Ferrari F50 is powered by a naturally aspirated 4.7 liter V12 engine that delivers 513 at 8500. It makes the 0 -60 mph sprint in 3.7 seconds and can hit a top speed of 202 mph.
We don’t know how it happened, we don’t know when it happened neither do we know how to stop crying.
A new Nissan GT-R has been wrecked in Malaysia, its front end completely smashed with plastics and wires jutting out. It’s a terrible sight for automobile lovers to see such a fantastic car biting the dust.
No visible damage to the A-pillars or the driver’s side of the windshield. A photograph of the inside of the car clearly shows the deployed air-bag, indicating that the man behind the wheel could have got away with it if he would have worn his seat belt.
Just another example citing even the exquisite of things can sometimes have a very unfortunate ending.
Nick "Hogan" Bollea, the son of famed WWE Wrestler Hulk Hogan, was involved in a pretty serious crash while street racing in his modded yellow Toyota Supra. Nick "Hogan" Bollea suffered minor injuries, but his friend riding shotgun at the time, John Graziano, suffered serious injuries including head trauma.
Police have released the accident photos taken by investigators after the crash. They show the smashed up car in detail, and also show Bollea and passenger John Graziano in the hospital.
The second generation MINI Cooper hardtop earned impressive scores for front and side impact and roll-over testing in the latest National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) testing.
In the NCAP side impact testing, the 2008 MINI Cooper received a 5-Star rating for front seat occupant side-impact protection - the highest rating issued by NHTSA. In the same test the MINI Cooper received a 4-Star rating for rear seat occupants.
In frontal impact testing the MINI Cooper received a 4-Star rating for both front seat occupants. In addition the MINI Cooper carries a 5-Star rating for rollover safety.
"We are delighted that the NHTSA tests confirm MINIs excellent occupant protection in crash situations" said Jim McDowell, Vice President of MINI USA. "It is a testament to the level of safety we engineer in our cars, making MINI one of the safest small cars on the road today."
Picture Gallery
Post a comment
RSS - Webmaster free news | Linux Server Management