Moordryd

Yo,

I was almost involved in an accident tonight when a chick cut me off by doing a wide left-hand turn onto an intersecting one-way street directly in front of me.

To make a long story short, if I hadn't been in such a lightweight, performance-oriented vehicle, I would have t-boned her and possibly injured a pedestrian who was walking within a crosswalk.

For all the statistics on sports cars involved in accidents, they should do some research on how many were actually avoided by sportscars.

I gave my Sheila (my RX-8) a big hug when I got home.

lesper4

iTrader: (3)

very true but i am sure the accidents would still out way the number by quite a bit.

momo

I know what you mean, I avoided some chit like a ***** foo in my 2002 miata. I don't if it was beacuse the car was so small or in a blind spot or what, but the car did get out of chit that I would not have been able to avoid in a 'regular' car.

SmokeyTheBalrog

Unfortunately there is no way to do a study because there is no way to gather usable data. As such a meaningful comparison is impossible.

Generally I find these are the things that are important in avoiding accidents:
(In order of importance)

State of driver
Quality of driver
Environment
Quality of Car

CTrx8

iTrader: (2)

agreed. there are always studies done and the opening paragraph always states something to the effect of, "...while we expected sports cars to have fewer accidents because they are more agile, what we actually found was that they are involved in more accidents because of those driving them..."

so studies are done and while you do find more people street racing them and find teenagers pushing them to the limits off the track, the results will not be usable. the data isn't really showing the car, but the type of driver prone to buying and driving them. i completely agree with smokey in the order placed on factors influencing the avoidance of accidents.

yiksing

The 8 is by no way light weight.

StealthTL

iTrader: (1)

Maybe it's not "lightweight" when you look around the roads in Brunei, but around here it is THE lightest vehicle around!

You don't see Miatas up here after September, and the rest of the vehicles are 4x4s or 3/4 ton trucks. After a while you start looking at Volvo stationwagons as "cute little runabouts"!!

S

saturn

Yeah, I agree. I don't want to spoil the 8 love fest, but the driver is so much more important than the car. Paying attention and driving appropriately for the conditions are what avoid 99.9% of accidents.

Gambit

sometimes the car can save ur *** though...one day i was driving to work (about 75-80 on the highway) in the left lane and there was a dump truck a little ahead of me in the center lane. Some huge piece of metal flew outta the truck directly at me and I swerved into the center. Not many cars can do that at ~80mph

Moordryd

Ha, I wasn't serious about doing the study on "how many accidents sportscars avoid". It was only just a thought...

I agree with Smokey that the most important aspect of accident avoidance is the driver (breathes on then polishes nails). However, I was in a very similar situation with my '93 Corrado and in fact had more distance, but the 'rado was so heavy and the ABS was so ineffective that I ended up smashing into the car.

During the situation last night, however, the RX-8 felt incredibly light during the extreme braking (I was actually feeling impressed by it during the whole ordeal) and the ABS worked so well that there was no chirping of rubber, and I maintained great steering control throughout. I mentioned a pedestrian that could have been involved had there been a colliision: well, I not only avoided striking the vehicle, but I was concentrating on not hitting the pedestrian and succeeded there as well.

If I were in my older '93 Corrado or my brother's '05 Pathfinder, things would have been a lot different.

mdw1000

Yeah, the great brakes saved me from an accident a few weeks ago. I was drivng around 25 mph down a side street in a busy suburban downtown area, and someone pulled out of a parking lot right in front of me. I stomped on the breaks and the car stopped instantly. If I'd been in my old truck I would have hit the lady right in the driver's door.

CTrx8

iTrader: (2)

the 8 certainly is a great car, don't get me wrong and will get you out of some jams but as said before there are many other factors that come into play first. i have had my share of having to avoid people on their cell or putting on makeup where i was glad to be in my 8 but i also like to think i'm a good, defensive driver.

i know that i've also been in a couple situations where i know i couldn't have made it out as good had i been driving another car. for instance, my mother had a lexus gs300 and when i would go back to visit her i dreaded getting in it. it's a boat and a few years old so it's well past its prime and you have to think way ahead before making any moves b/c forget about sudden swerves or braking. i say, 'had,' because she has since been t-boned in it and i always wonder if she had the extra power and less bulky car to get out of it, would she have been able to?

Huey52

iTrader: (2)

Agreed. I've always considered myself an "offensive driver" in that I get out of the potential situation Before bad things happen. Although I maintain that mindset in any vehicle, a sports car really facilitates reaction for those times when no amount of advance planning can help.

Fritz the Cat

My driving experiences have taught me a simple rule, with a corollary.

1. Any driving maneuver done by you that causes you or anyone around you to hit the brakes is dangerous.

Corollary: If there's a driver around you that's using his brakes a lot, stay clear of him.

For example, if I want to change lanes, and the space in the open lane isn't quite big enough, I'll be forcing the driver that I'm cutting off to hit his brakes. Therfore, this is a dangerous maneuver.

That's an obvious example. A less obvious one: if I see that there's an obstacle in the road ahead, I'll try to go around it, rather than hit the brakes and stop before it. Generally, that's a safer course of action, and the bad drivers are the ones who slam on the brakes when they see it. Doing so indicates that they weren't looking far enough up the road.

Just my two bits.

Razz1

ahh.... ther's your problem right there! Driving 75 to 80mph.

Renesis_8

They should take braking distance into account when calculating insurance rates lol...
________
LIVE SEX WEBSHOWS

mysql101

The RX-8 is lightweight.

Compare the RX-8 to the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, which weighs a similar 3031 lbs:

Then compare it to the Mustang (3500 lbs), eclipse (3306 lbs), 350z (3250 lbs), WRX (3192 lbs), etc.


Most cars for this size/dimentions weight more, that makes the RX-8 lightweight.

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

no offence but I think they should keep 3 kinds of people off the road, that should avoid MOST if not all accidents

Kids under 20 years old, Anybody whos over 60 and all females.

You guys have NO IDEA how many times all these fuxking bitches did the **** to me.

CarAndDriver

Classy.

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

Hey, its true.

Cant really say all but, most women does NOT know how to operate a machine properly

saturn

Haha! Nothing like an offense, gramatically incorrect sentence to make my immature sense of humor go off. Good work.

6speedRenesis

True, but it's similar to the speeding ticket and red cars thread. The number of Cars "Classified" as sports cars alone can skew the values. I'm willing to bet there are more sports cars then trucks on the road. Being that there are more vehicles of a certain type, that type of vehicle has more oppurtunities to be involved in an accident. But proportionaly sports cars are not more prone to being involved in an accident, the fact that there are more allows it to happen in greater volume.

If anything i see more banged up Minivans and Soccer Mom SUVs then sports cars around here

6speedRenesis

So what would you have done for the first 4 years of Driving eligiblity if you think that kids under 20 shouldn't drive?

The andrettie (sp?) kid is 16 and he's racing Formula-1
Age dosen't matter. It's the idiot behind the wheel