Short question:
Does anybody know how the thickness/material of the RX8's windshield compares to other cars?

Explanation:
Over the weekend while driving in a parking lot a car backed out in front of me way too quickly (Read: launched from parking place on course for the moon). I hit the brakes a little harder than i should have in response (read: floor: pedal. Pedal: Floor. Nice to meet you.) My poor girlfriend didn't have her seatbelt on at the time because we had just started going. Her head hit the windshield and cracked the hell out of it, which gave me the horrible feeling that she had probably suffered a major trauma... but when we got her to the ER and after all the cat scans were said and done, the only damage from the crash was my windshield. Thank God for that. But it got me wondering, are our windshields thinner than most? Do they break easier? I had always heard that if the windshield was damaged, your head probably was too... but she bounced back the next day, not even feeling it a little.

 

she has a hard head

 

I would suspect there are regulations in regard to how the windshield is made.

As for you, don't you care enough about your passengers to have them put on there belts? The accident must not have been sever enough to trigger the airbag.

 

I do, but i generally don't think to check until we're getting out onto a road. I won't make that mistake again, the results were goddamn horrifying.


As far as the airbag, there was no collision, so there was no airbag. Just a really short stop.

 

After being a Mazda Parts guys for decades, YES, I can assure you Windscreens or Windshields and ALL car glass has got a lot thinner...just like the steel used in car panels, etc.

BUT, having said that 'al' is correct, all vehicle screens have a Safety Regulation which ALL cars must conform to.

 

Yeah, the integrity seems fine... i mean, obviously its compromised, and must be replaced ASAP, but it helps to hear from a mazda parts guy that car glass is getting thinner. We were a little afraid that maybe the cat scan had missed something, but the fact that she hasn't been feeling anything strange since it happened put our minds a bit at ease.

 

Windshields are made to absorb impact.

Are you saying you wanted the windshield not to break butt your girl friends head to crack?

 

It was designed so that she hit her head hard enough she could, in theory, put her head through it and then the glass not be sharp enough to cut her head off. It's safety glass, it's what it was deisigned to do. As Razz said, you prefer woman cracks head?

 

thats how helmets and windshields work. Its why Ive had to replace two helmets, one that an ex gf dropped. The foam in the helmet breaks absorbing the impact. The glass in your car works the same way. It breaks absorbing the force of the impact. If you want get lexan and you can just bust her face open and the windshield will be in tact.

 

thanks for the point about glass being an impact absorption material, i hadn't thought of that.

*yawn* to the troll-too-hard fail posts about how i would prefer my girlfriend be hurt than my windshield.

 

this exact same thing happened with my 5th gen camaro so i dont think your windshield is thinner its just the windshields in general have gotten thinner!

 

well actually. the pitting in the windshield from sand and snow does thin it out, hence the divits in the glass.

 

/\ YES, and permanent Stone Chips or Scratches on the Glass also causes Wiper Blade Rubbers to prematurely wear or cut out..

 

lol rubbers in america are something way different btw :P

 

^ Ja, we have a vast selection down the street at Condom Revolutions.