Safety progress in S2000 compared to WRC?

[Rallyper]

Well, guys, last weekend we had an serious accident in Bulgaria when a co-driver was killed. The car was actually a S2000 car and my concern is how the safety is developing in the S2000-class.

We know that in the WRC cars the manufacturers and FIA have made big progress, with sideimpact protection, and many other actions has been taken to make the cars safer. Will that be heritaged to the new WRC-cars in 2011?

I know many of you out there has much better knowledge about these things. Please let us now. Because I´m a bit frightened about the safety in the new wrc-class of 2011....

[Barreis]

Molibdone rollbars are trash. Second peugeot that killed somebody.. Remember how lucky was Mills in Germany and how molibdone rollbar trashed away.. Look what Latvala can do with focus (xd) and nothing.. I remember how Kremer hit tree with focus in Germany 2002 and nothing.. That's it..

[Mirek]

Barreis: Sorry, but I think You don't have some kind of mechanical engineering aducation, don't You? Otherwise You wouldn't write something like this. Rolling anywhere anyhow is quite safe way to crash and is not comparable to crash into solid obstacle.

Rallyper: The most important safety factor in rallying is speed and mass. S2000 is slower than WRC, has much lower top speed and is lighter. All of these are reasonable plus factors for safety.

Well they don't have latest seats used by factory WRC teams and polymer side-impact energy absorbers but all of this may be very easyly fit and I'm sure it will be fit once they will be used as new WRC.

The rollcage has the same homologation procedure as WRC. Sometimes people mention that S2000 are smaller than WRC and therefore has smaller deformation zones. That's partly true, partly not. They are smaller than C4 or Focus but bigger than 206 WRC or Fabia WRC (not all of them).

Fatal accidents just happen when the circumstances are exceptionally bad and especialy in this case it would be fatal in any car. Hi-speed side-roof impact is practicaly the worst possible case and there is no safety feature which could safe Fabio's life.

[Barreis]

I really don't have mechanical engineering education but I have experience and also saw so many rollbars alive.. Also rolled and had 16 accidents (unfortunately)..

[Mirek]

Well, I believe You that You have big experience but there are some facts comming from physical laws which stand. So if You roll (Latvala) there is not much kinetic energy which the rollbar must absorb because the car doesn't stop but continue moving. But if You crash at same speed into something solid and such bad way that the car stops immediately, all the kinetic energy is spent to deformation and it's way much worse than any kind of rolling.

Also the decceleration which is very dangerous for human body is rather small while rolling but extreemly high in sudden stop.

Every km/h, every degree of impact angle changes situation dramaticaly and real-life crashes are each one too specific to compare and there are too little number of them, therefore they can't be evaluated by statistic methods as road crashes are.

[Barreis]

I agree.. But You should see ford rollbars once again..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ageubuCcgI

[J4MIE]

Agree with Mirek, when you hit a tree or a rock at speed then it's the worst thing to happen.

Regarding the Kremer accident there, I can't see that he hit something solid and stopped suddenly He spins around which will dissipate a lot fo the energy in the crash. From the video I saw of the car in Bulgaria it was a big impact into a tree sadly

[Rallyper]

Yeah. most of us here at the forum knows the differences between pure rolls or sideimpacts.

My question is still maybe not answered: what can we wait to see about the development in security for the S2000 as a world rally car?

The speed will be there, even though it´s alighter car.

Anyone?

[Barreis]

Hm, what would say Park or Flavio?

[Lousada]

On another forum, Bulgarians who were at the stage say that Lavios rollcage snapped near the welds.

I would not say this is only with Peugeots. Chris Atkinson managed to rip open a Subaru, but lucky for him at the rear.