> The truth is, a side impact with one of today's high-bumpered suburban
tanks
> would mean big trouble. Side impact beams are irrelevant when the vehicle
> that hits you doesn't barely makes contact with the side of your car. Next
> time you're in a parking lot, pull up sideways in front of a parked Ford
> Expedition or similar machine and take a look at where that damn thing
would
> hit you. Yup, right upside your soft noggin. Not funny.
>
> Drive safe,
> Eric.
>
I've GOT a Ford Expedition parked next to my Spitfire in the garage -- and
for months, it gave me the willies observing that the tire on the Expedition
is almost taller than the top of the door on my Spitfire!
Observing my Mk3 the other day in a parking spot from a distance at the
supermarket, I was reminded that even next to modern subcompacts, the
Spitfire is one SMALL car! It even makes my New Beetle look positively
huge! Speaking of which, on Saturday, I hit a piece of rebar while driving
my Beetle on the freeway -- never saw it -- the front tire kicked it up and
it shot through the front side of the inner wheel arch in the back and was
rubing against my rear tire! Had it punctured that tire or locked it up, I
might have come very close to experiencing those front and side airbags
firsthand!
As I was wrestling the rebar out of the wheel arch on the side of the
freeway, I thanked my lucky stars that I had not been driving my Spitfire
with it's brittle-thin floor pans. I recall a story in recent years of a
woman who was killed when she was impaled by a piece of rebar that shot up
the same way -- but through her floor panel and into her body. Scary stuff.
Best wishes,
Jeff in San Diego
'67 RHD Spitfire Mk3 aka "Mrs. Jones"
Jeff's Classic '67 Spitfire Mk3 site & Vintage Spitfire Webring
http://www.ohms.com/spitfire/spitfire.shtml
home of the NEW Totally Triumph Auction
"By Triumph enthusiasts, for Triumph enthusiasts"
http://www.ohms.com/cgi-bin/TRauction.cgi
and... The Triumph Autos/Parts Wanted Listings
http://www.ohms.com/cgi-bin/TRwanted.cgi
...plus a few other surprises!
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