When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Some time back a GM test driver crashed a C8 at high speed and was in pretty bad shape, has anyone got an update on him?
We all know the C8 has a state of the art chassis, but if there is no crash test data, how do we know how crash worthy it is?
Just curious 🤔. I think it should fare well, what do you think?
I have never seen a rating on any of my corvettes I have ever bought. I think you will need to get a volvo if you want a safe vehicle to crash in. However. I have seen some of these wrecked with the car all over the road in pieces and they say the drivers were ok. For what ever that is worth. If you plan on going to a crash up derby. I highly recommend to leave the c8 at home.
I have never seen a rating on any of my corvettes I have ever bought. I think you will need to get a volvo if you want a safe vehicle to crash in. However. I have seen some of these wrecked with the car all over the road in pieces and they say the drivers were ok. For what ever that is worth. If you plan on going to a crash up derby. I highly recommend to leave the c8 at home.
Read my whole post...Just curious, not worried of the safety at all myself.
Testing a C8 Z06 that the GM Milford Proving Ground. Went off track at high speed, hit a tree. Split in half and caught fire. Horrific crash.
NHTSA does not crash test Corvettes (production volume is too low). Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 214 mandates all passenger cars and light trucks must pass 2 crash tests in order to be authorized for road use.
From Consumer Reports:
To be certified for sale, every new model sold in the U.S. must be crash-tested internally to ensure minimum federal safety standards are met.
Corvettes are certainly not unique in this regard:
Nearly a half-million passenger cars and SUVs sold each year have not been crash-test rated by the two main organizations that conduct independent assessments: the federal National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which uses a star rating system, and the insurance industry-backed Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which rates vehicles from Poor to Good.
Most of the vehicles without ratings are low-volume models, sports cars, luxury vehicles, or large vans. The expense is too great for NHTSA and the IIHS to test all vehicles, so choices are made based on car sales volume and testing budgets.
Testing a C8 Z06 that the GM Milford Proving Ground. Went off track at high speed, hit a tree. Split in half and caught fire. Horrific crash.
NHTSA does not crash test Corvettes (production volume is too low). Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 214 mandates all passenger cars and light trucks must pass 2 crash tests in order to be authorized for road use.
From Consumer Reports:
Corvettes are certainly not unique in this regard:
I think that was the crash I read about, as I recall the driver survived, but was in bad shape.
Any word on the poor guy?
What makes all Covettes and other sports cars so vulnerable during a crash is that they are so low to the ground and other cars go over them. Best advice is to leave a lot of room between you and the car in front of you so you have the best chance of avoiding a crash in the first place.
What makes all Covettes and other sports cars so vulnerable during a crash is that they are so low to the ground and other cars go over them. Best advice is to leave a lot of room between you and the car in front of you so you have the best chance of avoiding a crash in the first place.
Or, leave a lot of room behind you.
I have a favorite country road drive to the produce stand - it's hills and curves, lots of curves, with tight radius. And completely blind curves due to the vegetation and cliffs. The speed limit on that road varies but in many places it is already too high considering forward visibility around those curves. So, I will maintain that speed limit, but generally not exceed it by much - 5 mph or so - and consequently I sometimes get tailgated on that drive. I figure I can stop pretty quick - but can the car or truck behind me stop that quick? And then it happened, yesterday. Came around the curve, my wife hollers whoa, and there's a pickup broadside in the road. It was turning around because traffic there was temporarily stopped due to.....an accident (of all things). I was able to stop - I always try to feather my stops to give the guy behind me some time to react. The car behind me had to run off the road to avoid hitting me.
I had a similar experience years ago (before I learned about blind hills and curves) and popped over hill where an ancient man had stopped in the middle of the road to put gas in his car because he was afraid he would run out. That time I was exceeding the speed limit, probably 90 mph or so, and had to stand on the fading brakes in my 65 Pontiac Bonneville. I did not hit the guy.
But blind curves and hills pose a real danger. Don't find out the hard way.
I would say "and" leave a lot of room behind you. I try to as best I can to leave a lot of room all around me.
That's for sure. Too bad those folks behind me don't observe that. And, that space in front of me gives me time to react, but it also lets me slow down in a way that gives the tailgater behind me time to react (usually). I was hit from behind on the DC beltway (not in the C8) when encountering stopped traffic on the Parkway entrance. And I was hit from behind by a young driver on her phone at an intersection (again not in the C8). I pulled forward but had to stop - and she assumed I went (attention failure due to the phone). That was a sad case because she "bought" the car from her father's girlfriend and had not changed the insurance over - it was still in her father's girlfriends name and the girlfriends tags. The young woman's mother called and wanted to pay the damages out of pocket avoid an issue with her estranged husband and his girlfriend. I told them I would do that, but that when they get into the repairs they almost always find more damage than initially assessed - and strongly encouraged them to go through the insurance. I also suggested that she would probably be paying for that repair long after her father had another new girlfriend. I spoke with my insurance agent about it - and he said if they would not, or did not pay - I could, at any time call their insurance company and expect them to pay. They eventually decided to put it through the girlfriend's insurance.
Crash worthiness?
