Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 19:28:00 -0400 From: J Dexter <webmannnopsamantispamtrick.org> Subject: Re: Any thoughts on safety?
Salutations: Don't know if this helps - but here goes.. My wife and I and a good friend of ours in the back seat were running to Montreal from Toronto (Canada) on a nasty stretch of 4 lane called the 401.. We had just bought a used 900 8 valve and hadn't picked up new tires as yet and got caught in a southern Ontario rain burst - which is different from a normal storm in that it drops like 4 inches of water in about 5 minutes in a square mile or two - which you come across as an effective wall of water on the highway.. Anyway, we were speeding a bit and got caught in a deep pair of ruts into an underpass and managed to hydroplane the car. Claudia valiantly tried to regain control - but she had only recently got her license and we were in the underpass and heading out across the median fast.. I grabbed the wheel and cut it hard to the shoulder / ditch (which is a better way to go if you are out of control). We crossed the road at about 125kph and hit the shoulder / ditch at about 45 degrees.. The car then caught it's bumper in the ditch and started to cartwheel corner to corner down the shoulder.. We got rolling so hard the engine and gas tank were both torn from their mounts and flung about 20 meters down the road. When we came to a stop (upside down) we had shortened the car by about three feet front and back.. However - and here is the important bit - Claudia ended up with some cuts in her head from the sun roof - the passenger in the back bruised her arm and I (having stupidly not locked my door) broke my two big toes when the door opened then closed again on them in the roll.. Seat belt welts all around - BUT - that was ALL the damage recorded in what normally would have been a fatal accident I think.. You also may tell the offspring that in addition to being one of the safest cars on the road - a properly sorted Saab will outrun most anything in it's class because while it isn't the fastest machine - it will provide sports car type steering in most situations enviable to the finest coupe' on the planet today.. Also - it is possibly the most fun automobile I've ever owned (and I've owned 18 so far) in the snow and foul weather and rarely the target of thieves (around here at least) as it's not on the radar for cut shops.. The only downside to owning a saab is that you MUST maintain them.. Letting things go for another day (like replacing effectively bald tires) can be very expensive and sometimes dangerous as the story above should illustrate.. Finally - if there is silly chat about gutless front wheel drive and how american muscle is the only way to go - head off here http://www.dexterdyne.com/102.HTM to my GMC motorhome owners group page to show him the fastest motorhome ever built - the 1977 GMC 260.. It runs a front wheel drive 403 cubic inch Olds Bird motor on a turbo 400 front wheel drive transmission laid out exactly like a Saab 900 with an extra bank of cylinders.. I run this beast comfortably in the 80 mile per hour zone (with another 30 miles an hour in the RPM gage) regularly on main highways and it handles as well as most rear wheel drive cars I've owned.. J Dexter - webmaster - http://www.dexterdyne.org/ All tunes no cookies no ads no news no weather no phone in All the Time.. Elizabeth wrote: > > I'm trying to convince my son that his taking over our 92 Saab 900 for > his first car would be the best thing for him - I'm most concerned > about safety. He doesn't hate the car, (we LOVE it) - but he just > does not GET it regarding how much safer this car is than the one he > wants - he'd like something newer like a used Chevy Cavalier - when he > says this our faces pale. > > Does anyone know of any websites (or arguments, or > essays/research/testing) that I could point to for information on > safety comparisons? > > Any help would be most appreciated. > > Thanks... > Staffords
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