Saturday, April 7, 2007

Collision Protection

The most probable collisions a vehicle will face are either expensive or deadly. Both such problems must be addressed. To protect against common low force collisions, a KMW should have a large rubber and metal bumper surrounding the vehicle, particularly on the front and back and around the wheel wells, capable of resisting the vehicle moving at 15mph, or two tons of fairly solid material moving at 10mph. The body should be made of replaceable carbon fiber, fiberglass, or meshed hard rubber segments to reduce expense and damage of small collisions.

For more serious collisions, the gemini boning structure should keep the car's basic structure and protect passenger lives. Two lengthwise rigid bundles of pipes inside and below the cabin/trunk and engine connected to rigid crosswise sections deep to the front and back bumpers and another set between the two segments should provide a strong structural base secondary to the hard frame.

Considering the vehicle's light weight [~2000 lbs] these figures are estimated
Setup:
Primary Bumper [~10-15mph]
Bumper Backing Panels and Square [~10-15 mph]
Gemini Front Bars and Q4 [25-30 mph]
[Engine] [20-25mph]
[Midengine Airbags, Exterior Airbags] [+10mph]
Gemini Front Lines [25-30 mph]
Gemini Midbars [10-15mph]

This should place 100-130mph of material protection between the passengers and the street, along with accoutrements, easily giving it a 5-star rating.

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