emilysgranny

Everyboby talks about the speed and beauty of these cars ,but I have never heard about their safety in the event of an accident. After 20 yrs of cutting these 944's up it never ceases to amaze me of their body strength and how they protect the occupants.In one case a guy hit a guard rail which slowed him down somewhat but not enough to keep him from cutting a telephone pole in half. He merely got out and called the wrecker and went back to the car,where upon arriving ,there were a few people asking if the driver was killed. Hell no he said ,I just stubbed my toe when I kicked the damn thing after I got out.I seen a number of these modified cars in my yrs and it still impresses me how strong these cars are.

DangerIsland

I got to experience this first hand tonight, sadly. I'm quite impressed by how the car handled the accident. I just wish it hadn't happened

Ahmet

Well the chasis of the 944/951 series is that of a modified 924, which was originally a "safety design study" on paper if I remember correctly. I agree that the cars are pretty safe, with effective crumple zones, however I've seen a few 944s where the driver was killed. One of the more memorable ones was a 951 that slid into the back of a dumpster sideways on ice, hitting the truck with the roof first (which penetrated into the cabin). The cars are very good, however ofcourse not invincible.
Ahmet

emilysgranny

Glad you weren't hurt ,the car can replaced. Sorry to here about the car though.

User 462021

And don't forget Bill Underwoods driving off a cliff fiasco.

Tom R.

Scary, but safety was one of the reasons I bought this particular sports car.

We got rid of my wifes escort, she took over the legend coupe, and I wanted something safer than the current crop of 10-15k used cars.

I fugured an old porsche designed to bounce off guard rails would be safer than a camry designed to meet minimum standards for being hit this way at this angle at this speed, etc.

The dual airbags and abs were nice for insurance purposes too.

Hopefully I will never test the theory.

924RACR

Actually I think the 928 was based off the safety car study, but I'm quite confident based on my experience that the 924 series borrowed a lot of that knowledge. My most memorable was getting t-boned by a Fear-o (Fiero) on track, and spun out. I parked it on the first lap, he finished the race, as I had a bent rim and 2" of toe-in on the left rear (where he hit me, mainly on the suspension). The body was slightly creased, but no big deal; we swapped in a spare trailing arm, rough-aligned it, put the bent rim back on, and were back out the next morning for the next race. His plastic nose was cracked, and his frame was bent.

I also backed the car into a wall off the back straight @ Waterford once... scuffed the bumper pad and the hatch popped open, but the hatch closed itself once I got to about 20mph (resulting in the cornerworkers spending too much time trying to figure out if it was still open or not, and whether or not I needed to be meatballed, to remember to black-flag me for overdriving the car ). The bumper, of course, popped right back out on its hydraulic shocks.

Ahmet

I'm pretty positive the "safety car" (they also had a goal for low/easy maintenance having also called it the world car or something) is what the 924 came out to be. It was supposed to be a vw, that porsche designed for them as I'm sure you know. Like I said this is from memory but if you're really curious I'll look it up when I get a chanse.
Ahmet

M758

Well about 5 years ago my father driving the 924S was involved in an off-set head on collision with full size chevy pick-up. The driver's side fo the car was smashed in with the fender bent in to a twisted heap. The frame was bent on both sides driver's and passengers sides. The frame around the driver's door was bent and foot well partial pushed in.

My dad... fine except for the damage to his pride. I am sure glad he was in the 924S and not some POS!

With frame damage the car was a write-off, but we have been using parts from it for 5 years. In fact the motor I drove and raced on for 2 years and then blew-up was from that car.

Luis de Prat

They're amazing all right. My 83 saved my life and that of my passenger when a tree branch fell on us...



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Despite the substantial impact it sustained, it kept us alive and was still driveable after the incident. I had it fixed with parts from a donor car and 3 years later, it still gets me to work and back every day. <img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />

If a son or a daughter were to ask me for a sports car, I would definitely try to make it a 944. <img src="graemlins/wave.gif" border="0" alt="[byebye]" />

triscadek

The more that I learn about the safety of these cars, I'm really starting to lean towards helping my son get one (maybe an excuse for me to get a turbo? and he gets my S) recently someone in SoCal got hit pretty much head on by a full sized pickup and walked away and the cliff fiasco also.

Added to the brakes and handling he may be better off in that rather than something cheaper he can afford, now if I can figure out how to cut back the top end.

OZ951

On a related subject- I have been wodering if the airbags on airbag fitted 944s have been deploying correctly when they are involved in accidents, afterall they are pretty old pyrotechnics nowadays.