Was parking the car and the usual admirers gathered, one questioned me regarding the safety of a 20 gallon gas tank inches from my feet in the event of a front end crash. I laughingly responded that I intend not to get into a crash. Later, I started to think about the consequences. Do I wear a Nomex suit or drive around with a smidgen of gas in the tank and put $2 in at every other gas station?
Tried a search for any crash test results, fire hazard, etc. without any conclusion. I would think the Autobahn was a very good testing ground and want to confirm some German engineering safety incorporated in the cars.
Thanks!!

 

Pop the "hood" and look closely at the positioning of the fuel tank. It is set well back from the front of the car. All the sheet metal and framing ahead of it is designed to crumple, absorbing the energy of the impact before it gets to the fuel tank.

If that doesn't convince you, my insurance company rates the 911 very highly for driver/passenger protection. I don't think it would rate the car so highly if it tended to explode like a Pinto.

 

Porsche do not release such data as crash test results. They do issue a compliance statement but the actual details and the photos stay in house. Legally they are only required to prove crash worthiness to the regulatory authorities not to the press. I have never even seen a photo from the Porsche crash testing program. Now for Ferrari and Lamborghini it is a different story. They even made a complete hour tv documentary about the guys who trash Ferraris and Lambos for a living.
Ciao,
Adrian
911C4

 

Tobias Aichele's (sp?) book on the 911 has several pictures of crash-tested 911s, including (if I remember correctly) what appears to be a 964 turbo, and another picture of front-offset crash tests of several 911s (including slant-nose cars).

Also, the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) compiles injury rates from actual crashes and publishes its findings at <a href="http://www.carsafety.org." target="_blank">www.carsafety.org.</a> The 993 is listed, and has an extraordinarily good safety record -- one of best on the entire list. Go to the site, look around for a link to 1998-2000 model year injury rating "results," click on that and then go to the link for '95-'97 or '96-98 models. I tried to include the link, but I don't know whether it will work:

<a href="http://www.carsafety.org/vehicle_ratings/ictl/previous/ictl_0399.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.carsafety.org/vehicle_ratings/ictl/previous/ictl_0399.pdf</a>

While I don't think we should draw too many conclusions from this, it is very encouraging.

 

All the fuel drains into the spare tire in the case of rupture.

See, the spare really is there for safety purposes.



M in C

 

Hello

Visit a local porsche junk yard and have a look.

Or just ask if they ever had seen a torn or ripped fuelceel in a 964 wrack and if the condition of the wrack is looking like someone really could survive that.

Also if the fuelcell gets torn then it will flood the fuel into the trunk and not into the passengercabin.

Grüsse

 

its an interesting subject which i have started looking into. What is interesting is cars made in the US seem to be the worst in out Uk ratings the jeep cherokee being the worst 4x4 and the chrylser voyager being the worst mpv in comparison a volkswagen lupo was better, which is one of the smallest cars on the road. I haven't found much data on sports cars

 

Do not really see why a front impact crash should worry you. 911 usually visit the scenery backwards

 

On a related note...

Does the bolted in spare wheel form part of the 'crash structure', i.e. did it contribute to the cars' passing of the official tests?

 

Hello

In the 70´s and 80´s Porsche had several puplications about crash saefty. There was also a movie showing how the crumbled 944, 928 and 911 from front and rear and sideways. They showed undercarshots where you can see how everything moved inwards. I remember they showed a heavy 928 rear end crash ( the end was flatent up to the axle ) and the fuelcell spilled only a bit fuel trough the nozzle and you could still open the doors. Also showing the rearend crash on a 911 SC was interesting how the muffler and heat exchanger bend the headassemblys forward while the block didn´t moved.

US and ROW crash methodes are different.
American manufactorers beleive in "hardshell" but doesn´t invest much into the seats ( why should they ? they have airbags ) and other interiour stuff. Or they just invest the needed amount for 55 mph and managing the US tests.

Grüsse

 

Roland,
I don't suppose you (or anyone else) would know where to obtain a copy of that movie?

 

hallo
I have bought well over 150 wrecked 964/993,on some of them it was hard to tell what modell they are .There was not one with a broken Fuelcell.
Some were twisted and had dents but non was broken .In some cars people were seriously injured ,but most had only light injuries as far as i know .
The Frontimpact is not the Danger ,the Sideimpact
right into the Door is much more dangerous .
Harald

 

Hello

This movie was broadcastet on a local german TV channel (SDR3) in the late 80´s ( I think at the 25 year 911 annivesary ). The feature showed the progress Porsche made from the 356 and finally showed the new 964. They focused on engine and chassis development in relation to enoviromentfriendlyness and saefty. The interessting thing was that the Porsche 911 was maybe the saftest car in the 60´s relatet to the wightclass.

The TV station has only MAZ copy´s and they will digitalize there archives in the next years. Making a copy from the MAZ is not possible ( or $$$$ ) and then we also have to talk about copyrights.

Over the years there was a lot relatet to Porsche mainly new development stuff on that TV channel. Mostly shown in local news or in short features at some specialised shows. There was f.e. a 45 minute feauture in Sportspiegel about the Paris Dakar Rallye 959 with Kussmaul and Barth explaining the hardware in the car.

Grüsse

 

Roland


what do yu mean by MAZ copy??

Are these on film stock or tape?

If on film, I would be able to transfer them free of charge (I run a film transfer facility in the UK).

 

Hello

One of my friends is working at the Filmakademie Ludwigsburg ( Sorry not R.Emmerich ) and we where talking about the problems several years ago.

The MAZ ( Magnetische AufZeichnung used ) 2" reel machines and later U-Matic.
The problem with the old tapes is that they fade away and so you have to refresh/recopy them regulary.
There are maybe direct copys/backups or the original footage mostly in 16mm or 9,5 pathé format.

The problem is you have to locate the titel in the broadcast archives. The archives content needs to be digitalized. One problem is that the early catalouge from the archive was on a old computersystem that only exists in software today.

As the funds are limitet today they focus on the real important stuff.

<a href="http://www.netzwerk-mediatheken.de" target="_blank">http://www.netzwerk-mediatheken.de</a>
<a href="http://www.hdg.de/lemo/" target="_blank">http://www.hdg.de/lemo/</a>
<a href="http://www.lad-bw.de" target="_blank">http://www.lad-bw.de</a>
<a href="http://www.dra.de/start.htm" target="_blank">http://www.dra.de/start.htm</a>
<a href="http://www3.sdr.de/hdf/index-gb.html" target="_blank">http://www3.sdr.de/hdf/index-gb.html</a>
If you search on that site you will find 3 movies in the archives:

<a href="http://asterix.sdr.de:88/cgi-bin/yjvoll.cgi?profil=rechhdf&pointer=%3AFIHD%3A1992002404%3A%2000%3A3122053 %3AFS%3A%20IHDF&pattern=porsche%20&Begriff3=porsche&undoder3=AND&undoder =" target="_blank">http://asterix.sdr.de:88/cgi-bin/yjvoll.cgi?profil=rechhdf&pointer=%3AFIHD%3A1992002404%3A%2000%3A3122053 %3AFS%3A%20IHDF&pattern=porsche%20&Begriff3=porsche&undoder3=AND&undoder =</a>

<a href="http://asterix.sdr.de:88/cgi-bin/yjvoll.cgi?profil=rechhdf&pointer=%3AFIHD%3A1992002406%3A%2000%3A3123153 %3AFS%3A%20IHDF&pattern=porsche%20&Begriff3=porsche&undoder3=AND&undoder =" target="_blank">http://asterix.sdr.de:88/cgi-bin/yjvoll.cgi?profil=rechhdf&pointer=%3AFIHD%3A1992002406%3A%2000%3A3123153 %3AFS%3A%20IHDF&pattern=porsche%20&Begriff3=porsche&undoder3=AND&undoder =</a>

<a href="http://asterix.sdr.de:88/cgi-bin/yjvoll.cgi?profil=rechhdf&pointer=%3AFIHD%3A1992002993%3A%2000%3A3417203 %3AFS%3A%20IHDF&pattern=porsche%20&Begriff3=porsche&undoder3=AND&undoder =" target="_blank">http://asterix.sdr.de:88/cgi-bin/yjvoll.cgi?profil=rechhdf&pointer=%3AFIHD%3A1992002993%3A%2000%3A3417203 %3AFS%3A%20IHDF&pattern=porsche%20&Begriff3=porsche&undoder3=AND&undoder =</a>

Also local Goethe Institutes or embassys store Porsche relatet stuff.
There was a series about 100 Deutsche Jahre and one feature was about Porsche.

Grüsse