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MAVERICK said:
Quote:
VKSF said:
Intuitively, I'd bet against safety systems engineering of any American/Italian car,



Since Audi bought Lamborghini, the Gallardo is the first and only Italian exotic sports-car with head/thorax airbags.

The C5 had no side airbags. The C6 has side thorax airbags optional on the coupe ( ) and standard on the convertible, but General Motors, in its cost-cutting wisdom, has decided that in this year of 2005, if the government still does not require it, then its Corvette customers are still not worthy of head protection.



Logically, one would think well-designed side and head airbags should cause material reductions in post-crash injury claims. Similarly, one would think that convertibles would have materially higher risk of head/spinal injuries than equivalent coupes, but IIHS data for 911 coupe vs converts doesn't show material differences. Perhaps in last 5 yrs we've reached saturation point on safety advances and corresponding reductions in injury rates of fundamentally well-engineered cars like 911....such that, for ex., 997's more advanced side/head air bag system may not show material reduction in injury rates vs 996's....