just1news6

would subframe connectors help in a bad car crash i know this is kind of a wiered question but wouldnt they help keep teh cabin rigid?

Gun5

iTrader: (37)

***** always gonna get fucked up but helping u i dunno.. it would be a perk i guess

DONAIMIAN

iTrader: (18)

Short answer....No.

Foxxtron

iTrader: (1)

That's what a roll cage is best suited for, however a roll cage isn't suited to street driving for obvious reasons.

blown 346

iTrader: (25)

Im sure connectors will help out more than if you didnt have any. They do tie the sub frame together making it stronger. They can help, but if the car is hit in a certain area with enough force, connectors might not help. It all depends on the impact point and the amount of force.

J. Brown

Someone posted pictures of an fbody that had been broad-sided ............it had sfc's that clearly helped prevent the other car from travelly farther into the fbody cabin.......so, depending on the type of accident, yes they can help.

chicane

Out of personal experience....... yes.

My f-body was hit from behind, from some dingy blonde hooche cutting across from the number one lane to the off ramp that we were passing. I was in the number two lane doing around 70mph and she was doing 95-100mph. The energy was mainly dissapated in the b-pillars, and every thing forward of that was straight. The T-tops still sealed and the doors were still in alignment. Needless to say, the b-pillars and under trunk were damaged enough to total the car.

The car had Global West SFC's on it.

Her little import however, didnt fare as well.......

Foxxtron

iTrader: (1)

Same effect I had, yet no SFC's. I was hit from a stand still by a driver doing 70 mph.
These effects are due to crumple zone designs much more than what some very low placed tubing that is far away from the overall real monocoque area.

Much more analysis is needed than just what appears from the outside through the naked eye.

EDIT: the other vehicle was a 1976 Pontiac Grand Prix.

VIP1

Here is the corresponding thread in the General LSX Automobile Discussion section:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/suspension-brakes/550421-subframe-connectors-would-they-help-bad-car-accident.html

RevGTO

iTrader: (12)

My Lord, you are lucky to be alive ...

Foxxtron

iTrader: (1)

And that's all that I cared about at the time. Not whether my car was okay. Walked away with a bit of a sore neck, got checked out whether to see if it was okay and got a clean bill of health, however the car waqs in question whether it was to be repaired or not.

After about a week of the insurance company assessing the cost of repair, they had to look at the floorpan to make a decision, and the floor pan in the passenger area forward of the collision was okay, however the cost to repair the backhalf was not considered cost effective to repair, so they actually left the decision in my hands whether or not to deem the accident a total loss. Since it was the daily driver and not the track car, I decided to deem it a total loss and got a fair offering.

In short, The vehicle did do what it was supposed to do and it wasn't worth keeping as a daily driver since the chassis could have problems down the road.

Bowtieman4life

iTrader: (1)

Cars are designed to crumple so that the force is obsorbed my the vehicle and not the driver. That's why even knew little Kia's are safer than old cadillacs. It will depend on the impact point but I think it will hurt more than help. I took a 78 camaro head on in my 85 Z28 when I was a kid. The engine and trans were pushed down and away from me, the driver. Had something been in the way the tranny may have been redirected and pushed up. My camaro crumpled up big time and took a lot of the force off of me. Remember, a 35mph impact can cause viens and artories to seperate and casue internal bleeding. I saw a lot of this when I was on the CHP. Crumpling is your friend in most cases. Then again wearing a seatbelt will save your life 95% of the time. 5% of the time it will kill ya. You take the odds. Rolled to a crash where a guy was ejected onto the soft sand of the dessert. He was hurt but had he stayed in the truck he would have died when the cab was crushed smashing into a giant boulder. Crazy!

Camaroz

iTrader: (2)

There was a thread a long while back about some dude losing control on a road that changed to gravel over a hill and wrapped his f-body around a tree and If I remember right the SFC's saved him from impacting that tree himself.