"In the age of rhetoric, East Lassie strives to maintain a solemn attitude towards facts, knowledge, and writing.
"The martial arts in the world are not broken, only fast is not broken."
In the movie "Kung Fu", the "Ultimate First Killer King" Fire Cloud Evil God pointed his revolver at his temple and fired a shot; in the next shot, the bullet was already sandwiched between the middle finger of the index finger of the other hand.
Then, quietly say this classic line.
▲ Martial arts and cars, both pay attention to a "fast" word
Fast is the high realm of martial arts; fast is also the high level of the car.
The more upscale the car, the greater the horsepower and the stronger the acceleration ability. In the narratives of automakers and the media, cars that accelerate well respond quickly, act quickly, have strong risk avoidance, and have better safety than those "meat cars".
However, this may be an illusion.
▍ The car runs faster and faster
Whether it is necessary to run so fast, the car is getting faster and faster anyway.
And the acceleration race of the car, in the final analysis, is the horsepower race of the engine.
▲ The horsepower output of the engine determines the grade of the car
As I said in another article, the car's ability to accelerate from 000 kilometers to 000 kilometers has almost doubled in the last 40 years. The Volkswagen Passat B2 (Santana) in the early 1980s had an engine displacement of 1.6 liters, a maximum output of 75 horsepower, and zero hundred acceleration of 13.6 seconds; the latest generation of Passat B8 (Maiten), equipped with a 2.0-liter turbine, had a maximum output of 220 horsepower and zero hundred accelerated by 7.2 seconds.
Let's look at a "horsepower-to-weight ratio" figure. Horsepower car weight ratio, is the ratio between the engine output power and the weight of the car, the larger the ratio, indicating that the stronger the power used to push the car.
The National Association for Highway Safety Insurance (IIHS) once did an analysis that from 1985 to 2015, the horsepower vehicle weight ratio of cars sold in the US market increased by more than 60% on average.
▍Faster and safer acceleration?
The car is a running machine, and the ability to accelerate is a core indicator. Strong acceleration ability shows that the performance of the car is cattle, the grade is high, and there is a "professional" saying that cars with strong acceleration ability are safer.
Those who love to say this are car manufacturers and professional media.
I've quoted the editor of Consumer Reports' automotive testing in the United States:
"Not only does a car's ability to accelerate be exciting, better power means you can merge more safely on the highway, and it also allows you to drive more safely on a busy highway."
Professional automotive media tend to believe that acceleration capabilities help improve driving safety
That's true. The car is fast, and in some scenarios it can really improve safety.
For example, when overtaking on a narrower highway, it is necessary to borrow the opposite lane, and the car with strong acceleration ability can pass faster, the retrograde time is short, and the risk of collision with the opposite car is low.
Another example is the parallel line, the fast speed of the car action is clean and sharp, and the risk of rubbing with other vehicles is low.
When encountering some extreme situations, such as a dinosaur suddenly rushing in front of you, or a tree suddenly being struck by lightning and turned upside down on the road... The fast-speeding car is more agile, and the dodging ability is stronger than a throw.
▍What do insurance companies think?
In the case of car safety, no matter how people analyze it, they can't analyze insurance companies.
Quite simply, if a car has an accident, the insurance company must take out real money and silver to compensate, and the accounting is particularly detailed.
In the mature automobile market in Europe and the United States, insurance companies will set premiums according to the power level of the car, and the premium is high for the powerful car. For example, in the United Kingdom, insurance companies usually determine insurance rates according to the displacement and power of the car, acceleration performance and maximum design speed, and the stronger the power, the higher the rate. In the United States, even if it is the same car of the same brand, the horsepower version will often pay an extra premium.
▲In Europe and the United States, car insurance costs are related to power levels
Isn't it safer to have a lot of horsepower? Why are premiums higher?
Manufacturers and the media think that it is safe, and insurance companies do not think so; insurance companies do not think out of thin air, but calculate from car accidents and insurance compensation data.
The IIHS mentioned above is an independent organization funded by various auto insurance companies in the United States, whose main job is to study automobile accidents and provide a basis for insurance companies to set rates. Known for its most stringent crash tests in the world, the IIHS also has the ability to analyse vehicle and personnel losses caused by different vehicle types in crashes.
A study by IIHS argues that high-horsepower cars drive at higher average speeds, more speeding behavior, and more damage in the event of a car accident.
Speed ah speed! The good of the car comes from the speed; the bad of the car also comes from the speed.
▍Speed goes hand in hand with risk
Data collected by IIHS shows that the horsepower of the car is related to the speed of the car, and the car with high horsepower will travel faster and be more likely to speed.
The speed of the car will bring two risks: one is that the probability of a car accident will increase; the second is that the consequences of a car accident will be more serious.
The problem is that the running rabbit can be flexibly dodged when encountering obstacles in front of it, and the probability of hitting the tree and being guarded by the rabbit is extremely low, and the human reaction ability is far less than that of the rabbit, driving fast, and it is troublesome to be caught off guard by the situation.
How much trouble does speed cause?
The IIHS crash test is the most demanding in the world, and the speed of the forward crash test is set at 40 miles (64 kilometers) per hour – the implication is that if the speed is faster than this, it is difficult to say whether the car can save its life, and the test is not necessary.
Without raising the bar, IIHS has done a comparison test.
The car with the highest safety rating in the 40 mph (64 km/ h) crash test immediately becomes the worst if it collides at a speed of 50 mph (80 km/h); when the speed is increased a little further, when it reaches 56 mph (90 km), the previous part of the vehicle's B-pillar is severely deformed, and if the driver's seat is a real person, there is no doubt that it will be nine deaths.
▲IIHS conducts crash tests at different speeds of the same model
Don't look at the speed increased by only a dozen or twenty kilometers per hour, and it is likely that the difference between life and death is likely to happen.
Speed is dangerous, but once people drive a good car, they often involuntarily speed up.
There is a kind of person who is conspicuous, feels that driving a good car is not faster than others, and cannot show the grade of the car; what is more troublesome is that the acceleration ability of the car will bring confidence to some people, overtaking is bolder, and the line is more casual, and what was not dared to do in the past, driving a good car will dare to do.
Horsepower is a good thing, if you drive reasonably, the performance of a good car is undoubtedly safer; but everything is afraid of the squeal, a squeal, good things often become bad things, insurance companies in the form of raising premiums to warn: a car with large horsepower, in fact, is not safe.
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