Bad News for Sports Cars?

[James Bratek <james_bratek@domain.elided>]

Well, if not necessarily bad news, at least another set of
government-mandated challenges to incorporate into bodywork designs:

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EUROPEAN CARS TO GET BOXIER LOOK
By Neal E. Boudette
The Wall Street Journal
March 5, 2003

GENEVA--European automotive styling is headed for a face-lift, and it may
not be pretty.

In a bid to reduce injuries to pedestrians hit by cars, the European Union
is on track to introduce regulations forcing car makers to build vehicles
with higher hoods and fatter, boxier designs.

For companies like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Saab, that may mean
replacing their elegantly sloping front ends with fatter, boxier designs.

"For automotive designers, it's a disaster," Robert Lutz, vice chairman of
product development at General Motors Corp., said at the Geneva auto show.
GM makes Saab and Opel vehicles. "Sports cars are going to look a little
strange," Mr. Lutz added.

Although the pedestrian-protection measures aren't expected to become
mandatory until 2010, most European car companies are already working on new
designs and technologies and may begin introducing them before then. Hoping
to attract safety-conscious buyers, Honda Motor Co. has already started to
alter its hood designs to protect pedestrians. Changes to the hood and
bumper would cost an estimated $50 to $100 per vehicle.

Customers in the U.S. will see the changes because DaimlerChrysler AG's
Mercedes unit, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Volkswagen AG and Europe's
other luxury car makers sell virtually identical vehicles around the world.
The U.S. units of auto makers like GM and DaimlerChrysler would be
unaffected by the changes.

Larger vehicles that already have thicker-looking front ends, such as
sport-utility vehicles and minivans, could probably accommodate the
regulations with little noticable change to their profiles, Mr. Lutz said.

According to the EU, some 8,000 pedestrians and cyclists are killed and an
additional 300,000 are injured in car accidents each year. The EU hopes to
reduce the number of deaths to 2,000 by 2010.

In the U.S., federal auto safety regulators are reviewing European and
Japanese proposals for changing vehicle design to improve pedestrian safety
for potential application in the U.S., a spokesman for the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration said yesterday. NHTSA researchers have been
working with counterparts from other countries since 1997 to develop
internationally consistent rules. So far, U.S. regulators haven't issued
specific orders for car makers to change vehicle designs. In the U.S., 4,882
pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents in 2001, a decrease of 16% from
1991, according to NHTSA. The agency counted 78,000 pedestrians injured in
traffic crashes.

Most of the fatalities and serious injuries occur when the victim's head
hits the hood of the car and the hood collapses onto the hard surfaces of
the engine. The new European rules, which were outlines in a draft directive
last month, call on car makers to put more room between the hood and the
engine, leaving more "crumple room" to soften the blow. A higher hood line,
however, would give the front of the car a fatter profile.

Bumpers would also have to be built with more give. The draft directive
suggests designing bumpers with about eight inches of flat, vertical surface
about eight inches in width that would spread out the impact on a
pedestrian's legs. Mr. Lutz said that would result in a squarish, less
streamlined nose, Mr. Lutz said.

Although car makers have told the EU they will go along with the rules, most
aren't convinced the new rules will reduce as many injuries and deaths as
the EU hopes. "The big problem isn't when the pedestrian hits the car, but
when he hits the ground," said Wilfried Bockelmann, VW's development chief.

Most European auto makers are trying to develop technologies that fulfill
the directive's requirements with minimal impact on design. One idea would
equip the front end with electronics that sense when impact with a
pedestrian is imminent and triggers a device that pops the hood up a few
inches. A padded device could also pop out below the bumper to knock the
pedestrian off his feet, preventing severe ankle and foot injuries, said
Hans-Joachim Schoepf, head of passenger car development at Mercedes.

Such "active" technologies, however, could add $200 or more to the cost of a
vehicle.

The directive "means that cars can't be built tomorrow the way they are
built today," Mr. Schoepf said. "We hope that if you do it cleverly, you
will still have a good-looking car."
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