157 replies to this topic

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

It's 1968, all cars sold in North America must comply with the new safety regultions after Ralph Nader exposed how unsafe cars were. For the Mini, this signed an early retirement of the market in USA. Simply, make the Mini to comply would be too expensive and woudn't be justified with the small sales.

The biggest problem with the Mini for not passing the US safety reguations was the lack of a collapsible steering column in case of an accident.

But in Canada, this new laws were not as strict and the Mini sold failry well and the collapsible steering column was not an issue. And BL decided to upgrade the Mini to meet these new stadards.

The first visible changes occured in 1968 with the introduction of reflective side markers at the front and the back.

By 1974 all the cars sold in the US must meet new bumper regulations. They must be at a minimum height and they should wistand a 5 mph (8km/h) with no damage to the body or attachments and only minor cosmetic damages.

BL replied to this with ingenuity. Rubber bumpers on MGB and Midgets, and the Mini, well, they jsut took a some C shaped steel rods, add a rubber lining and place them as high as they could. The presult, the ugliest Mini ever made, the Mini 1000 "Canadian".

The "improvements didn't end there. Polution regulations were getting tighter. A-Series engines are not famous for being envirometally friendly, and BL had no plans to redesign the engine to meet new standards. So what to do? They cheated!

A gas test basically measures the composition of the gases produced by an engine and gives the results on Parts per million (PPM). So they just put a coal canister and an air compressor that just too air from the athmosfere and was injected on the exaust pipe. Since this air was clean, the exaust gases were dilluted showing lower PPM readings. The car contaminated exactly the same.




Pictures Attatched:
Mini 1000 "Canadian 1974
Notice the Chrome Grille, turn signals under the bumper, chrome hubcaps.

[Burnard]

I was looking at getting a helmet before, but i dont think you'll escape the stigma of trying to be like the stig!

would you rather:

be laughed at for trying to be like the stig?

or

dead?



point made...


Chris

[16vCooper]

Just out of interest. Is it mainly the back seats that people are worried about hitting their head? Sorry I've just never been in a Mini with a cage. If your in the front is there any danger?

[Burnard]

when you look at it, the main beam in the roof follows the line of the b pillar up, then accross the roof, well thats right abouve where you sit (or atleast i do) I think you would have to be pretty short for it not to be abouve your head. anyway, in a roll over, you will fall up/down into it when it lands on the roof.
and on a side impact, your head will smash into the vertical beams, and posible the corners where it bends to follow the line of thr roof.

Chris

[16vCooper]

when you look at it, the main beam in the roof follows the line of the b pillar up, then accross the roof, well thats right abouve where you sit (or atleast i do) I think you would have to be pretty short for it not to be abouve your head. anyway, in a roll over, you will fall up/down into it when it lands on the roof.
and on a side impact, your head will smash into the vertical beams, and posible the corners where it bends to follow the line of thr roof.

Chris

But don't you sit slightly in front of the vertical beams? And you won't reach the front right corner surely?

And you shoudlnt really be falling out of your seat up/down into the beam thats up and to the right of your head

[mini93]

when you look at it, the main beam in the roof follows the line of the b pillar up, then accross the roof, well thats right abouve where you sit (or atleast i do) I think you would have to be pretty short for it not to be abouve your head. anyway, in a roll over, you will fall up/down into it when it lands on the roof.
and on a side impact, your head will smash into the vertical beams, and posible the corners where it bends to follow the line of thr roof.

Chris

depend what cage you have and your seating position really doesnt it

[bigmotherwhale]

i think for low speed crashes no rollcage might be benificial, but if you had one anyway you might not be dead because you were only going slow, in a high speed collision or if you roll at speed, the rollcage would come out on top, however the weight of the rollcage may increse the chances of a roll ever so slightly, a good rollcage should be designed not to be strong and ridgid but with bends to absorb energy thats why i hate the idea of those aluminium ones its all about the skinny t45 tubing thats bent outwards so that in a front collision the mini gets shorter and wider increasing the size of the passenger compartment acrossways so you are not crushed in the middle, look at rally crashes for proof of this theory. as for side impacts your alot safer, no arguments there i hope. and what about if your sandwhiched in between 2 large cars i bet youd be thanking you lucky stars mumy bought you a rollcage for x mas. most people who drive minis are young and can withstand higher stresses in acidents, if you designed a car for an oap whos expected speed is 20mph imagine how weak you could make the crumple zones safely, its tit fot tat here and will be untill someone invents dynamic body stifning to absorb for the requred speed / load. personaly i wish someone would bring back the idea of airbags on the outside of cars not the inside, and get rid of the standard seatbelts in favour of harneses and buckets, but thats not practical for everyday joe.

[WillMini]

is a well padded rollcage that is a little closer to your hear not better than bare metal a few inches further from your head? I would say i would rather hit my head off of a FIA padded rollcage than most other objects in a mini. I beleive the FIA padding goes through the same impact tests that modern car interior panels go through, which is much safer than the bare metal that is surrounding your head in a mini without a rollcage. Also, sharing the roads here in canada where the F-150 is the most popular automobile, id say your better off with a cage where im from.

Edited by WillMini, 09 February 2009 - 02:40 AM.

[Globule]

Just out of interest. Is it mainly the back seats that people are worried about hitting their head? Sorry I've just never been in a Mini with a cage. If your in the front is there any danger?

In my mini, in a crash i would hit the horizontal bars connecting the front cage to the rear (above the doors), the main roof bar is behind the seat so i dont see me hitting that, and i'd be very hard pushed to hit the rear vertical pillars!

[miniturbonutter]

I was looking at getting a helmet before, but i dont think you'll escape the stigma of trying to be like the stig!

would you rather:

be laughed at for trying to be like the stig?

or

dead?



point made...


Chris

I think you missed an option there, not crashing not dying, but looking a twit with a crash helmet on everytime you pop to Tesco's (other supermarkets are avaliable lol)

[Burnard]

meh, you know what i ment...

when you crash, you would be glad you took all that stick for trying to be like the stig, when you are still allive after....

[bigmotherwhale]

if i saw someone in a mini with a rollcage and a crash helmet i would think "cool"

[Burnard]

even this helmet? Simpson Diamondback
in white....


just checking...

[16vCooper]

If you saw someone driving into the Sainsbury car park with a sexy Mini and a roll cage (OF COURSE with the proper padding - wouldn't be cool otherwise) and the Stig helmet on, that guy would be a legend, instantly. On the other hand, maybe the Stig is a girl.

Edited by 16vCooper, 09 February 2009 - 11:07 PM.

[mini93]

iv worn mine on the road before...to be honest, its just an absolute pain, cant hear anything much, sigtss hindered and thats even with open face helmet, with a full face with visor u wouldnt be able to see anythign really...not to mention how bloody hot they get even in winter, and the extra stress it put on your neck, unless your getting a helmet which is pre-preg cf...at a cost of £2,500 they arent light, and will cause you head to move about unless you get super stong neck muscles