S30 safety

[drtran83]

Hi guys, new to the forum. I've been on the lookout for a s30 for some time now. I recently found a 78 280z that hasn't ran in about 10 years. I'm hoping to buy the car and turn it into a project / daily driver. One main concern than my fiancé and I have is the safety of the vehicle once we're able to get it on the road.

So my question to you guys is in the event of an accident how likely are we to survive in these cars? I'm mainly looking for personal experiences from owners. Any information would help! Thanks!!!

[Captain_Zeros]

It's a 1970s Japanese car.

I'll leave you with this:

[siteunseen]

In 1987 my girlfriend and myself got hit in the drivers door of a '78 I had. After the lady hit us we hit a tree. We had been swimming and still had on wet clothes and were wearing our seat belts. Her window was up and she busted it with the side of her head, sitting so low was what helped. I busted up the console then bent the steering wheel when we hit the tree. Panicked from the blood coming from her head I got her out of the car and sat her down right on top of an ant pile. We always looked back at the ant stings being the worst from that wreck. Pretty safe in the cocoon I think.

EDIT; Now that I've been over and under a 240Z I think it'll be the death of me but it's better than riding motorcycles, which I've quit thanks to the Z's.

Edited July 15, 2013 by siteunseen

[Captain_Zeros]

I do wanna note that 280Z park bench bumpers probably make a huge difference. I'm unnecessarily bitter because two weeks ago I was hit at low speed from behind in my '73 while sitting still at a red light and I'm still rather sore if in one piece. I'm sure my heavier '73 spec bumper & bumper overrider bar are the reason I still have a back end of my car, but it's lighter than the later bumpers and is pre hydraulic bumper shock absorber mounts, which means the impact distorted my bumper and my spine. I expect to spend time in physical therapy over this. If I was in a modern car I wouldn't be at all surprised if I was entirely uninjured.

Edit: And no way in hell am I gonna even CONSIDER installing pre-73 style "clean" bumpers or going bumperless, it might look nice but the overrider bar is the only reason I still have (albeit now cracked) taillights that are intact enough to keep driving the car until insurance gets me new ones, and the 2.5 mph impact bumper was probably the difference between having rear fenders and not.

Edited July 15, 2013 by Captain_Zeros

[SteveJ]

If safety is your primary concern, get a late model car. If you want a hobby car to turn a wrench on, a 70-78 Z car is a nice choice. The car has been sitting for 10 years, and who knows if it was neglected before that. Soft hoses are probably rotten. The brake calipers and wheel cylinders could be full of rust. The suspension bushings are probably gone. The steering rack could be worn out. The fuel lines could be leaking. The weatherstripping may be rotten or gone letting carbon monoxide into the cabin. There could be enough rust on the car that it would crush like an empty beer can.

When I bought my 260Z, the previous owner had different size brake pads on the left and right, and there was only 1 bolt holding the driveshaft to the differential. Scary, ain't it.

With an old car, defensive driving and careful maintenance are about the only ways to protect yourself, short of installing a roll cage, fuel cell, fixed back racing seats, and 4 or 5 point harnesses. (Your fiance would LOVE having to put on a 5 point harness when she's wearing a dress.)

[zKars]

What Steve says....

Safety is in YOUR hands with these cars.

[bartsscooterservice]

at least you die in style

[John Coffey]

I you're asking this question, don't buy the car. Your expectation are unrealistic for a car built 40+ years ago. That being said the S30 is a fairly safe chassis. The offset impact shown above is pretty serious for anyone if the cars are traveling 40mph or more regardless of the year of manufacture.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/features/web-originals/features-web-originals-anatomy-of-a-high-speed-car-crash?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1459_12900271

[tlorber]

This is a thread from when I smashed the front of my car.

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/body-paint-s30/41891-major-ouchie.html

Believe it or not I was actually able to drive this 230 miles back home. (with a little persuasion in the front end to accept a new radiator).

I'm not recommending you go out and try it, but these cars can take a beating from certain angles and still get you through.

[FastWoman]

Well maintained, I don't think these cars are unsafe. As a kid driving a '75 Z everyday, I was clobbered quite a few times. Nothing particularly dramatic, but also no injuries.

Lack of antilock brakes might be an issue that could potentially have you rear-ending someone, assuming you don't do a perfect job of squeeze braking.

Air bags can help or hurt. I had parked and was shutting down the engine of one modern car when the side airbag blew up and burned my left arm. It hurt quite a lot and was surprisingly disorienting. If it had happened while I was driving, I would have certainly wrecked and possibly killed myself and/or someone else.

The airbag module also died in my '94 Miata, with no replacement parts available. Some people try to fix this module, resulting possibly in a dangerous/unsafe/unreliable airbag system. I simply removed mine. So an old airbag system might not be safe.

Side curtain airbags might not be safe even in a properly functioning vehicle. The NHTSA database is fully of narratives of side curtain airbag failures -- either spontaneous deployments or deployment failures. It seems there is too little time to gather reliable data before the control module must make a decision whether to deploy the side airbags, so a bad decision is often made. There is more time for frontal bags, which are much safer and more reliable. Unfortunately vehicles with frontal bags and no side bags are older and do not have proportional airbags (which are safer).

When side curtain airbags deploy, they can also cause unexpected injuries. If a passenger is leaning against the window, for instance (e.g. sleeping on a long trip), the bag can come down on his/her head and cause brain/neck injury. An arm propped in the window can be broken. Of course the frontal bags are not without issue either, for instance if you're seated too close to the airbag.

IMO the three-point shoulder/lap belt system is pretty solid if it is used correctly. My Z might not be as safe as a Volvo brick, but I bet it's as safe as (or perhaps sometimes even safer than) modern sports cars in its weight class, including my '94 Miata or that other sports car I can't mention (because of a legal agreement) whose airbag blew up in my driveway. (BTW, of the three cars pictured below, only one of them is modern enough to have an airbag system. Just thought you'd be interested. )

Edited July 16, 2013 by FastWoman

[drtran83]

Thank you everyone for your posts, I understand that an older vehicle may not have the certain aspects that new vehicles have acquired over time. I appreciate everyone who has shared their stories with me and has give me a firmer understanding of the Z. I actually have a daily driver G35 coupe that I've done some mods on, which may remain a DD until the Z is up to par. I've driven sports cars all of my life and understand the dangers, so the Z doesn't scare me. It mostly scares the fiance.

[SteveJ]

Sadly, a young man who was a member of Z Atlanta passed away recently when he had an accident in his 350Z. His car was much more modern than my Z cars, but the safety features weren't able to prevent his untimely demise. The risk is there pretty much no matter what kind of car you drive. As stated in other posts, how you drive is going to be a major contributor. When I am driving my Zs, I fully realize that I must manage the risk as much as possible via careful driving and alertness to vehicle condition in order to increase the chances of me getting home safely.

Convince her that you going to a Skip Barber driving course would improve your safety on the road. I'm sure you could Google up some statistics demonstrating the benefits of such training.

Edited July 18, 2013 by SteveJ
I left a word out.