I don't know about "stronger", but definitely more crush zone (as well as
better coverage). The way the chrome bumpers are fitted tightly to the body,
with a tiny (way less than one inch) gap, even extremely low speed
collisions usually involve enough mass to push them back into the bodywork.
In your incident, I suspect that most of the energy imparted to your MG by
the Sunfire actually wound up being absorbed in the subsequent encounter
with the pick-up, hence the minimal damage to the rear. If the MG had been
immovable (or if you had backed into a concrete wall with the same force), I
think you would have found the rear bumper to be much less efficacious.
In a similar situation, my wife's little Honda 600 coupe was hit in the rear
when stopped by someone who changed lanes suddenly and didn't have time to
apply the brakes until simultaneously with impact. The Honda literally
bounced 3 or 4 lengths forward (fortunately no one was in front of us), and
showed surprisingly little damage (shallow wavy wrinkles in the rear
quarters, narrow chrome bumper pushed into the body), not even losing the
taillight lenses. From the feel of the impact I thought it was going to be
crushed up to the seat backs. I suppose this is the difference between an
elastic and an inelastic collision...
on 11/7/01 11:34 AM, Dan DiBiase at d_dibiase@yahoo.com wrote:
> I would have to believe that the RB's are stronger than the CB's. I have
> personal experience of being rear-ended in my '76 B when I was stopped.
> The guy behind me (in a Pontiac Sunfire) hit me at between 20 and 30 mph.
> Fortunately, he hit me flush on the rear bumper - there was no damage to
> the rear of my car other than a small scratch on the bumper. Because he
> was braking hard, his car was hit above his front bumper and wiped out the
> headlights, grille and radiator. Unfortunately, I was pushed into the
> seriously stout rear bumper of the pick-up in front of me. I lost all the
> sheet metal forward of the doors and scuttle panel in front of the
> windshield. The front bumper was also unscathed, since it never contacted
> with anything....!
>
> I would think that, if I had been driving a CB car, the lower ride height
> would have caused me to have to replace the boot lid and straighten the
> rear fenders and out as well....
>
And then, the chrome bumper is so much narrower top-to-bottom that he may
well have got underneath it, and applied all the impact to the rear valance
and gas tank... not a comforting thought.
> "Ugly be effective".....
>
>
> =====
> Dan DiBiase
> Dayton, NJ
> '76 MGB Tourer (Driver)
> '65 MGB Tourer (Project)
> '66-ish 18GB-U-H 39633
> NAMGBR #5-2328
> Find a job, post your resume.
> http://careers.yahoo.com
>
--
Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Mountain View, CA,
it's the primer red one with chrome wires
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