Citation

Sakai H, Yoshino T, Morisawa M. Int. J. Veh. Des. 1986; 7(5-6): 49-62.

Affiliation

Musashi Inst of Technology, Tokyo, Jpn

Copyright

(Copyright © 1986, Inderscience Publishers)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Recently, there has been a marked increase in the production of 50cc commuter cars. Some of these commuter cars use Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) as lightweight material for structural members of their bodies, but collision characteristics of FRP car are still not well known. We have manufactured, on a trial basis, two 50cc commuter cars (one-seater cars) with FRP bodies of different collision characteristics for testing the behavior of both car and occupant, namely the driver, at the time of barrier collision, and in order to compare the results of tests with those of existing compacts cars. The results of our tests indicate that the FRP bodies of commuter cars are adequately safe, provided that some problems can be solved effectively.