Re: Safety Questions Posted by Michael from Oz on November 02, 1998 at 02:53:15: In Reply to: Safety Questions posted by mangler on October 31, 1998 at 18:00:19: G'day I've been driving the things since 1970 and at one time the government department I work for had a large fleet. These were driven by a mottley crew who used to crash and roll them with monotonous regularity. One even rolled about 100 metres down a hillside after the road collapsed under it. In all that time, no one was ever seriously injured in one - even the one that rolled down the hill - it was even drivable!!! I recently saw a 109 Series III Stage I (V8) which had hit a large rock at a considerable speed. It was a real mess but the driver walked away with only a few scratchs. The chassis buckled and took all the energy. A friend rolled (slowly) a series III Station Wagon with 8 Cub Scouts on board. No one was even scratched. They were all belted in and all asleep at the time. As the other post said, they are not really made of Al, it is the skin, all the frames are steel and also when a car hits the side of a Land Rover it tends to go underneath and hit the chassis - the seats - especially the rear ones - are so high. You can get killed in anything as you would know from your work. The Land Rover is no worse than many other vehicles and a good deal better than many. The later vehicles with their permanent four wheel drive and disk brakes are very sure footed though they are lacking a little in the creature comfort and ergonomic departments. An older Range Rover would make a great family vehicle. The design is great and the pre 89 ones are not all that expensive to maintain.
|
