<VV> Where's Ralph?

[kenpepke at juno.com]

It is pretty much accepted that 'Ralphie' was responsible for the production of Corvair model years 67, 68, & 69.  GM had decided the market had declined to the point that '66 would be the last Corvair.  Should we say thanks, Ralph?

As far as accelerating safety issues there is probably nothing worse than involving less than knowledgeable congress persons in engineering affairs.  Congress certainly dumped a glut of poorly written legislation on the engineers ... including 'air bags,' which killed and injured many more persons than they have ever truly saved at the time. [That may be still true today]  Still, today most of the US population is perfectly comfortable driving around with a potential bomb in their faces.

I can no longer quote word for word the legislation requiring all vehicle controls to be within reach of the smallest 5% of women.  But, that was pretty much it ... they did not include the physical dimensions of this woman ... no height, no arm length, no reach, NOTHING.  GM [General Motors, not Government Motors] ran about measuring every woman that did not slap their faces.  GM compiled their own dimensions but in the end they could not say for sure they were compliant.

While today's vehicles are far stronger / safer than their ancestors, most of that is contributed to advances in metallurgy.  That Utube 59 Chevy, had it been made from modern high KSI steels would have fared far better.

Without Ralphie there is no doubt there would be far fewer dubious 'safety' features to be adding costs to the  purchasing customer .
Ken P

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airvair at earthlink.net wrote:

My thought exactly when I read it. Though you really can't deny that,
without his "Unsafe at Any Speed" book, misguided (and even wrong) as it
was, the auto safety issue would have ever gained as much ground as quickly
as it did. Sometimes it takes a public "scandal" and outcry for legislation
to get issues off dead center, or even talked about to begin with.
Ralphie's book was just such a firestarter. Not to get political, but it's
doubtful that many of the safety features and designs on modern cars would
have ever made it into production, let alone universal adoption, had it NOT
been for the legislation that Ralphie's book spawned.

In that respect, what was wrong (Ralphie) turned out to produce something
positive (safety legislation). So begrudgingly, I guess he deserves
something. Not sure about an award, though. ;o) (fill in your own ideas....)

-Mark
 

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