Thanks for the info.

Do you know if the Institute for Highway Safety does such studies on a regular basis, or was this a one-shot deal?

I know there has been an on-going debate on the 'Board about the relative merits (in terms of crash-worthiness) of the pre-1983 bumpers vs. the 1983 & later bumpers . . . It would be interesting to see some hard data to support one side of the argument or the other. Clearly, if you bumped into something with a 4' x 6' x 4" steel plate for a bumper, you'd probably win most of the time (although you'd probably have to use a navagation aid similar to Lindbergh's). However, if you didn't bump into things (I think most of us usually try not to), no bumper at all would suffice.

I'm not trying to stir anything up, I just like data. Gives me warm fuzzies (my wife thinks engineers are boring . . . I have no idea why). (And no wife/warm fuzzy comments from the peanut gallery!)