Miata Mailing List: October 2000, Message #282

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The air bag worked as good as it was supposed to.  It explodes (opens)
FAST!!!!!  The only downside to it is that it has a larger diameter than
the steering wheel.  When it inflates, it pushes your hands off the wheel.
Unfortunately, I was still moving forward and since my hands were no longer
gripping the wheel, they slung through the blinker & wiper arms and crashed
into the the lower part of gauge panel.  They left some cool-looking skin
marks behind!!  The seat belt didn't bruise me at all b/c I was wearing the
harness pad from my racing belts (I wasn't wearing my racing belts,though).
 I highly recommend these things.  My passenger didn't have one on his belt
and it bruised him badly.  Also, due to the angle of impact, the seatbelt
pulled him sideways and his air bag blew up directly on the side of his
head.  His face is pretty red and he's deaf in one ear, hopefully
temporarily.  There is no way to keep the floor from buckling that wouldn't
necessitate a serious redesign of the body.  It didn't bend that bad but
the car looks like a macaroni noodle from the side.  The front end drags
the ground, the center is 6" higher than normal and the rear appears to be
a few inches higher.  The Bilsteins are at maximum travel the distance
between the tire and fender has increased substantially.

Mike