Abstract
A sonar instrument was developed that can be conveniently attached to the front or rear bumper of an automobile to measure car dive. Car dive at the front bumper during a panic stop was measured in fifty-one 1969–1979 passenger cars, and the results compared with insurance repair costs in order to evaluate the relationship between the amount a car dives in a panic stop with the real-world repair costs associated with that particular car model. Although, according to several studies, dive is largely a matter of suspension design, in practice it was also generally found to be proportional to vehicle length and weight. Even though the series of automobiles tested in 1979 were on the average smaller and lighter than those tested in 1974, they averaged 28% more dive. The results of this research suggest that dive characteristics be included in federal bumper regulations, and that antidive be incorporated in passenger car suspension designs.
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