Word: dashboard
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Before becoming a writer in 1962, Francis was for some years the best steeplechaser in England, eventually becoming jockey to the Queen Mother. He knows the hedges and hazards, the sites and social slights of British steeplechasing the way a car owner knows the dashboard of his five-year-old sedan. He has used his experiences to produce ten more or less equestrian suspense stories that are also novels of métier and manners. His best books are Dead Cert (the first, written in 1962), Nerve (1964), For Kicks (1965), Odds Against (1966) and Forfeit (1969). At that level...
...account for one-third of sales. In some crashes, the small car was smashed into a pile of twisted junk barely recognizable as an auto, while the bigger car sustained relatively moderate damage. In the Chevrolet crash, a dummy placed in the Impala only struck its head against the dashboard, but the dummy in the Vega was beheaded by a section of the hood that was hurled back through the windshield...
...beams along the sides. The next ply is an impact-absorbing crumple zone; then a tough inner shell shields the passenger compartment. As a last line of defense, VW is also experimenting with a net that drops from the ceiling on impact to keep passengers from pitching against the dashboard in crashes. Many of the ESV safety features may soon find their way into other VW cars, but the ESV itself will not be marketed in the foreseeable future. VW officials reckon that the public is not ready to pay the estimated price...
...comprehend and even harder for scientists to prove. It means that time itself is different for a speeding automobile, for example, than for one parked at the curb. The natural vibrations of the atoms in the engine of the moving auto, the movement of the clock on the dashboard and even the aging of the passengers occur more slowly than they do in the parked car. These changes are imperceptible at low terrestrial speeds, however, and according to the theory become significant only when the velocity of the moving object approaches the speed of light...
Science fiction? Not according to Trevor O. Jones, automotive-safety products director for General Motors' AC Electronics Division. He has developed and already built a prototype of a physiological tester that, installed in the dashboard, can judge a driver's condition and−if necessary−prevent him from starting his car. If the electronic device proves effective in tests this summer with volunteers from Marquette University School of Medicine, it may some day be standard safety equipment in U.S. automobiles...