Muscle Cars Are Great Fun, But Are They Safe?

Driving fast is excellent; the feeling of being sucked into your seat by acceleration is unlike anything else. There’s just one problem: driving fast is also dangerous. Researchers have published many studies demonstrating the correlation between driving fast and fatal collisions,  but it doesn’t take a scientist to understand why speed leads to more severe crashes.

American muscle cars aren’t built to drive slow, and since we know speed increases the likelihood of injury during a collision, they should be built with safety as a top priority. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.

The video above shows a comparison between three American muscle cars: the 2016 Ford Mustang, the 2016 Dodge Challenger, and the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro. Surprisingly, none of them received a top safety pick from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

The best of the three was the 2016 Ford Mustang, which received the highest rating in every category apart from the small overlap front test. This test is the most challenging, as it requires a very small portion of the car to absorb the entire force of the collision. The Ford Mustang received an acceptable rating.

The other two muscle cars both preformed pretty well, but the Camaro stands out as one of the safest. The 2016 Chevrolet Camaro received a good rating in every category except roof strength, where it scored an acceptable rating. It also doesn’t offer the option of front crash prevention, and the child seat anchors apparently aren’t easy to use. Still, it’s good overall.

The 2016 Dodge Challenger ended up doing the worst. It received a good rating on both the moderate overlap front and side collision tests, but only scored acceptable on its roof strength and head restraints assessment. Its biggest fault came on the small front overlap test, where it received a marginal rating.

Our goal in writing this post is to remember the importance of safety when you buy an expensive car with lots of horsepower and torque. We know how fun it can be, but there’s more to life than having fun – like living, for instance.