CAPE and CART Partner to Evaluate Race Car Driver Safety

Unique barrier crash test on racecar impacts chassis design in 2005.

INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 5 -- Recently at the annual SAE Motorsports Engineering Conference 2002 Show, IMMI, a leading developer of occupant restraint systems, announced it has conducted a rare crash test of a CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) racecar.

The test took place November 12, 2002, at IMMI's CAPE (Center for Advanced Product Evaluation) facility in Westfield, Indiana. The purpose of the test was to gather data to help design a new chassis for 2005 and study driver safety. The test, the first in a series the company will conduct for the racing organization, was a full frontal impact at 50 miles per hour into a barrier using a 2001 CART Champ car.

CART's test objective was to evaluate occupant dynamics in a crash and assess driver injuries and to create a real world crash test profile for future restraint system development for drivers through sled testing and engineering crashworthiness computer analysis.

"This type of rare barrier crash test is a welcomed challenge to our CAPE facility and staff," said Bill Hurley, Market Development Manager, CAPE. "Teaming with CART to improve vehicle crashworthiness and driver safety in future CART vehicles is exactly why IMMI built this type of test facility."

To conduct the test, CAPE engineers used a fully instrumented Hybrid III 50th-percentile crash test dummy to measure injuries and fully instrumented the racecar. The November 12 test and the agreement with CART are not the company's first foray into testing race vehicles. Race organizations and teams based in and around Indianapolis have called on CAPE's unique testing capabilities to evaluate occupant injuries as well as the energy-absorbing characteristics of vehicles.

"Indianapolis is the place auto racing became legendary, so it's appropriate that this is where auto racing safety is enhanced," said Hurley.

"IMMI's mission is to design, develop, test and improve occupant safety systems, and we recognize that, in making our facilities available to other organizations such as CART, we can take even more significant steps toward achieving that mission," said Hurley. "CART has a similar safety commitment, and the relationship between our two organizations should be productive over the years."

Crash test footage from this test can be viewed at www.capetesting.com .

About IMMI

IMMI develops, tests and manufactures occupant restraints for commercial vehicles, child and infant seats, and off-road machinery. IMMI is one of the world's first seat belt manufacturers and has over 40 years of experience in the restraint safety systems field. IMMI's world-class testing facility, the Center for Advanced Product Evaluation (CAPE), located at company headquarters in Westfield, Indiana, provides static, dynamic, rollover and full-size barrier crash tests as well as a wide range of durability and environmental tests. For more information, visit CAPE at www.capetesting.com or www.imminet.com .