Mazda's coneheads. .

Mazda's RX-8 sports coupe has an aluminum hood that replaces conventional Framing with aluminum "shock cones," that are said to significantly reduce head impact severity should a pedestrian be struck by the car. The RX-8's hood inner panel is made up of a series of cones, peaks and valleys that spread the Force out over a larger area than in a conventional design. This effectively turns the entire surface of the hood into an impact absorbing structure. A major benefit of the design is that the more even Force distribution reduces the gap needed between the hood and engine by one-third (approximately 30 mm), which let the designers keep the RX-8's hood low. In addition, the panel thickness was reduced by 22%. Weight per unit area For the hood is 4.87 kg/[m.sup.2] a 23% reduction over the RX-7's conventional hood design. The European New Ear Assessment Program pedestrian head test showed the hood reduced the degree of head injury by up to 50%.