i'm sure redshift can answer this but if anyone else knows let me know (stupid question) we were discussing the side piller in cars and how some cars don't have any (like saturns with the suicide door), Does the rx-8 being a 4 door with the 2 suicide doors have a piller there? if not wouldn't that make the structure weaker for side impacts or if you rolled the car? i tried searching on the car but couldn't find out any specs
Yes, what Joe said. They call it a "Virtual B Pillar." The doors have strengthend seams witch interlock to form a B pillar when the door is closed and as I recall, they are linked into the impact beams in the doors. From what I understand, Mazda was kinda paranoid about the customer safety perception of not having a B pillar that they went overboard on the re-inforcements.. it's supposedly much stonger then they would have made it if the pillar was there.
I was actually reading about this very thing in a mag or website or something.. somewhere in the past few days.