lesmore49 wrote: What an absolute waste of a fine 1959 Chevy Bel Air demonstrating the patently obvious.
All this crash has done is make me question the wisdom of demolishing a fine car that many car enthusiasts would of loved to have had.
We all know that a 2009 Chevy and passengers will fare better in a crash with a car made 50 years ago , when no safety regs were in force, not even rudimentary seat belts. Nothing new was established by this celebratory 'test'.
As a car enthusiast I'm appalled that this arm of the Insurance companies would chose to 'celebrate' their 50 th anniversary by totally demolishing a collector car.
Actually, I would not have guessed this outcome. I would have guessed the passengers in the Malibu would have stood a better chance, but I wouldn't have thought the 59 Chev would sustain that severe of damage all the way into the passenger compartment.
2004 National Tropi-Cal T-350, Class A, Triple slide, 330 HP Cat DP. 2006 Dodge Dakota 4x4 or
2002 Harley FLSTF Fat Boy on a Trailer or
2004 Polaris Quad on the Trailer
belfert wrote: I think part of the reason they did this is to debunk the myth that older cars are safer in crashes because they have so much metal and mass in them..
The same principal applies to pickups even those manufactured in last years.
Still no video comparison.
What evidence do you have ?
That response, that one right there, is the WHOLE reason they demolished a very nice 1959 collector car just to make a point, (and have some "evidence").
There are two things that modern cars have over older ones when it comes to surviving a wreck. 1) passenger compartment integrity, and 2) crumple zones. Passenger compartment integrity is obviously important because you don't want parts of you body being crushed/cut off/impaled by bits of your car or the other one. Crumple zones are there to keep the energy of the impact from being absorbed by the people in the car. Those zones more or less spread out the impact so the body can handle the g-forces.
The '59 failed on #1. Any driver of that car, in such an accident would be dead/seriously hurt because bits of the car (and the other car) made it into the driver's seating area. It did have "crumple zones", but the lack of integrity in the passenger compartment made that worthless.
Now I've seen other older cars that passed the "integrity" test, but failed the crumple zone test (Checker?). The car hit something (brick wall?) and hardly dented at all. The problem with such a collision is the rapid deceleration is too much for the human body.
So this video was a good example of how modern cars are better in accidents, although I wish they had put in the instrumented "crash test dummies" to show how a human body would have reacted to the accident.
* This post was
edited 09/21/09 04:42pm by Doug4.7 *
Hmm...wonder what that Bel Air's frame looked like after 50 years. Nice and CORRODED, maybe? I've seen frames rotted badly enough to crush with only a bare hand.
John
1984 Ford B-700 school bus conversion, Thomas body...sold!
1992 International Genesis...conversion in progress
Traveling with my wife Liz, 3 nutty cats, and one lazy dog
belfert wrote: I think part of the reason they did this is to debunk the myth that older cars are safer in crashes because they have so much metal and mass in them..
The same principal applies to pickups even those manufactured in last years.
Still no video comparison.
What evidence do you have ?
That response, that one right there, is the WHOLE reason they demolished a very nice 1959 collector car just to make a point, (and have some "evidence").
Beacher, I don't know how you missed my point, it was a question directed at another poster re: pickup safety.....not the '59 vs 09 crash. If you had read my first post you would of seen that I...got the idea...re; 09 vs 59 car crash safety.
Here is what I was responding to, re: evidence:
"Kajtek1 wrote:
belfert wrote:
I think part of the reason they did this is to debunk the myth that older cars are safer in crashes because they have so much metal and mass in them..
The same principal applies to pickups even those manufactured in last years.
Still no video comparison.
I had a favorite aunt die in an early 60's Dodge in a relatively low speed wreck; tail ended another car. The steering column speared her upper chest and head, lap belt only.
Notice how the hood stays in one flat piece; these often came in through the windshield and did damage. See how the Malibu folds up. If you look at the hood on modern cars you can see how they are designed to fold up.
As a car enthusiast I'm appalled that this arm of the Insurance companies would chose to 'celebrate' their 50 th anniversary by totally demolishing a collector car.
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