Well worth checking out. *Warning!* A nice classic car will be distroyed before your very eyes. If you have a weak stomach or are a die-hard Chevy fan, have a box of kleenex with you before you click on this link.

The video is highly impressive and ought to be shown to driver's ed classes.

http://www.iihs.org/50th/default.html

Thank goodness they don't build 'em like they used to...

 

Impressive.

MikeyB

 

WOW!
Is that 40 mph combined or both going 40 mph??

RJ

 

That is impressive! Notice how the roof on the 59 just folds down. If the collision did't kill ya the roof would probably break your neck

 

I agree with the others. Very impressive and interesting. I liked the way they showed all the different views, inside/out to show you the energy involved in and dissipated during a crash.

..

 

Amazing results. The driver in the BelAir would have been a fatality at a crash in the middle of town, not on the highway.

 

Each veichle is traveling 40-mph.

It very closely aproximates a head-on between two cars traveling different directions on the same road - at 40 mph.


Most people have no idea how much force 40 mph is in a 4000 lb car.

 

Force is the product of mass and time rate of change of velocity.
you change the speed of 4000 pounds from 40 mph in 5 seconds, thats gonna leave a mark...

I look at it like this.
1. The old car was sitting for sale anyone whining about them destroying it should have bought it first.
2. Every other car just like it when up in value in an instance...

 

WOW ! I would have thought that since the older car is WAY heavier that it would have won that fight. My Dad always tells me that they don't build cars like they used too. I guess he is right. And that looks to be a good thing.

 

I often see older cars being driven hundreds of miles to car shows . I wonder if the drivers ever stop and think about the risk they are taking . A couple of people were very seriously injured when involved in an accident returning from a car show near here last year .

 

I heard that video was rigged, the old car had no motor and the front only had a couple bolts holding it on.

 

i tlooks like the older car caught more of the newer ones motor so it jammed the front fender back

 

Honestly to me the first thing I thought was that old car either was completly rusted out underneath or somehow altered to make the results worse than they should have been. The front end of that car is completely folded around sidways and into the drivers compartment. Its almost as if someone went underneath the car and made a bunch of pie shaped cuts to get it to fold up worse and probobly altered or removed a chunk of frame as well. Anouther thing that troubles me is that in the pics the front tire is in the drivers compartment but there is no fire wall material between it and the seat, no material at all in fact almost like they removed the firewall or a chunk of it. My guees is that at the very leat teh car was completely rusted out underneath and all structural strength was gone. Hard to say though sure makes for a grafic video any way you look at it.

 

It is hard to say if it was rigged or not. I don't think it was. If you know how much room those old cars had on each side of the engine the results could be just as we see here. I think a better test would to be a straight head on crash so the entire engine compartment is involved. I am sure the damage would not be near as bad to the 59. Although I am willing to bet the roof would still collapse. Straight up and down A pillars with no triangulating support will fail very easily.

 

On another forum that held this same topic, here is my argument.
1. the inline 6 in the 59 is only about a foot wide at its core. 2/3 of the engine hit outside of the 09. On the other hand, the transverse mount engine of the 09 is almost as wide as the car.
2. There is a couple hundred pounds difference in weight between the 09 and the 05. The cars were fairly equally matched up.
3. The crumple zones of a modern car will collapse and push the collision around the cabin of the car.
4. The old body on frame design becomes quiet useless when the body shears from the frame. (altho it works great for making a vehicle that will last driving rough roads)