DescentBB

I've always wanted to see this one. Check out the money shot inside of the 1959 Chevy Bel Air and see what happens to the dummy's head and chest during impact. You'll see why collapsible steering columns were eventually required in cars, OUCH! The new car dummy faired MUCH better. What gives me the creeps is that my parents OWNED one of these cars when I was a kid!

No joke. And I've heard people brag about old cars having so much protection due to all the metal and the large crumple zone. Except it looks as if the passenger is part of the crumple zome.

yikes!

great find TC! Thanks for posting. I find it simply amazing how far that's come. I need to show this to my wife who hates small cars. She's always held to the same ideology Issac sited. \"Bigger is better and safer.\"

You'd think that old cars would be built like tanks, but a car's structural strength is all in the engineering and we've come along way in that department. There wasn't any computer-aided design back then and lot of it was done by guesswork. Most of the car companies were only interested in body fashion and appearance, not safety or quality.

What's amazing is that the Bel Air weights only 179 pounds more than the Malibu, so the structural engineering does make a difference. Although, the Bel Air may have had rust cancer in the frame and sheet metal. More from the Kansas City Auto Examiner.

http://tinyurl.com/lyetak

That was a great link, and a good read. Thanks.

Vehicles in the 50's weren't designed to absorb an impact. seat belt weren't even a mandate until 1964 they are today. cars and trucks today have crush zone designed into the unibody and frames, they have side impact bars built into the doors to protect the occupant in a side collision. the cab of the vehicle is designed to remain mostly intact in the event of a major frt or rear impact. then you add SRS systems and seatbelts pretentioners on top of that. cars should be safer.

Thank Ralph Nader.

As a huge race fan…this is no big surprise to me.

OMG…even the debate about a crash test becomes partisan garbage….(the video comments)

Spidey wrote:OMG…even the debate about a crash test becomes partisan garbage….(the video comments)

It's youtube. There's probably a "first post", twelve racist comments against twelve different races, three people trying to get you to "win an ipod touch", seven people saying Bush is a war criminal, and four people who think Obama was actually born in Indonesia. And that's not counting the REALLY inane stuff ;)

Whoa, I didn't even look at the video comments. This particular video just had the best interior shots all around. I wanted the interior Bel Air shot of the steering column hitting the crash test dummy in the face.

Also, I wasn't trying to be partisan with the Ralph Nader comment. He just happens to be one of the first rabble rousers to go after the auto companies for safety concerns.

Unsafe at any Speed

TC is right props go out to Ralph Nader. He propelled auto safety to the next level almost singlehandedly.

The history of automobile safety is actually a very fascinating story.

At one point in time the larger companies used safety devices such as *gasp* brakes, lights & windshields to run their smaller competitors out of business, by lobbying congress to make safety systems mandatory, which the smaller makers couldn’t afford to implement.

People think things are rough now…

Brakes, we don't need no stiiiinking brakes! They just slow you down! Windshield, thbbbbbbbbbbft!, that's for wussies! Wear some glasses and those bugs that get in your teeth, just extra protein!

Amazing how far vehicle safely has come in the last 50 years.

Yeah, new cars are built to protect people, not cars.

I never knew so many retards existed until I saw all of the stupid comments on youtube.

Burlyman wrote:I never knew so many retards existed until I saw all of the stupid comments on youtube.

Have you looked in a mirror, and seen your posts recently?

You shouldn't talk!

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Isaac wrote: Just spam everyone...
Troll.

speak for yourself.

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Enough.

Lothar wrote:

Spidey wrote:OMG…even the debate about a crash test becomes partisan garbage….(the video comments)

It's youtube. There's probably a "first post", twelve racist comments against twelve different races, three people trying to get you to "win an ipod touch", seven people saying Bush is a war criminal, and four people who think Obama was actually born in Indonesia. And that's not counting the REALLY inane stuff

You have to mix in the 9 chain letters, the six people who say the video is ****, the seven people who call them **** for calling the video ****, then the two people who post "check out my channel" when their channel either a) has no videos, or b)is completely unrelated.