That's shocking. You sorta always get the impression that old cars were 'tanks'. Apparently not!

 

I've seen videos and pictures of what happens to old cars in modern crash tests like this before. To think they are bogus is simply refusing to admit the earth isn't flat.

One of them is a GM film of one of their 1st barrier tests at Milford in 1934 that will absolutely scare the crap out of you. The front 50% of the car (which includes the front passenger compartment) is utterly obliterated, and the seats actually eject out the sides of the car via the doors that are flung open in the process. While the guy in the new Malibu would have broken a foot & the guy in the 59 Chevy crash test would have been killed, the guy in that 1934 car would have needed a shovel, a Hefty leakproof garbage bag, mop, & bucket.

Body steel stampings were thicker back in the old days, but frames flexed. There was no standardized contact point for impact adsorption. There was no rigid passenger compartments. And there was no crumple zone, high impact steel, or front end designed to adsorb impact.

As for those worried that the '59 car may or may not have an engine, I ask you this: Do you actually think the results for the passenger would have been better if it had? Where do you think that engine would go ("assuming" the car in the test didn't have an engine) if there was an engine installed? Hint: It certainly wouldn't submerge under the passenger compartment as engines are required to do with today's safety standards (and if you think the driveshaft or front end would have kept the engine in place or it would have adsorbed anything, you got another thing coming...imagine dropping a boat anchor from 10 stories, then you right on top of it!).

Whether the cloud of dust is rust, insulation, water (old cars used it, & it tended to turn brown... antifreeze was used in the winter to...gasp...prevent coolant from freezing) or old magic pixie dust, the end result will be the same:

1. The Malibu's passenger compartment will remain intact, and it's passengers spared extreme injury. The '59s will not.

2. The front of the Malibu will adsorb impact energy as designed. The 59's wasn't designed to adsorb energy, so it won't.

3. The passenger compartment of the '59 will be phenominally compromised and the front passengers will be pretty much toast.... seatbelts or not.

4. In the end, the Malibu's passengers will walk (or worse, limp) away from the accident scene while the wrecking crew is still involved in scooping and scraping the front passengers out of the '59 Chevy and the surrounding area.

 

Thats what I thought....Figured the new Malibu would take a beating....instead it was the opposite. Notice toward the end the complete windshield flies out of the Bel Air....

 

Safety advances aside and just to satisfy my curisoty, which car weighed more?

 

The 59 weighed ~ 100 pounds more.

 

Did you see the 59's windshield pop out like designed. That was a safety feature back in the day.

I remember watching those Signal 30 videos for when taking drivers education for my license back in the 80's. Old cars flat out will not absorb energy. Car safety has come a long long way.

 

I'll just put a 10 pt roll cage in all of my cars, wear a helmet, and a 5 pt harness along with a fire suit and a fire suppressant system.

 

Gotta thin the heard somehow.

 

That's funny.... I had a similar setup in my daily driver for a few years.



Unassuming passengers were great. "Yes, you have to climb over the side bar." To limit the confusion they still got the lap shoulder belt as standard buckling option.

 

Interesting all the "rust deniers" in this thread. Yeah, you guys are right, the plumes of rust colored dust spewing from the frame of this 50 year old car CANNOT possibly by rust, it's obviously a combo of rust colored dirt and 5 decades worth of spilled, rust colored anti-freeze.

 

I don't think anyone said it wasn't rust.

It's just not significant. It's not like the frame split into 5 pieces or the car disintergrated into pixie dust.

It's a relatively tiny amount... I'd wager that even a 3 year old car would have some amount of rust dust poof out upon a collision of that force.

 

I got the impression some did. Anyway, I have no idea what effect the rust had or didn't have, other than commenting that it was there.

 

If you think about it, even if it was a concours restoration and the frame rails were ground down and repainted, there's still going to be rust inside the frame rails where the restorer couldn't get to it. Also more than likely behind the firewall between the interior sub-liner.

 

These aren't '59 Bel Air's. And they weren't 50 years old when the film was shot. I'll let the video talk for itself. I don't think these are GM cars, but it still looks pretty scary. Feel free to comment...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siT-SIfOnQw

 

Yes, The IIHS-Crashed '59 Chevy Had An Engine