OT: Video of Smart Car hitting cement at 70 mph

Coursedesign wrote on 1/13/2009, 10:41 AM

This video shows multi-angle footage of a Smart Car being accelerated to 70 mph (112km/h) and then smacked into a cement barrier...

This is a car "the size of a tin of beans" as the wacky shooters put it.

What's amazing about this crash? The front end is completely crushed and totally flattened like by a car compactor, but the crash cage is still intact, the doors open on both sides, and there is virtually no damage visible from the rear.

(This car is now selling in the U.S., but I think its only other advantage is being able to park two in one parking spot. Surprisingly, the gas mileage isn't even close to the mid-sized and very roomy Prius, and the Smart Car has a pretty loud engine noise while the Prius is very quiet, or completely silent in "stealth propulsion mode.")

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Comments

Chienworks wrote on 1/15/2009, 1:04 PM

How "zero emissions" is it really though if when you get home at night you plug it into a power grid fueled by coal or oil?

Jeff9329 wrote on 1/15/2009, 1:14 PM

You would really need to see accelerometer readings on a crash dummy to see how safe the car is. A lack of crash damage is important, but vehicle mass is important too.

Even if it could hit a cement wall head on at 140 MPH and have little or even no damage, the occupants would be mush.

A Volkswagon Passat pulled out in from of me last year on the highway. Fortunately, the mass of my Dodge Ram 4X4 easily knocked them out of the way and into a heap of crumpled metal on the side of the road. My air bag did not even deploy for some reason. I was able to drive home and ended up replacing the bumper, plastic and brackets my self.

Mass X Acceleration = Force

So if you are in a small car, just drive faster. The car with the greater force wins.

John_Cline wrote on 1/15/2009, 3:10 PM

So what happened to the people in the Passat? Did your monster truck do them great bodily harm?

RalphM wrote on 1/15/2009, 6:52 PM

Unfortunately, Jeff9329, F=MA also applies to the occupant of the car. Deceleration hurts just as much as acceleration. :-0

Keeping the passenger compartment intact is valuable but without a crumple zone to soak up energy, the air bag is not going to be able to limit deceleration enough to keep one's ribs out of his lungs...

Jeff9329 wrote on 1/16/2009, 7:53 AM

So what happened to the people in the Passat? Did your monster truck do them great bodily harm?

They survived and were okay or I wouldn't have told the story. Very lucky. That incident actually scared me to drive the truck for awhile. In a nimble variety of car, the accident just might have been avoided by me. Im a lot more cautious still today.