Whew!

The accompanying video has been seen by many folks, so it’s probably not really news. However, I hadn’t seen it until a colleague passed along a link to it. The video shows a remote-controlled SmartCar going 70 mph (~113 kph) crashing into a stationary concrete barrier. Whack!

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The intact passenger cage is pretty impressive. I imagine that the passengers would need multi-point seat harnesses to survive the crash, even if the cage collapsed so little.

Anyway, it made me happy that the old 280 Benz which Starr Hill Girl is now driving has its frame made from industrial-strength steel. That’ll be hard to crush, but I hope it’s never tested.

I understand that the situations are not are completely analogous, but this video reminded me of an image from the magazine Road & Track that appeared in the mid-1960s. At that time, Volkswagens (VWs) had become quite popular, but a widely held concern was that VW passengers were vulnerable in the case of an accident. The owner of a Texas Cadillac dealership accentuated this concern by showing photos of the damage to a VW after it had been rammed by a Cadillac. In response to that advertisement, another enterprising individual staged an accident in which a semi-truck rammed a Cadillac. Road & Track published the latter photos.

Teehee.