IIHS crash tests a 1959 Chevy, was it a set up?:

September 20, 8:11 PMDC Auto Industry ExaminerRick Trawick

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For its 50^th anniversary, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has offered the results of a crash test between a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air and a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu. The intent, of course, is to demonstrate how far crash protection and structural design has come in 50 years. See the test HERE. And no doubt, it has. The poor old Chevy (and the crash test dummy) is completely destroyed in the 40 mph offset-frontal crash. But does this test give us the complete picture? I don’t think so. What it does show is something many people have known for years, the GM frame design of that era had a serious safety flaw.

Beginning in 1958 most full-sized GM cars featured the X-frame design whereas everyone else used a ladder frame. The ladder frame supported the car around its entire perimeter, significantly increasing the strength of the body assembly. Most companies used a separate body-on-frame design as opposed to the unit-body design used today. Without modern computer-aided design utilizing crush-zones, high-strength steel and other tools and techniques unheard of in the 50’s, early engineers just made the car as stiff and strong as possible within the cost constraints dictated by accounting. If you already know the X-frame to be weak is side strength, what better car to crash? It would be surprising if the folks at IIHS didn’t know this fact. It would be interesting to repeat this test with say, a 1959 Ford Galaxie versus a 2009 Ford Taurus or a 1959 Dodge Coronet slamming a 2009 Dodge Charger. The results would be dramatically different. Not that the driver of the old car would fare any better. But the damage to the new car could be much more severe. Without the crushability apparent in the Bel Air, a lot more crash energy would have to be absorbed by the new car. Look at the Chevy vs. Chevy crash again and notice how close the hood of the 1959 Bel Air comes to slicing into the Malibu? New car hoods are designed to fold in the middle, not so the old hoods. They would often penetrate the windshield with dramatic results. Passenger restraints, interior crash-friendliness and so many other factors make the new car the safer place to be.

While it might be interesting to see those other crashes, let’s save the old cars for collectors! Of course, if you really want to see something scary, crash a 1959 Volkswagen Beetle into a 2009 Volkswagen New Beetle…

For more info: For more crash test information, check out the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's website, www.iihs.org.

The 2009 Malibu shows us how far we have come with crashworthiness 

For its 50^th anniversary, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has offered the results of a crash test between a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air and a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu. The intent, of course, is to demonstrate how far crash protection and structural design has come in 50 years. See the test HERE. And no doubt, it has. The poor old Chevy (and the crash test dummy) is completely destroyed in the 40 mph offset-frontal crash. But does this test give us the complete picture? I don’t think so. What it does show is something many people have known for years, the GM frame design of that era had a serious safety flaw.

Beginning in 1958 most full-sized GM cars featured the X-frame design whereas everyone else used a ladder frame. The ladder frame supported the car around its entire perimeter, significantly increasing the strength of the body assembly. Most companies used a separate body-on-frame design as opposed to the unit-body design used today. Without modern computer-aided design utilizing crush-zones, high-strength steel and other tools and techniques unheard of in the 50’s, early engineers just made the car as stiff and strong as possible within the cost constraints dictated by accounting. If you already know the X-frame to be weak is side strength, what better car to crash? It would be surprising if the folks at IIHS didn’t know this fact. It would be interesting to repeat this test with say, a 1959 Ford Galaxie versus a 2009 Ford Taurus or a 1959 Dodge Coronet slamming a 2009 Dodge Charger. The results would be dramatically different. Not that the driver of the old car would fare any better. But the damage to the new car could be much more severe. Without the crushability apparent in the Bel Air, a lot more crash energy would have to be absorbed by the new car. Look at the Chevy vs. Chevy crash again and notice how close the hood of the 1959 Bel Air comes to slicing into the Malibu? New car hoods are designed to fold in the middle, not so the old hoods. They would often penetrate the windshield with dramatic results. Passenger restraints, interior crash-friendliness and so many other factors make the new car the safer place to be.

While it might be interesting to see those other crashes, let’s save the old cars for collectors! Of course, if you really want to see something scary, crash a 1959 Volkswagen Beetle into a 2009 Volkswagen New Beetle…

For more info: For more crash test information, check out the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's website, www.iihs.org.