Staying alive—in the corkscrew car

Press, 17 June 1982, Page 17

Staying alive—in the corkscrew car

By

CHARLES FRASER

Features International

lhe new car motorists will be< buying in 1985 will probably, break, itself into three pieces in the' event of an accident, and promptly wrap itself around the other vehicle. . .

- For the more easily a car falls'to bits, the more chance the occupants have of stepping- out comparatively unharmed from the mos’t horrific crash.

That is the theory behind the "corkscrew car” now patented and built in prototype form by German automotive researchers.

They hav.e found that a car which offers the smallest 'amount of resistance to a colliding vehicle • usually gives most protection to oriver and passengers.

Until recently,'a “safe” car was? thought, to be the one strong enough to withstand, the majority of crash impacts. That would be possible if the majority of crashes were at the front or the back,, but they , are not. • , Indeed, the most frequent crash of all, accounting forabout 60 per cent of accident fatalities,., comes from the.

side when a vehicle is turning.

This is the type of crash with which the corkscrew car is designed to cope. On impact it twists or even breaks, thus cutting down resistance.

- The -car. is made in three sections.* The middle one, in which' the occupants sit, is strong and rigid, with heavy padding and pop-out window’s and windscreen. : ' . ' The end sections, containing the engine and fuel, are fixed on to the passenger compartment with predetermined lines of fracture which break down undef the force of a sideways-collision.

Says a German researcher, Dr Rudi Schwabe: "The' car ends up in a U or S shape depending on where its been hit. On impact the corkscrew car. will bend itself. around the obstacle, greatly. reducing the impact.”. ,

What will happen to the car after the crash is over? It is a write-off, say the researchers, but they. point out that the sections come apart .only in-a major crash ■which would probably wreck the car anyway,

To. make the car “corkscrew” even more, it can be .fitted with small explosive charges which detonate on impact, giving the vehicle even more shock-absorbing flexibility.

Electronic-sensors will decide when the crash-is serious enough to warrant blowing the car to pieces . . . This means that when a motorist inadvertently bangs the car against the kerb when parking.- it will not disintegrate in a cloud of smoke. . . - ■ ’ ’

Ordinary seats will not. do in the corkscrew .car the load on a seat during a highspeed side-on crasn is about

three tonnes, so the driver and passengers will need to be cradled like astronauts braced for jift-off.

For motorists who prefer an alternative to the car that breaks into bits, the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has recently commissioned a number of experimental vehicles claimed to be able to withstand all but the most violent crashes.

One car is surrounded by bumpers containing shockabsorbing rams. In addition the sides are covered with impact-absorbing material, and a long, sloping nose houses a "crushable zone” to protect the driver and passengers.

Such protection does seem to work. In a recent series of tests a "crash-proof - car” slammed into a steel post at .110 km/h. Onlookers expected the car to be cut in half.

.When they reached the wreck they found that' the engine was still in place and

matically, depending on the vehicle’s speed. This car has its passenger compartment encased in a steel “birdcage."'

all four doors could be In tests, a powerful side opened. impact which would crush a Another prototype has a normal car, dented the bird“skirt” of protective bumpers cage less than 7.6 cm (three which extend or retract auto- inches).

There are even experiments going on with ejection seats for cars — put forward as a practicable way of stopping people . getting