Unique Collision Test

Northern Advocate, 15 July 1939, Page 6 (Supplement)

Unique Collision Test

With a view to ascertaining how new construction technique has made the modern car more crash-proof, the Morris Motor Company’s engineers recently carried out a unique collision test in England, to prove the relative strength of different constructions.

Two cars with steel saloon bodies, one a “Blue” 39 model weighing 19cwt, and the other a “Red” of an earlier series weighing 23cwt, were used for the experiment. These two cars, minus occupants, were electrically controlled from a distance, and deliberately brought into a head-on collision, whilst the Blue car was travelling at 35 m.p.h. and the Red at 32 m.p.h. The two vehicles thus crashed into each other at a speed in the region of 67 m.p.h.

The object of the Morris exports in staging the tost was to find out which stylo of construction' fared best in a crash, the orthodox frame with a mounted body or the latest current structure of steel body with a combined frame. The experiment ciemon-

strated that the latxer, although 4cwt lighter, was a safer proposition, for in the tilling match, the Blue car ended up level on its wheels, while the mounted-body type overturned.

The cars were started at the opposite ends of a broad concrete road about 300 yards long, and steered electrically by solenoids operating on the steering wheel and coupled by long trailing cables to switches in the hands of “steermen” at the opposite ends of the course. Only sufficient petrol was placed aboard each car to enable it to complete its short, run so that there would be no loss of evidence through tire after the collision.

Bue to the excitement of those controlling the two “steering” switches, the cars, in the first attempt at a crash, missed each other by about a foot. At the second attempt, however, the two cars went at each other like two gamecocks. They hit with a rending crash, bonnet to bonnet, slightly offside to one another. The Blue car appeared to onlookers to rebound from the blow with a glancing side-step and came to rest standing on its four wheels. The Red car slewed round a bit, and then rolled heavily over on to its side. Both had their radiators pushed in and crumpled up their near front guards.

The latest model had the safety glass of its windscreen and windows quite intact. Each of the four doors would still open and shut. The seat cushions were scarcely displaced, and in all probability, had there been anyone in the car at the time of collision, they would have experienced no more than a severe shaking and shock.

The Red or older type car, however, told a different story. Turned over, the lower doors naturall> jammed, while the upper doors were in a poor condition for opening. The seats were all upside down, but again, the windscreen was not broken, and only one window, adjacent to the ground, was cracked. It was impossible for the onlookers to guess how occupants would have fared, but they would certainly have been more damaged any oneone in the Blue car.

The front axle of the Red car was bent right back on the offside and the whole frame was pushed back on one side. On the Blue car, the front axle was similarly bent, while the near side front spring was separated leaf from leaf. „ '

Both cars were far from being wrecks —for the latest model was back on the road two days later, the cost of repairs being under £SO, while the Red, it was estimated, would cost at least £BS, probably more, to make good the damage. The results obtained were much as the Morris engineers anticipated. They reasoned that the more modern machine, being less heavy, and mounted on more flexible suspension, would flex or bounce to a greater degree, and therefore sustain less damage, and this is,exactly what happened. A slow motion film was taken of the crash, and this shows definitely what did occur, as things happened too quickly for the eye to gather more than an impression.

The experiment indicates, says the Dunlop bulletin, hew keen automobile manufacturers are to make cars yet even safer.