Crash test footage of the drivetrain in a frontal collision.
 

Just came by this... didn't see it on the forum... interesting stuff

[ame="http://youtu.be/6LQKqs_IvgQ?t=407"]FRS Drivetrain crash footage[/ame]

That's intense.

damn. and thats only at 35mph. craziness

It is amazing how it is so well designed to sacrifice itself: The crash/crumple zone disintegrates, everything compressing up to the drive shaft and back through the vehicle. If you need it, like this 35mph crash, it will save your life. Simply amazing.

I recently did not need this: I spun and hit a metal barrier in the rain doing about 9 miles per hour. I did not hit straight on, instead I was at a complete stop and took a left turn and lost it, the tail coming around while the right nose lightly hit and pivoted off the barrier.

My wife commented: "Well that scratched the hell out of the front."

When we get out of the car the bumper is smashed in on the right, headlight light smashed, right front quarter panel pushed in and dented, hood bent slightly. We were floored, having had our fair share of accidents over 20 years, this was way worse than it felt, and yet there was zero paint damage.

After 5.5 weeks in the shop and over $7K in repairs, she is back as good as new.

But I have a newfound appreciation that my car does not have a front bumper it has an airfoil: delicately directing air or something... and ready to crumple at a moments notice.

I have mentioned a few times how the paint seems to stand up to serious crash damage way better than it does to pebbles.


You still have a front bumper. It is just hidden under that air directly, airfoil bumper cover.

I was hoping for an epic explosion... darn.

How did you lose it at only 9 mph? Did you turn off stability control? Stock tires?

The speed, intensity and pure raw violence of these tests are completely lost on video (especially in slow motion).
I get to watch the real thing fairly often and no matter how bad these look in the video they are much more frightening to watch in person.

I could see how realtime and sound would be more violent.

Parts flying everywhere, steam, smoke and the whole (very large) building shakes.
The real eye opener is when they are testing a new design and it fails. The results can be dramatic and since they are usually totally unexpected very scary. You think to yourself "what if that made it through to production?"

What constitutes a failure? Seat and body flying out/through the window?

Well instant test dummy decapitation by a component that is supposed to go down instead of up is generally frowned upon.

Insert "mother of god" meme here...

Interesting job you got there :party0030:

Oh, I don't do the tests. Just get to watch when I am at that facility.