Luis de Prat

Someone in the E-Mail lists explained that when Porsche designed the 924/944 cars, the U.S. DOT had announced that crash testing speed would be increased to 55 mph versus the standard 35 mph or so.

All the major auto makers fought the change and succeeded in upholding the lower crash test speed, but by that time Porsche had already gone ahead and made a significant R&D effort to design the 924/944 cars to pass this more severe crash testing.

This would explain the cars' extraordinary crash resistance in spite of having been developed 30 years ago.

streckfu's

Good info, Luis. Thanks.

Stuttgart 944

If it was tested at 55mph then it sure took it like a champ.

AndyK

The car might survive, but can a person go from 55 to zero and live? I wouldn't wanna test that theory, especially since I just got my leather shift boot from Rennbay - I wanna try it out!

Luis de Prat

The whole point of "crash testing" a car is determining from the test dummies whether the occupants would survive.

Making a car sustain the impact is not nearly as hard as designing it to protect the occupants in a collision.

AndyK

Ah...got it. Pretty cool! Wonder if the new Porsches are as tough?

Fishey

I think from what I read the human body can take something rediculous amount of G forces? for fractions of a second given perfect conditions. However the major problem is basilar skull fracture most of the time over will happen around 40g in a wreck even if are 100% fine physicly from the accident. This is the reason that the hans device was created to stop forward snap of the head so that the spinal cord is not ripped from the brain.

Here is a similated 45g wreck with and without hans device..

unreal_news

AndyK -> 55 to 0, u kidding, those maglev roller coaster do just about that. I think its well within our tolerances. I remember watching something on the discovery channel where some guy (dumbass, no pun) strapped himself to the front of a rocket attached to a railway track to do this type of test. they accelerated him to some absured speed and abruptly stopped the rocket, it stopped so fast, muscle and tenton was torn from his face, i belive he was temporarily blind for some time, but he survived. I bet he didnt even get paid for it.

patrat -> seriouly man, Ild think wolverine would bust outta that picture if i looked hard enough. actually, looks kinda cool. nice sideburns

Luis de Prat

It's amazing what fighter pilots endure. I recall something about neurological damage over time from their brain shifting inside their skull from the amount of Gs they withstand.

Fishey

Soon, I think they will have remote planes.. I think that will be pretty interesting. The only issue I see is someone hacking the plane frequency and useing the planes to do harm against americans instead of for americans. I have also heard that G-forces will make bobsleaders shorter overtime up to 1-2". I wonder if the same is true for some types of car racing?

Flight_951

To me it appears that this photo was taken during the impact, not after it. The dummy is still pitched forward on the bag. After the full impact, the dummy usually rebounds back into the seat.

Strike-Force

Why would the use D90's on the front but PD's on the rear?

skene

I don't know but I've got PD's on the back and some borbet's on the front right now.
I wish the snow would go away and I could put my summer tires back on.

Seriously though, it's amazing how well these cars do in a crash considering how old they are.

Luis de Prat

Not that this affects the validity of your question, but those are forged flat dishes in the front.

nineeagles

the different wheels may be a result of numerous tests and having to use mismatched wheels to complete the tests.....doesn't sound reasonable, though