9 replies to this topic

[Spider]

Some photos of crash testing of an Australian Clubman GT - circa 1976-ish

 

 

The testing was done at Ford's Yo-Yang Proving Ground, in Victoria.

It's a little bit of an odd choice of vehicle for such testing at that time, not just for the value of the car, but they had ceased production of this model some 3 years prior. There had been some small changes to the cars in that period, some specifically for crash safety, which this one wouldn't have had the latest inclusions.

I don't know the full history of this test but around the same time, there were many other cars, across many brands and models also tested, so may have been part of some safety publicity propaganda.

[KTS]

..any idea what speed that was ?

[Spider]

I have a recollection they did these tests at either 25 or 40 mph, but don't take that as gospel.

Incidentally, when the Moke was tested in the UK (a similar test to this one), since just after the war when the facility open to just about the present day, it's been the only car that they were able to move away on it's own wheels

[KTS]

i hope that wasn't the 25mph test 

[Chris1992]

I'm rather suspicious of how well the cabin has held up considering the damage to the front end! I would have expected the roof and A-pillar to have buckled up, as seen in many photos of pranged minis 

[Homersimpson]

I'm rather suspicious of how well the cabin has held up considering the damage to the front end! I would have expected the roof and A-pillar to have buckled up, as seen in many photos of pranged minis 

The thing is that hiting something solid square on will leave the car fairly intact as it spreads the load across the whole car, what is more realistic is hitting the car on one corner and sadly this causes a lot more damage.

[Spider]

 

I'm rather suspicious of how well the cabin has held up considering the damage to the front end! I would have expected the roof and A-pillar to have buckled up, as seen in many photos of pranged minis 

 

The thing is that hiting something solid square on will leave the car fairly intact as it spreads the load across the whole car, what is more realistic is hitting the car on one corner and sadly this causes a lot more damage.

 

I gotta say, that's an aspect of these staged tests that I think de-validates them, that they are staged tests and often not close to the real world. I was only yesterday reading up on one type of side impact test that appears unique to Australia. The Test I feel is way removed from reality and it has actually been the cause of some makers pulling models or out of our market altogether. Given the quite small size of our market, I can't blame them for doing so and it only puts the makers wealthy enough to be able to ride this out in a monopoly position.

 

Incidently and I don't know if this also occurred in UK Production, our Clubman models had a crumple zone in them, the very first of them didn't and I think it was early in 1971 that we got them. By the way, the scale of production here was quite small compared to the UK, that they would usually only have 2 types of Mini in production at any point in time, so when they introduced the Clubman here, they dropped the Round Nose types, last of them was made in 1970.

[Shooter63]

[quote name="Spider" post="3705517" timestamp="1633079569"]Some photos of crash testing of an Australian Clubman GT - circa 1976-ish
 


 It must have hit it hard as it seems to have removed the roof chop (or is it my pad playing up)

Shooter

[Ethel]

It does look like a chop doesn't it, guess the missing windscreen & seal adds to the illusion.

 

25mph is a hell of a speed if it's into a hard immovable object. It looks to have taken full advantage of the clubby's higher bumper, to avoid pushing on the subframe, plus some major crumpling right at the front of the wings. The external hinges & reinforcement must beef up thethe A pillars too.

 

Also it'd be its own weight doing the crushing and there's no much of that in a Mini behind the front end mechanicals 'n even less if the interiors been stripped & presumably the tank's empty & no battery.

[unburntfuelinthemorning]

I have a recollection they did these tests at either 25 or 40 mph, but don't take that as gospel.
 

I reckon that's the 25 mph test.  The Mini used to pass the full head on 30 mph test in the UK without much damage to the passenger compartment.  At 40 it would be far less pretty.