This isn’t a straightforward piece to jot down though the premise is straightforward. Outdated automobiles are merely not protected for you and your loved ones. They arrive nowhere close to to fashionable crash security requirements and any new automobile, even the most affordable ones on sale at present, are gentle years forward in occupant security. To your personal sake, get a brand new automobile.
The above paragraph is a reality, one which was seared into my thoughts earlier this week after we witnessed the crash check of a Proton Wira, stay on the Miros PC3 lab. Understanding one thing in principle is one factor, seeing the carnage with your personal eyes is one other altogether.
Right here’s some background. This isn’t an official ASEAN NCAP check and there’s no score to be earned, though we’re in the identical facility in Ayer Molek, Melaka that palms out the stars and factors we’re acquainted with. The identical high-speed cameras and lights, the identical background, the identical gear and the identical wrecking crew, however with a vastly totally different topic.
One which’s from the previous. We now have right here a 1993 Proton Wira from the primary batch of the tremendous well-liked sedan primarily based on the fourth-generation Mitsubishi Lancer. This white 1.5 GL was donated by Hezeri Samsuri, veteran motoring journalist and founding father of Careta. Our good friend bought the Wira with the intention to revive it, however the man has approach too many automobiles to work on/play with, and had a superb thought.
Crash it! He acquired in contact with Miros and right here we’re with a few different media shops Hezeri invited to witness the dying of a automobile in actual time. He solely has one Wira to present so there’ll solely be one crash – the complete frontal – as a substitute of the standard entrance offset and NCAP’s gamut of exams. Additionally, we’re utilizing probably the most primary of dummies (that are very expensive issues by the best way), as the primary intention is to indicate the harm to the automobile.
After a nervous wait from the viewing platform, we heard the countdown after which the sound of the Wira arrowing into the constructing at a recorded pace of 62 km/h (64 km/h is the norm). It hit the wall with a muted ‘doosh’ sound, making a combustion of glass and trim.
We rushed down to examine the now-departed Wira (RIP, hero), and what instantly struck me wasn’t the fully crushed 1/3 of the three-box sedan, however the truth that the remainder of the Proton – now minus the engine bay – appeared visibly shorter than the automobile that was alive moments in the past.
Maybe not as pronounced in footage, however the wheelbase of the sedan has been shortened, and the wrecked physique seems barely curved, like a Mercedes-Benz CLS. The crew later lifted the wreckage and pointed us to the damaged weld factors on the undercarriage.
This compression of the passenger cell must be the largest distinction between a contemporary automobile and an older automobile constructed within the period the place crash exams weren’t a factor. The engine bay of a contemporary automobile acts as an enormous crumple zone, designed to effectively, crumple upon affect, absorbing the vitality of the crash, so to talk. With out this large, precise ‘absorber bumper’ (bear in mind the Nissan Sunny 130Y?) the huge vitality is transferred to the cabin, as demonstrated by this Wira wreck.
The most secure automobiles on the highway at present are intact aft of the A pillars, that are strengthened to resist the entrance offset crash check. The latter, the place just one facet of the automobile’s entrance finish makes first affect, is a harder check than the complete frontal, the place the affect is unfold over a bigger space. Because of this you don’t see any A pillar harm right here, however surprising scenes greeted us upon nearer inspection.
And not using a crumple zone, the affect of the collision pushed the firewall – and dashboard – again into the cabin, drastically lowering what consultants name the ‘cabin survival zone’. The grownup driver dummy’s legs are pushed again to the seat base and his foot is flipped again in direction of his shin. The steering wheel is not spherical as a result of the dented half ‘went into’ the dummy’s stomach.
Doable affect areas had been painted to actually spotlight contact factors with the dummy, and we see the colors on Mr Orange’s forehead, nostril and chin – with no airbag to cushion the blow, the dummy’s complete face collided with the stiff steering wheel. There’s additionally color on the passenger facet of the dashboard, which implies that the top of the kid – secured in a toddler seat – smacked the sprint. Sure dying in the event that they had been each human, we had been informed.
The ultimate nail within the coffin is that every one 4 doorways couldn’t be opened by a crew of 5 grown males, who had instruments and no scarcity of expertise with mangled automobiles. The compression of the passenger cell will need to have sealed the doorways in place. If this was an actual accident, it will be unattainable for passers-by to assist extricate the occupants earlier than the bomba arrive with their Jaws of Life. The doorways of recent automobiles are designed to be openable within the occasion of a crash.
Talking of doorways, for those who occur to recollect the facet affect beams touted by Proton for the Wira (a brand new function that wasn’t within the Iswara), they’re current – we peeked into the crevice and noticed the horizontal steel tubes.
As confessed initially, this wasn’t a straightforward story to jot down as a result of fairly a number of of us love previous automobiles right here at paultan.org. PT BM colleague Farid drove to Melaka in a slammed Volvo 240 and yours actually’s earlier two-door automobile was a Toyota MR2 three years older than the departed Wira. Many people automobile guys have dream automobiles from that period, or on the very least, a fond reminiscence of the household saloon that we grew up in. They don’t make them like they used to, proper?
Certainly! As we speak’s automobiles, even probably the most primary ones, had been designed to satisfy fashionable crash security requirements that weren’t there within the Nineties, which implies that even the Perodua Axia/Bezza or at present’s Proton Saga – small and lightweight as they’re – will maintain up higher in a crash than previous automobiles – there are not any two methods about it.
And whereas we’re utilizing the Wira for instance, it will be the identical for a Honda Civic EG, Toyota Corolla SEG or any mannequin from the period – the notion of ‘previous automobiles are extra stable’ or that they’re manufactured from ‘tougher metal’ is obvious incorrect.
Are we telling you then to ditch the previous automobile and substitute it with a contemporary rent buy mortgage ASAP? No, however if you possibly can afford a contemporary automobile to function household transport, security is at all times cash effectively spent. Should you’re protecting an previous automobile for fanatic or sentimental causes, get pleasure from your previous buddy responsibly with the realisation that its shell received’t supply a lot safety in a crash. Be sure that your brakes and tyres are in good situation and don’t take an excessive amount of liberties. See the Wira’s dying blow from all angles within the video under.
GALLERY: 1993 Proton Wira frontal crash check
GALLERY: Trendy automobile wrecks at Miros PC3
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