120 Mph (192 Km/h) Crash Test In A Ford Focus

[Corzza]

Various crash test facilities around the world are set up to test the safety of new vehicles. In Australia, most front end crash tests are conducted at 64km/h. Here’s a video of a crash test conducted at 120mph, or just under 200km/h.

It may seem a bit silly to crash test a car at this speed, but the reality is, there are loads and loads of high-speed accidents that occur on our roads every year. And some of them, unfortunately, involve head-on collisions on highways with speed limits of 90-100km/h.

A head-on car accident at 100km/h, with another car also doing 100km/h would result in certain death for all occupants. This test, conducted by Fifth Gear in the UK, shows the sort of consequences you could expect from a high-speed front end crash just like that, although this test is more severe.

The test was conducted on a first-generation Ford Focus hatch, which was pulled into a wall front-on at 120mph. As the presenter outlines, the Focus decellerated from the speed to a stop in just 68 milliseconds. Occupants would experience the forces of up to 400 g.

Take a look below. It’s frightening to think hundreds of accidents with a similar result to this are occurring on the roads every year.

Article pulled from Fifth Gear

[senna_T]

WOW....just wow...

[tab]

Fck me...that's bloody horrific.

[sexual harrassment panda]

Slighty misleading though.

A head on crash with both cars doing 100km/h will result in the same damage as hitting a wall at 100km/h, if they hit pretty square (rebound/spins form not hitting square at that speed will obviously be greater)

Still it's bloody good footage

[MiKa]

I was told by someone smarter than me that if two cars are doing 100km/h and hit head on they are actually hitting at 200km/h... So this test is a bit more likely to happen in real life..

Going by what I was told, as in the test above, if two cars were going at 120mph (192km/h) and crashed they are hitting at 240mph (384km/h)

That video was amazing..

Edited 25/10/11 06:58 AM by MiKa

[Never had any say Panda]

Yeah but of two cars impact at 100kmh the force of impact may be equivalent of 200kmh however it is absorbed by 2 objects. A concrete block wouldn't absorb any of the shock so the car in the video got the full 200kmh force applied to it.

It's also worth noting that a concrete block provides an entire impact frontage to the width of the car. Imagine that speed hitting an object like a tree or concrete pole that is only 30cm wide. It'd split the car in half..

[sexual harrassment panda]

see post above yours, it is true that they would hit at 200km/h, but I'll try to explain why it's still the same as hitting a wall at 100

If the 2 cars are the same size and weight and travelling at the same speed (towards each other) and crash head on then the effect will be the same as if they had hit an immovable object.

It's true that the energy of the crash will be double, but it's split between 2 cars innit, therefor it's halved, which is equal to one car hitting a wall.

When things turn pear shaped is when you have a truck hitting a bike head on, or 2 cars that are the same except for their speed.

they actually do say that this test is designed to replicate 2 cars having a head on at 120mph

[Ralph Wiggum]

http://warp.povusers.org/grrr/collisionmath.html

http://physics.about.com/od/energyworkpower/f/energyforcediff.htm

[Never had any say Panda]

I think the scariest part about this and correct me if I misheard but did they say that all collision data is based around 40mph accidents (64kmh)? So yes you may have a 5 star safety rating but hey we tested it at 60kmh. Beyond that the damage would be exponential.

[sexual harrassment panda]

yep, and as you said earlier, what about a head on at highway speeds into a power pole or a tree.

I've had a high speed off, was bloody lucky. Having grass all through the cabin when all the windows were up and unbroken was enough to put me off speeding for a fair while.

Have had mates involved in a fatal crash which snapped a power pole, have lost a few friends in cars crashes, some through speed and grog others through sheer bad luck. But I still get the urge to do stupid speeds in the falcon every now and then. Vids like this are a great wake up call.