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

[winstor]

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.

http://www.gcsescience.com/pen28-kinetic-energy.htm

Nice little link that explains how doubling speed increases kinetic energy 4 fold.

So yeh, you're damn right, 40mph doesn't sound too bad, but hitting something at double the speed and you have 4 times as much KE when you slam into something. Somehow a 5 star rating would mean sh*t then!

[sexual harrassment panda]

Easy fix

Drive a chinese car, won't have to worry about any maths, you know you're gunna be FUBAR if you crash one at 60 so any speed over that will have the same result

[Never had any say Panda]

Most vehicles now are ANCAP rated.. And ford is really chalking up the fact the falcon has an ANCAP 5 star rating..

So what tests are done?

Frontal Offset test (Two vehicles similar mass where one crosses the centreline of the road) at 64km/h

Side Impact test (Where one vehicles fails to give way and is impacted at 90deg) at 50km/h

Pedestrian Test (Hit a person standing upright) at 40km/h

Pole test (Side impact to a pole - Indicating a car has slid from the roadway) at 29km/h

So whoopee you've got a 5 star car!!! It means #### all the moment you leave the CBD and hit a motorway.

[tab]

I suppose the theory is once you hit something at highway speeds nothing will save you but luck, no number of airbags is going to help really.

5 star rated vehicles help preserve life in the most common of incidents so it still makes sense to have the ratings IMHO. Only thing to make it better would be mandatory roll cages, window nets, hans devices and five-point harnesses.

[Never had any say Panda]

Haha true I tend to forget that where I live and work we very rarely have to do speeds under 70km/h.. But since the majority of cars are in the cities it makes sense.

I really would like to see crash testing involve a 40mph rear impact that pushes the car in question into the one in front of it.. Gridlock style.

[dule]

Well doesn't mean sh*t all when you take in to consideration it was only few years ago that falcon (and many other cars) had only 4 stars so couldn't even pass that test. Now that most have caught up it's time to make the tests tougher...

[MiKa]

At the higher speeds, if the actual crash, as in head hitting something, amputations, loss of blood from wounds etc, doesn't kill you, the sudden decrease in speed will, apparently the internal organs rupture and your a goner, its all in the G's (inertia)

So if your car was built like a tank and you hit something hard enough at a decent speed, your still dead from the sudden impact..

[Never had any say Panda]

True and at high enough speed the whiplash of the sudden impact will actually break your neck microseconds before your airbag decides to deploy..

Only the other day I was reading that aparently some Bungee jumpers retina's?!? (or corneas - I don't know eyes) detach at the bottom of the jump and can send them blind.. As human beings we are actually quite fragile creatures.

[Mr_4.0]

Sideways is on the money about the two cars head on.

[Dillz]

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.

That's exactly what I was thinking.