Articles on Crash Testing

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Crashing Through The Safety Barrier

by Thomas Geiger, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, October 14, 2003

Hamburg (dpa) - Motorists who survive accidents with nothing more than a fright can thank, besides their lucky stars, a variety of factors coming into play together: tougher car bodywork, airbags, seatbelt systems.

To make this work, motor manufacturers and their parts suppliers have to indulge in a fury of creative vandalism-crash tests.

Long before series production begins, prototype cars are driven into brick walls and other barriers. The crashes fulfill a legal requirement. A certain number of prescribed crashes must be performed. Without them, a car in Germany would not be allowed to reach the showrooms.

Many virtual crashes are performed as well, but even the most sophisticated computer can only set engineers in the right direction. Physical crashes are needed. Individual components such as airbags are first tested on their own, so that the vehicle's bodywork is not damaged. But afterwards, real tests are carried out and the resultant expensive piece of scrap metal is laboriously investigated.

Crashing is an expensive business. Mark Johnson, responsible for the safety concept of the new Jaguar XJ, says the car has been crashed against the virtual wall more than 1,000 times. That needed more than 175,000 hours of mainframe computer time. On top of that were 156 tests on individual components and 79 real crashes where the cars were written off.

It might have been more, but for the fact that the Jaguar XJ comes in few variations. The procedure needs to be repeated for each motor and each car variant, such as saloon, convertible and station wagon models, and for models with diesel motors.

Renault press spokesman Martin Zimmermann says in Paris the firms stages about 400 major tests a year. Firms selling their cars in different countries need to fulfill different crash criteria. And the number of tests remains the same regardless of whether the car is a compact with expected sales of a million or an exotic sports car with limited sales expectations. DaimlerChrysler says that, in developing the luxury Maybach, which is produced in limited numbers, it had to sacrifice 24 of them in the interests of safety.

Motor clubs, motoring magazines and industry organisations also want to evaluate the results of crash tests. Perhaps the most significant test programme is the so-called European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP) which is carried out in European countries. This requires all new models to be involved in three crash configurations before they are awarded stars for occupant safety.

So far, more than 150 vehicles have been out through these tests. Few have achieved the maximum rating of five stars. The list: Renault's Laguna, Megane and Vel Satis, Mercedes' C and E class cars, Saab's new 9-3, Toyota's Avensis, as well as four vans -Citroen's C8, Fiat's Ulysse, Lancia's Phedra and Peugeot's 807.