John
The NCAP tests crash the car into standard barriers, so a light-weight
car (ie small) with well-designed crumple zones comes off well because
it doesn't have to lose that much energy. (energy =3D half mass x speed
squared)
However hit a big solid Land-cruiser with a small car, and you want to
be in the LC!
A "ladder" chassis is, conceptually, two long rails running fore and
aft, with some cross-members (hence the "ladder" shape) and the body
bolted on top. It is very stiff longitudinally but, especially in older
vehicles, has a tendency to form a hinge round about the front
passengers' feet point and bend down. This rotates the dash and steering
wheel into the driver a bit.
Another problem is a straight 6 engine block, which can hit the dash and
move the whole dash & steering wheel assembly back into the front seat
passengers. V8 blocks, which are shorter, leave more space for
crumpling in the engine compartment.
The Ozzies have done an NCAP test on an early 90s vintage 80 series, and
it came out at 2 star rating. A similar test on a 100 series yielded 4
stars, but the latter had airbags. The summary results are on
http://www.aaa.asn.au/NCAP/ozindex.htm and there are some pictures
online somewhere, but I can't find them at present.
However the bottom line is that if you drive your 2 star Landcruiser
into a 5 star Yaris, you will walk away from the experience, and the
Yaris driver will not. Drive your LC into a solid concrete block and
you are less likely to survive the experience than a Yaris driver doing
the same thing at the same speed.
Concrete blocks are not commonly found in the middle of the road ...
Christopher Bell
Devon, UK
1996 1HD-FT
|
| Hi Guys
| Ok it maybe that the small car has better crunple zones than
| the cruiser but why is it then that the bigger the car the
| more the change you have or am I wrong.
| What is meant by the ladder chassis and is this a weak sesign
| or has it weak points and if so why would it be used for such
| a heavy vehicle like the cruiser.
| Does anyone have a clip or ten of a cruiser after/during a
| crash be it testing or on the roads in real life cheers john
| 92HDJ 80 1HDT
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