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I never want to hear (They Don't Make Them Like They Used Too) ever again!

The cabin of the 09 stayed more intact by far. It looked like you would have had way less trama than in the 59.
 
Well - yeah cars of the past couple decades are designed for crash protection - crush zones, etc. Was waiting to see where the steering column of the '59 ended up as sometimes they went thru the chest or throat of the driver in a crash like this. My '67 GTO had a label in it "Energy Absorbing" meaning it was designed to crush - but not into the driver's body...
 
Who knew that lap belts, metal dash boards and solid steering wheels were more dangerous! :eek:

Old cars are much cooler but anyone who claimed them to be safer is off their rocker.
 
Is hard to see the dummy behind the steering wheel, to think that could be a person, make you appreciate the technology in modern cars, if that would happen in the street the guy in the Malibu survive almost without an injury and the guy in the bel air died horrible squeeze in his classic car.
 
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threewood said:
Who knew that lap belts, metal dash boards and solid steering wheels were more dangerous.
Click to expand...

I remember being a kid in the sixties and seventies touring junk yards looking at cool ****. So many cars had a “head print” in the windshield where the front seat passenger was tossed over the dash and into the windshield. It was far from rare. Wish I’d taken a few photos.
In the fifties on their honeymoon mom and dad had a blowout and hit a power pole. Mom ate the dash and had a mouth full of gold teeth and dentures to show for it, dad got the steering wheel in the chest and was in the hospital for a long time.
 
I've seen some windshields at junk yards that still had hair and/or flesh in them.

Ewwww
 
We took a engine out of a burnt car that still stunk to put in my sisters car. She never checked the oil in anything she had.
 
rerun repeat thread
it was just posted a couple of days ago

crash safety has come a loooooong way since the 50's
 
They dont build em like they used to because they were junk ...... We just happen to love them.
 
They had to calculate the approach speed for both vehicles. Otherwise the 59 would have sent the newer one flying right back where it came from if they were the same.
 
That brings back some painful memories. In 1968 I T-boned a car that was running a red light, in my 59 Chevy, even the same color combo as this one. Car had 32000 miles on it. Mint everywhere. Steering wheel took out all my front teeth, cut the crap out of my knee on the dash board. It was a 6 cylinder car and tore the engine loose from the mounts. No seat belts. Should have been worse. The car sure looked awful. Dad called the scrap yard two days later and the poor thing sat on top of a pile of crushed cars for weeks before they finally crushed it.
 
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Old stuff. Since that "test" (it was done for an advertisement for Chevrolet), several individuals involved have gone on record to say that several key points in the frame of the old Impala had been "compromised," or mechanically altered to produce favorable results during the test. The entire video was published a year or so later showing multiple camera angles. The old car was far from a pristine example of course, in fact, it was probably more like a good candidate for a parts car. One angle clearly shows approximately 50 to 100 lbs of rust flakes and dust deposited on the floor once the car settled.
Granted, newer automobiles are much safer for the passengers, at the expense of owning a $40,000 disposable vehicle. Repairs for a significant accident are prohibitively expensive IF they can be repaired. Unibody cars are not the easiest to straighten in siginficant offset or side impacts (we mopar lovers know all too well). The OTHER GUY'S older body on frame do have an advantage in this respect (as bad as I hate to say it).
 
Go to 0:55 and watch all the rust dust come out.

upload_2020-10-21_22-37-26.png
 
Old cars weren't built for safety or quality, just over the edge yearly model changes. When I was a young man building trade show advertising exhibits for large corporations, our designer, was 19 years old when he designed the rear end of the 59 and 60 Impala for GM. Designers are people who think outside of the box. I personally like them and have used their dashes on several builds.
1959 impala.jpg
22752505-1959-chevrolet-impala-std.jpg
 
The fatal crash stat's have changed from da old days. Back when the teen bars were around some too many had their last drive trying to make it back home...closest one from where we were was 35 miles mostly two-lane country roads. My brother had a number of crunches lucky he survived. When his '65 GTO was in the body shop, he borrowed mom's '60 T-Bird. He fell asleep on the way back from da bar, being woke up by the sound of the old wooden black & white highway posts he was hitting. The car rolled onto the right side in a steep ditch and somehow got it back on all tires. Never will forget the expression on my mother's face viewing her car in the driveway at 2AM wondering how it looked like grass was growing out of the gutter rail trim above the window! Car still looked great on the left...the right was an entirely different story...
 
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