Automotive safety has come a long way in the second half of the 20th century, and the gap in safety performance and technology of cars built even in 1990 versus today is pretty wide. But when it comes to crash safety of earlier decades it really takes an actual, ahem, head-to-head test like this to demonstrate how things have changed for the better.
Yes, this video has been around for a while, but it's too good to not bring up every decade or so: The two contestants in this unwholesome experiment conducted back in 2009 are a Chevy Malibu from that year and a 1959 Chevy Bel Air. The results of such a test were never going to be pretty, but there are still a few things that are a little surprising in hindsight.
First, the shape of the Bel Air's A-pillar, being curved inward by design to allow for greater visibility, exhibits a tendency to close up inward as the roof collapses on the front-seat passengers. This is one of the reasons A-pillars in cars aren't shaped in this manner anymore—they actually have to support the roof in the event of a rollover and provide greater structural rigidity for the whole greenhouse.
Yes, this video has been around for a while, but it's too good to not bring up every decade or so: The two contestants in this unwholesome experiment conducted back in 2009 are a Chevy Malibu from that year and a 1959 Chevy Bel Air. The results of such a test were never going to be pretty, but there are still a few things that are a little surprising in hindsight.
First, the shape of the Bel Air's A-pillar, being curved inward by design to allow for greater visibility, exhibits a tendency to close up inward as the roof collapses on the front-seat passengers. This is one of the reasons A-pillars in cars aren't shaped in this manner anymore—they actually have to support the roof in the event of a rollover and provide greater structural rigidity for the whole greenhouse.