What a 120 mph crash would do to a Ford Focus (and I suppose any production car)

Danny Tse

We've seen that video of the modern Chevy crashing into a 50s Chevy. What about a typical Ford from today vs. a solid object. Let's go to the video....

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2011/10/120-mph-crash-test-obliterates-a-ford-focus-video.html#more-89578

nguyendot

Eh he said it replicates two cars hitting head on at 120mph.. that's not correct. It's replicating one car going 120mph and a solid immovable object. Or it's replicating two identical cars hitting each other perfectly head on at 60mph each.
Two cars hitting each other at 120mph would be the equivalent of hitting a wall at 240mph since each car is going 120mph in opposite directions.

ryanjoachim

I think the point is rather moot...you would never get that car up to that speed unless you were running from the cops, and even then you would have to have an extremely long and uninterrupted stretch of road.

nguyendot

And after watching the whole thing... damn.

Danny Tse

nguyendot wrote: »

Eh he said it replicates two cars hitting head on at 120mph.. that's not correct. It's replicating one car going 120mph and a solid immovable object. Or it's replicating two identical cars hitting each other perfectly head on at 60mph each.
Two cars hitting each other at 120mph would be the equivalent of hitting a wall at 240mph since each car is going 120mph in opposite directions.

I believe you're correct....which makes video even more scary since most of us drive 60 mph and not 120 mph.

thesurfer

Hydroplanening could also happen at such speeds, just saying,

Danny Tse

thesurfer wrote: »

Hydroplanening could also happen at such speeds, just saying,

I saw that happen to a pick-up truck that was doing highway speed (I guess about 50-55 mph) in a heavy downpour. It just started spinning out of control sideways across the freeway. Luckily, there was no one else around him and the guys survived that incident. I bet that scared the shXt out of him. I know it scared me since I was right next to him in the next lane and he could've taken me out as he spun out of control.

Fongolio

ryanjoachim wrote: »

I think the point is rather moot...you would never get that car up to that speed unless you were running from the cops, and even then you would have to have an extremely long and uninterrupted stretch of road.

It's also the equivelant of you driving a Ford Focus at 50 MPH and someone crashing into you at 70 MPH. Result is the same.

Drenis

Video doesn't display for me. Not sure what the issue is...

Anywho, while I'm sure the video is interesting, you should watch the Top Gear episode where they crash a Mercedes Smart car into a cement wall @ 70 MPH... They could even open and close the doors! Safe little roll cage...

nadams

Also, if you had two cars hitting each other at 60mph, it is NOT the same as hitting an immovable wall at 120mph. The wall doesn't give AT ALL. With two cars, you have twice as many crumple zones to absorb some of the impact.

exalted512

a toyota would've drove away.
-Cody

polrbehr

nadams wrote: »

Also, if you had two cars hitting each other at 60mph, it is NOT the same as hitting an immovable wall at 120mph. The wall doesn't give AT ALL. With two cars, you have twice as many crumple zones to absorb some of the impact.

+1

It is not even remotely close to being the same.

Newtonians feel free to chime in, I can't remember the exact law here... but I saw something just like this on Mythbusters once : )

shawn474

I didn't know a focus could go 120mph

BeefJerky

That site fails...hard. It won't even detect Flash Player in Firefox, and claims it is not installed. I had to open the site in Internet Exploder to get it to work. I haven't experienced this kind of web coding fail since around 2004 - 7 years ago. Seriously, did they hire an untrained monkey to code their site? Pathetic.

The video was quite disturbing to watch, even though it wasn't a real accident.

exalted512

shawn474 wrote: »

I didn't know a focus could go 120mph

it can when its not under its own power
-Cody

TECHNOKID

nguyendot wrote: »

Eh he said it replicates two cars hitting head on at 120mph.. that's not correct. It's replicating one car going 120mph and a solid immovable object. Or it's replicating two identical cars hitting each other perfectly head on at 60mph each.
Two cars hitting each other at 120mph would be the equivalent of hitting a wall at 240mph since each car is going 120mph in opposite directions.

Exactly, at least fairly close. I had an accident at much lower speed when the driver lost control and came head on with me. Hit pretty hard, air bab popped in my face and my car was total. This was a 50 kms zone which I was even lower due to the snow storm. The opposite car might have been slightly over the limit and couldn't stop for the minivan in front of him and wound up in my lane. So, about 100kms was sufficient to total my car as the front end was totally smashed so just turn the kms into miles and it is really as sick as the video shows.

Danny Tse wrote: »

I believe you're correct....which makes video even more scary since most of us drive 60 mph and not 120 mph.

Fongolio wrote: »

It's also the equivelant of you driving a Ford Focus at 50 MPH and someone crashing into you at 70 MPH. Result is the same.

Joe08867

All I can say is DAMN!!!!!!

Face

In case the link is giving you trouble, I embedded it here yesterday: http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?75153-Post-a-video...-any-video&p=1669046&viewfull=1#post1669046

Vette C6.r

Holy cow Face.


I like the Regal drag racing video too. lol

inspiredsports

I'm not sure if your message is anti-Ford or just don't speed and hit things, but no passenger car produced today at any price would protect its occupants under this condition.

At 3:53 in the movie, the narrator states, "The car decelerates from 120 mph to 0 in 68 milliseconds, with its occupants experiencing peaks of 400 G."

So, a 200 pound guy would come to a stop weighing 200X400=80,000 pounds, and you petite gals maybe 40,000 to 50,000.

We're not designed to do that , Duh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

inspiredsports

Fongolio wrote: »

It's also the equivelant of you driving a Ford Focus at 50 MPH and someone crashing into you at 70 MPH. Result is the same.

I'm not so sure about that. Mass X Velocity comes into play.

codyc1ark

Eh, killer wreck. A few years ago I looked at a three car loss that happened at 70mph, Toyota minivan and a Tundra. Guy in the minivan was driving from NY to New Orleans over Memorial Day, fell asleep at the wheel, crossed the median and hit the truck head on. Truck was V shaped, not much left of the van. Driver/wife died as well as one child, three other kids survived, both people died in the truck. Awful. I may still have the photos of the vehicles, I'll look tomorrow.

Even though it was gorey, I looked at one a few months ago that someone had been shot in the passenger seat, had to be a gallon of blood on the floor. Icky.

Tony M

Mythbusters proved without a doubt....2 going 50 mph into each other does not equal a 100mph impact at all or even close.

The crashs they duplicated equaled the same as a brick wall at the given speed but no increase of destuction with a same MPH head-on collision. That was an episode I watched intensely. I always thought the combined speeds were the total destruction expected too.
But it's not.

BeefJerky

exalted512 wrote: »

a toyota would've drove away.
-Cody

I honestly can't tell if you are being serious or not. If you are being serious, then you are dead wrong. As another poster pointed out, no passenger car produced today, or at any point in the past, would survive a crash like that.

Inspector 24

tony millard wrote: »

Mythbusters proved without a doubt....2 going 50 mph into each other does not equal a 100mph impact at all or even close.

The crashs they duplicated equaled the same as a brick wall at the given speed but no increase of destuction with a same MPH head-on collision. That was an episode I watched intensely. I always thought the combined speeds were the total destruction expected too.
But it's not.

Saw that too, and once I did it made sense. It's not about how fast the other guy is going, it's about how fast you slow down, your change in velocity is what liquefies your internal organs.

The second oncoming car simply acts as a brick wall in that it pushes back with a force equal to that of the first car sufficient enough to stop it in place. Thus, the first car's (and both car's) net change in speed in an instantaneous 50-0mph.

The same forces would be experienced by a car sitting in front of a brick wall that instantly accelerated to 50mph. It's all about change in velocity over time, IE acceleration...which works both ways.

Oh, and cool video!

Tbone289

removed

inspiredsports

exalted512 wrote: »

a toyota would've drove [driven] away.
-Cody

I have 4 Toyotas in the driveway and they are great automobiles, but I'm thinking 400G's would pretty much even kill a cockroach in the trunk.

shawn474

I did see a show called "Amazing crashes" or some crap. A guy was outrunning the cops in a trans am t-top. He was doing 100mph and landed on its wheels AFTER hitting a concrete bridge stansion. The guy actually survived with broken bones and being in a coma for a few days. He seemed to be no worse for the wear after recovering. It was one of those things that make you wonder how he even managed to stay in one piece. I'll see if I can find the video somewhere.

EDIT:
And here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVvjB4csdzw

bobman1235

Is it me or is the host a LITTLE too dramatic about this? I mean, it's just throwing a car into a wall at a fast speed with mannequins in it. He acts like there was a family of orphans in the trunk.

Face

bobman1235 wrote: »

Is it me or is the host a LITTLE too dramatic about this? I mean, it's just throwing a car into a wall at a fast speed with mannequins in it. He acts like there was a family of orphans in the trunk.

I agree.

exalted512

BeefJerky wrote: »

I honestly can't tell if you are being serious or not. If you are being serious, then you are dead wrong. As another poster pointed out, no passenger car produced today, or at any point in the past, would survive a crash like that.

You're right. Toyota doesnt make the tires. They might've blown out.
-Cody