Latest news with #crashTest
Telegraph
7 days ago
- Automotive
- Telegraph
This show will have Jeremy Clarkson campaigning for 20mph speed limits
Buckle up. Channel 4 has made a TV programme so terrifying that it makes Threads look like Mr Bean's Holiday. In Pile Up: World's Biggest Crash Test, a group of academics and engineering experts stage a gruesome high-speed motorway pile-up. This unique experiment could then be pored over, giving us precious insights that might improve road safety and save future lives. Job done: anyone who saw the show will likely never set foot in an automobile again. This Top-Gear -meets-Open-University wheeze was the brainchild of Professor James Brighton, head of the Advanced Vehicle Engineering Centre at Cranfield University, who bemoaned the limitations of simulations and laboratory conditions. What they needed, he said, was to recreate the real thing. So, on a two-mile stretch of taxiway on a former RAF base in Scotland, Brighton and his team strapped 94 cameras to eight cars and smashed them into a jackknifing lorry. Adding to the gimmick was the presence of four civilians, selected to represent prominent groups of drivers: Caitlan was young, Lynn was old, Luke was a boy racer and Tito was a nice American chap who enjoyed surfing. As the drivers could not actually be behind the wheels of the vehicles, Brighton set up simulators which were linked to the real cars, turning the whole endeavour into a giant Scalextric set. The drivers were unaware of the nature of the experiment and their actions and reactions would give the investigators vital data. Yet there is a tension at the heart of Pile Up, with the programme veering lanes between serious show about science and saving lives, and giving us some Crash Bang Wallop – What a Video! thrills. Being set up as a two-hour Sunday-night TV event means that the 60-second experiment needs an enormous amount of padding, so we are treated to mind-numbing detail about how the crash was set up and risible dollops of repetition from the drooling voiceover. The constant advert breaks will test the patience of a saint; the reams of dashcam footage of nasty crashes feels cheap and tawdry. If you're still awake by the time the staged crash happens, it is unavoidably spectacular and horribly unnerving. Some cars (and 'drivers') come away relatively unscathed, some are unrecognisable twists of metal (Toyota will be pleased, Dodge and Audi might sue), but the whole effect is to make driving a car at motorway speeds seem like the purest form of insanity. No doubt the experiment will give Brighton a huge amount of vital data, but for the viewer the main effect is to feel chilled. Lynn sobs when she sees her car ('If my grandchildren were in the back…'), while danger-seeker Luke ends with a 1000-yard stare. 'We have created this machine that kills people,' says one expert, and that is never more evident than on Pile Up, a show that would have Jeremy Clarkson campaigning for 20mph speed limits everywhere. If the programme has one big takeaway, among the constant statistics about crashes, it's this: clunk click, every trip.
The Drive
16-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Drive
Old Cars Definitely Weren't Safer. This Engineering Breakdown Explains Why
The latest car news, reviews, and features. The phrase 'they don't build 'em like they used to' means different things in different contexts. When it comes to safety, 'building 'em like they used to' means setting aside many of the basic safety features that we take for granted in 2025, including airbags and crumple zones. We still hear the argument that old cars are safer, however, so engineering firm Munro & Associates made a video to debunk the myth. Carl Crittenden, the lead engineer for Munro & Associates, starts out by explaining that he's not out to criticize old cars. He likes them, he owns a few, and he restores them in his spare time. However, even from an enthusiast's perspective, the idea that a decades-old, body-on-frame sedan is better built than a newer sedan loaded with plastic simply doesn't hold water. He references a video shot in 2009 by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) that puts a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air and a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu head-to-head in a crash test. While the Malibu wasn't exactly the high-water mark for sedans, it obliterates the Bel Air. And yet, the video remains controversial 16 years after it went live. Crittenden notes that one of the allegations he often hears is that the Bel Air's engine and transmission were removed in preparation for the crash test. He refutes that with photos that show the engine is still in the car. He also shoots down the idea that one of the fenders pops off because IIHS maliciously removed brackets. On a Bel Air, the fenders are mounted to the radiator support and to the body. That's it. In contrast, on the vast majority of newer cars, the fenders are mounted to a metal structure that doubles as a crumple zone. The sheet metal that was used in manufacturing decades ago was sometimes thicker than the sheet metal used today, but the body panels were usually weaker because they weren't reinforced. Crittenden proves this by comparing a door from an unknown 1961 model and a door from a new Kia EV9. The old door is a millimeter thicker but it's totally hollow. The new, slightly thinner door is reinforced in several places. So, no: Driving a land yacht isn't your best option if you want the safest car on the road. By all means, buy a classic car, restore it, drive the hell out of it, and enjoy it, but do it because it's cool, not because you think it'll save your life if you get T-boned by an Altima doing 45 mph. Got tips? Send 'em to tips@
