I have one of these, and there's a tapering concertina-like front chassis rail either side at the front behind the bumper. Amazing looking thing. You can see it working at 2.19. Here's hoping I never have to test it.
irocz0r - the video where a T3 disintegrates into a wall was not a standard crash test. It was a test to show the effects of heavy cargo load during a crash. In any case, if you look at the videos here, you see the passenger cell of the T3 bend during the crash, not a good sign. Seatbelts won't help your legs being part of the crumble zone.
@philacoudre the green truck is a vw caddy pick up, the others are T3 and the bigger one is called LT31. A higer an hewyier truck than the T3, thats why it misses the crumplezone on the montecarlo and smashes the weker part of the body.
You can clearly see the safety concept of the T3 and it's derivatives: Let's make them as hard as tanks and just use the crumple-zones of the other car(s) involved in the crash. But I guess they seriously overstretched this "technique", at least by today's standards. Cars of this period were often too stable to be safe for the passengers. The engineers mainly judged a car's safety by how it looked during and after a crash and not by the actual forces applied to the passengers.
True. For its time the VW Bus offered excellent protection. The german magazine "ADAC Motorwelt" tested it in 1984 against some of its competitors of that era (40 % offset crash @ 37 km/h). Only in the VW bus the security cage remained intact (and so the drivers legs...).
Part one says that the vans have been sold for 37 years. The vans were introduced March 8, 1950, so the video is probably from around 1987. And it doesn't seem very old for 1987.
it's not really lying, they are simply showing that you're way more likely to survive with seatbelts. they never said that seatbelts save lives every time, just that they help a ton in many situations
my dad had an LT28 like the 1 rolled in video and these things were built like tanks,i remember my uncle who was a sheet metal worker repairing the body work and he commented on how thick the metal was on it great old vans
Some people say, that the T3 in that other Video is fully loaded with 1 ton extra weight and that its a 100km/h full fronal crash, which are no normal conditions for a cras test. I really don't wanna know how my T* looks if I perform a full frontal hit with 100km/h and 1ton load.... but I wouldn't try that with any other car....
lol the idea of a car crushing up when it wrecks is actually a shock absorber and reduces injury, wish they'd tell the g-force the passengers could expect in a 50kph instant stop
Probably very little. This was the time of reinforcing vehicles so they did well in head on collisions like this. The real test would be an offset test where only one side of the vehicle is hitting the object.
and why 20 or 30 years ago it was safe and nowadays "its a death trap on four wheels"? An impact at 50kph against a wall in the 80's will be identical in 2009
maybe vw comercial but the t3 is on of the safety cars, the music sounds like tangerine dream on pitchy drugs! I realy love the VW T3 Westfalia, next year i will buy on as a Eierlegendewollmilchsau!
I can tell you from personal experience that you don't need anywhere near this level of violent collisions to cause your lava lamp to have a catastrophic event when you forget and leave it on the countertop when driving......
Its only the half truth: The LT is much higher than the buick and hits its soft structures (empty trunk). This clearly shows what is described as the "incompatibility problem".
once wrecked my vanagon going over 100 miles an hour, smashed right into a coffee shop. no one was injured thanksfully, and the waitress even brought my coffee to the door while we waited for the police to take me into custody.
I would think that even if the occupants of the American car, in this case, a Buick Regal, *were* wearing safety belts, the effects from the 70 kph would be quite severe. Watching the video of the result of the crash, you can see that the rear of the Regal penetrated well into the passenger cabin, the front seats reclined *violently* backwards, and the occupants of that seat came within inches of having their head crushed from the deforming car. If that's what American car makers call safety, they really need to re-examine safety.
Look what happened to the back of the buick compared to the Vanagon! I bet theres cars sold today that are shockingly not as good as this...and to be honest, this doesnt look -that- bad
You are right iam sorry. Maybe becourse of in years that pass on the vw bus lacks the deformation zones like rust. Ive never liked the VW cars buses and trucks that could be the reason.
"the 80's", well... The T3 was introduced in 1979. Bet the tests (not the testicles but the crash tests, mind you) was finished by then. This video ought to be from 1978 or no later than 1979.
At 2:35 they call a Buick Regal a "limousine" that's funny. A Buick Regal which looks like a 1983 isn't a limousine buy a long shot. I sure wouldn't like to be hit by a VW T3 even in my 2000 Jetta.
But when you are sitting that close to the front of the car it's either, 1: the car is hard as a rock and you get whiplash, or 2: you sit in the crumple zone and loose your legs. i think i'm gonna go with #1
All admit that these vehicles may look quite strong going buy this video but that was when they were new if I was to drive one now ide be scared shitless as I would not like to drive one that had rust on it as its going to be as strong as cheese then
So you don't attempt to slow down when you're going to hit something? Please explain your own rationale. I think you're just trolling.
15 лет назад
how told you that? its not crap becourse its old. The bus is kinda cool and popular to surfers. my boyfirend had one for a long period of time. Now he owns a chevy astro bus but the VW bus looks nicer the astro is big wide and looks like a transporter on seriods not easy to park ider. But a VW bus is all in one
Think that's the standardized test procedure. 50km/h against the wall.... sure it's a VW video to let us believe how sure their cars are. Better not trying it out....
seems to me theres a crash test video of a chinese truck that looked almost exactly like the flatbed version of this model... and the cab completely dissapears.... leave making German cars to the Germans..
