VW diesel swaps into chrysler minivans

[libbydiesel]

You can look up the NCAP ratings on driver deaths and the vanagon rated better than many cars with airbags and almost all without.  Don't get me wrong, I am fully aware of the limitations of the vanagon design WRT safety and go on in that thread to to attempt to debunk some of the pro-vanagon nonsense.  The fact is that the design proved itself as one of the safest vehicles of it's type for it's time.  The pictures show some deformation of the front passenger compartment and yet there was still plenty of room for someone over 6' tall to be accommodated without injury.

[Syncroincity]

I'm firmly in the Vanagon camp, but I have to say there's a definite allure to all the flip-seat, power-everything luxury they built into the high-end Chrysler vans. To have a TDI 5-spd manual in one of these would be freaking sweet.

They absolutely share some DNA, VW actually supplied drivetrains to Chrysler for the first couple of years for the Omni/Horizon, which was a shameless Rabbit clone, and from which the Caravan was based.

[clbanman]

When Volkswagen started offering the Routan,  I assumed that eventually they would offer a diesel variant but with them putting production on hold even before the contract with Chrysler is up that seems to be unlikely.

[RabbitJockey]

The vanagon does have crumple zones, just not to compromise the front passenger area.  Did you read the thread?  Combined speed 90MPH offset head-on collision.  Vanagon folks walked away uninjured, Chrysler folks went to the hospital.

combined speeds?  in physics the collision wouldn't add together.  if they were both going 45, it'd be the same as if they hit the same car parked while they were driving 45.

[TylerDurden]

The vanagon does have crumple zones, just not to compromise the front passenger area.  Did you read the thread?  Combined speed 90MPH offset head-on collision.  Vanagon folks walked away uninjured, Chrysler folks went to the hospital.

combined speeds?  in physics the collision wouldn't add together.  if they were both going 45, it'd be the same as if they hit the same car parked while they were driving 45.

Hrrrrmmmm... methinks 90mph relative to each other....

 

[bbob203]

if a train leaves new york at 6pm going.......

[libbydiesel]

I'm not sure what to say...  What's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

With a head-on collision of similar mass, the velocities are combined.  In other words two vehicles smashing into each other head-on with both going 45MPH is the same impact as one going 90MPH and the other parked...

[TylerDurden]

Quite some time ago I subscribed to Road & Track magazine.

They had a sidebar-story about two guys in the hospital... a motor vehicle accident with severe head injuries, but their cars were undamaged.

Seems that it was very foggy (northern Europe), and both guys had rolled down their windows and stuck their heads out...

[theman53]

African swallow or European swallow?

[RabbitJockey]

no, think of it like, when you hit a wall, your car absorbs all the energy from its own velocity/mass.  when you 2 cars hit each other, they absorb each others velocity and mass.  i think mythbusters actually did a bit on it.

[TylerDurden]

I'll be danged...

http://ca.autoblog.com/2010/11/21/road-myths-physics-of-a-head-on-collision/

[bbob203]

Your the master of the link TD.

[TylerDurden]

lol...

Discussion:
http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/45578/is-two-cars-colliding-at-50mph-the-same-as-one-car-colliding-into-a-wall-at-100

[745 turbogreasel]

Hitting a car or a cement block are very different scenarios, unless maybe you are in the smaller car.

[TylerDurden]

Of course, but what is germane, is in the head-on scenario, both vehicles are free-moving, to absorb the other's kinetic energy... a wall being immobile, absorbs very little.