The original crash test dummy
Some people are more willing to take one for the team than most.
One man who risked his life to save others was Col John Stapp of the US Air Force.
His quest for safety, firstly in aircraft and then in automobiles, led him into the fields of acceleration, deceleration and what he called “wind rush”.
The first two necessitated the development of a safety harness that could withstand stresses that would have torn earlier harnesses from their sockets while wind rush required a suit to protect against extreme g-forces.
Due to the fact that they would spend some time upside down (or steeply canted to one side or another) aircraft had been fitted with safety harnesses from the beginning.
In 1946, Stapp carried out studies with human-shaped dummies, then human corpses before moving onto live subjects such as hogs and chimpanzees.
He soon made himself the subject, suffering many injuries including a retinal haemorrhage after enduring 45 times his own bodyweight under deceleration.
In December 1954 he underwent a rocket sled test along a 1082m track.
The device had nine rockets each with 4500lb (20,000 Newtons) of thrust.
In five seconds, he accelerated to 632mph (1017km/h) before the sled’s water scoops were deployed to bring the sled to a punishing stop.
Stapp was bruised by the harness and had multiple blood blisters when grains of sand were forced into his clothing.
But he survived.
Thanks to Stapp’s experiments, Volvo chief engineer Nils Bohlin invented the three-point safety belt in 1958 and Volvo fitted them as standard to its cars and donated the patent to the world.
Statistics show that of 39,000 people involved in car crashes, 9500 walked away from 110km/h impacts.
Think of that next time you “clunk, click, every trip”.
What was he thinking?
It never fails to amaze me what some people are willing to attempt.
Take UK custom car builder Andy Saunders.
When the Lancia Stratos Zero, designed by Bertone’s chief stylist Marcello Gandini, was debuted at the Turin Motor Show in 1970 it stunned onlookers.
In the early 2000s, Saunders decided to create his own, and he did it in just a few weeks.
He began with one of three Stratos Zeroes specially commissioned in fibreglass for Michael Jackson to star in the 1987 film, Moonwalker.
When one of them came up for sale, Saunders bought it in 2005.
He considered using a Lotus Elise for the chassis, but the Lotus wheelbase was two inches too long.
Instead, he sourced a Fiat X1/9, cut off the vandalised body, braced the floorpan and retained the engine and rear suspension.
Can you imagine the degree of adaptation necessary to make it all work?
The rear lights are a series of 12-inch LEDs and the fuel flap was cut from a Mercedes in a scrap yard because “the groove looked just right”.
The Fiat engine delivered a fairly modest 85bhp (63kW) but with just 800kg to propel, it was sufficient.
There were no windscreen wipers, but “the screen actually vibrates enough to shake the worst of the rain off”.
Where would be without visionaries like Andy Saunders?
Great prediction
In 1996, BMW boss Bernd Pischetsrieder announced that he didn’t expect its subsidiary Rover to make a profit before 2000.
He got it right – that was the year BMW sold it to a British company for £1.
That company, MG Rover of UK, went broke in 2005 and ceased production, selling intellectual rights and some property rights to Chinese companies.
The last cars sold in Australia were the Rover 75/MGZT saloons (above) and tourers.
The Rover name continues to be owned by Jaguar Land Rover Limited, a subsidiary of Tata Motors which acquired it from Ford in 2008.
When Nanjing Automobile (later SAIC) bought the remains of MG Rover, they did not acquire the Rover brand name, so they use “Roewe” (which the Chinese pronounce “Rover”) for their rebranded vehicles in China.
Marques you’ve probably never heard of
In 2006, Peugeot decided to close the old Rootes Group factory at Ryton, just outside Coventry (UK).
It was the continuation of a long-standing trend in Coventry, once one of the most prolific car-producing sites in the world.
Difficult though it is to credit, more than 100 car marques existed there during more than a century.
Many of them disappeared in the 20s.
Britain’s first car, a Daimler, was built in Coventry in 1906 (left).
Failing in the 20s were such brands as Crouch, Iden, Lotis (no, not Colin Chapman’s similarly-named “Lotus”) and Viking.
Other marques that called Coventry home include Alvis, Lea-Francis, Standard-Triumph, Riley, Singer, Hillman, Humber, Allard, Armstrong Siddely, Lanchester, Coventry-Climax (Grand Prix racing engines) and, of course, Jaguar.
The background to car badges
Since I’m driving one next week, I thought I’d delve into the meaning of the Zeekr badge.
The stylised “Z” symbol represents a gate, or entrance into a new era of intelligent electric mobility, with the central zig-zag line symbolising the first rays of sunlight through a city skyline.
But you knew that, didn’t you? The name itself breaks down as “ZE” representing “Zero” signifying the starting point of infinite possibilities, “E” for “Evolving” the electric era and “Kr” represents Krypton, a rare gas that emits a light when electrified, emphasising the brand’s electric, high-tech nature.
Seriously, you couldn’t make this stuff up. But somebody did!
And that’s how the fight started…
The other day, I said to my wife, “Ninety percent of the things you worry about never happen.” “See,” she replied. “Worrying works!”
Paul who?
Paul Murrell has a fascination with cars. Like the rest of us at Cars4starters he has been writing about them for a long time. He’s found the best stories are sometimes the small ones. Look no further.
Paul is a freelance motoring journalist who contributes to seniordriver.au, SA Life, Highlife, Survivor Car and a number of other motoring publications. Readers are encouraged to agree, disagree or express contrary points of view in writing at any time.