Austin 1800 Crashes at Thatcham Research Labs

Vintage 1960's footage of early research of what happens to a car when crashed head on into a concrete block at 30mph. At the time the 1800 had one of the strongest structures of any British car rivalled only by the BMW 7 Series so was perhaps not a very representative choice. However the Road Research Lab must have really liked them as they fitted seat belts to the door of another example and used a Princess in a TV advert to enforce the seat belt message during the eighties.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• austin
• 1800
• car
• crash
• morris
• wolseley
• six
• 18/85
• landcrab

[landcrab75]

All that prevented the engine coming through the bulkhead on a head on was a single skin of pressed steel - Chris Kingham said no attention was paid to secondary safety but Issigonis claimed his cars had dodgeability.

Yes I'd like to know more about the 1800's structural rigidity and how well it handled impacts but suspect Thatcham will ask £100 for 40 year old footage to "appease their shareholders". Do they think GM will base future designs of the Astra on a 40 year old chassis?

[landcrab75]

This was all they showed on TV. I guess there is more footage and probably a results page listing deformities but you would need the patience of Jobe to track them down as the lab was privatised and now everything costs.

[nzoomed]

id like to see more footage of this since i drive one of these! lol

[mrspivvy]

One of the few things in the 1800's favour was the immensely strong structure (before the sills rotted out, anyway)

[nzoomed]

@mrspivvy

they also have an extremley strong pipe like column that runs right across the width of the car behind the engine, this is what houses the hydrolastic displacers.

[smurftums]

From what I remember reading of the crash tests that they did in the 1970's, the structure was strong enough but the footwell deformation was considerable (and the mini was worse).

[moyadapne]

They were strong alright. You could jack it up at each end, and the doors would open and close perfectly.