Emira crash testing

[JasonR]

Used the search function but couldn’t find anything. Anyone got any pictures or videos of the crash tests? Curious to see how they held up!

 

[eclat2emira]

Used the search function but couldn’t find anything. Anyone got any pictures or videos of the crash tests? Curious to see how they held up!

Not sure I could bear to watch!

 

[TXEMIRA]

Used the search function but couldn’t find anything. Anyone got any pictures or videos of the crash tests? Curious to see how they held up!

I don’t know what’s worse. Seeing these beautiful safety cars or thinking about the wreckage of an operational vehicle…

Seeing the safety car, knowing it’s just drawing more interest, though that could be a customer car…

Nightmare of the necessary crash testing knowing it may help save lives…

Ah!

 

[TomE]

I’ve got a few pictures somewhere of the post-test cars awaiting disposal. I’ll try to find them.

I’ve got pictures of the Evora crash test cars and you’ll find them on the internet. They displayed them at the factory for the 60th Anniversary open day. Very impressive, they managed to re-use one of the cars for a second test because it had so little damage from the first test.

 

[VL3X]

 

[DerTheDer]

This rear impact was from a shopping cart going 5.4 miles per hour.

 

[EspritGuy]

This rear impact was from a shopping cart going 5.4 miles per hour.

Here we go with the whole 'wheel gap' thing again.

 

[TomE]

Evora crash test pictures:

Rear impact. At the time this was a US-specific requirement to simulate a car being hit while stopped on the road shoulder and hit from behind by a car doing 50mph. The requirement was to maintain passenger cell integrity and have no fuel leak.

Head on frontal impact - note the complete deformation of the front chassis frame (compared to the next picture). The passenger cell is still complete and the doors both open. The windscreen damage is because the car was first used for the pedestrian impact test, which caused minimal damage to the car so it could be used for the second test (and it passed on the pedestrian impact).

Offset front impact. One sub-frame side member is deformed and the other intact. The passenger cell is undamaged. Note the extra front sub-frames on the right - in many of these tests the crash damage was contained to the sub-frame, so the main chassis was undamaged and the sub-frame could be replaced with a new one rather than having to write off the whole car.

I'm thankful for all this Lotus safety engineering. I had a bad accident in my Elise, skidding on a patch of black ice in the dark at about 40 mph and left the road, going over a ditch and landing in a field. I was shaken up and had a few bruises but didn't break any bones. I managed to drive the car out of the field but it then needed a new front clam and a new suspension wishbone and a buckled wheel replaced. The chassis was undamaged.