Have you seen the crash comparison between the 1959 Bel Air and a 2009 Malibu that the IIHS put on about ten years ago to demonstrate the differences in structure design that have made vehicles safer over the last half-century? You want to root for the Bel Air but when you see Mr. Crash Test Dummy get a face full of dashboard and steering wheel in slow-motion, you can’t help but look at your older car in a different light. Automakers have made great strides in safety since the current mid-point in the world of the automobile. In the 1950s and 1960s, weight was going to save your hide. Today, a car like the Smart ForTwo can take a hit from a dump truck and bounce away with the passengers more or less surviving the incident.
We’ve shown you videos of what the Europeans call “banger racing” before. Basically, take a demo derby, put the rulebook through the shredder, and don’t stop until three cars have been violently merged into one automobile. In a nutshell, that’s how it works. The cars themselves tend to be ten or twenty-year-old boxes that mostly deserve their fate, though we’ve seen the likes of a mid-1990s Cadillac Fleetwood limo take an absolute pounding in a race where it should have been a wrecking ball.
Banger racing isn’t a new sport at all. Fifty years ago someone’s grandfather was getting ready to send the trusty but rusty Ford Zephyr to it’s final resting place, but before the car made it to the breakers, he had to make one stop at a bullring somewhere to have a friendly drive with a few fellows. They laughed, they joked, and then they proceeded drive like the cops were hot on their heels, with zero regard for safety or sense, until the damn thing died it’s noble death. But is it just us, or are these guys a bit more careful than modern-day banger racers?
soon we will have races like this with self driving cars