4 x 4 vs golf

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Fri 12 Dec 2014 09:04
4 x 4 vs golf - S40 Man

Just saw crash between new looking golf and old school lr defender. 50 mph A road. Landie aquaplaning resulting head on collision. No one hurt too bad. Looked like the golf absorbed about 80% of the crash energy to me. What happens if 2 landies crash? Where does the energy go? Even a few years ago this would have been serious I think. Count me out from buying a classic car.

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Fri 12 Dec 2014 09:14
4 x 4 vs golf - RT

It's an on-going problem with "body-on-frame" construction because of the huge difference in strength between the body and the frame.

LR products, not just Defender, do have better crush-zones to absorb energy but it's not easy to achieve.

When LR first put driver/passenger air-bags into the Range Rover, they found they had to do far more engineering than they expected as the early prototypes with air-bags failed their crash tests badly - the frame stopped so suddenly that the inertia forces of the driver/passenger were so great on the air-bags that the air-bag mountings smashed the front bulkhead before they'd finished their job.

After the necessary engineering changes, all was well, but a salutary experience.

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Fri 12 Dec 2014 19:12
4 x 4 vs golf - Sofa Spud

There isn't much to absorb the impact in an old Land Rover Defender before it gets to the occupants. And your head is very close to the windscreen and side windows, not to mention the bits of sharp metal dotted around inside (probably padded over in more recent versions).

Edited by Sofa Spud on 12/12/2014 at 19:14

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