When the assembly line workers in Wayne, Michigan, put the final touches on this 2012 Ford Focus sedan, they might have envisioned the life it would lead. Would it be a first new car for someone – say, a recent college graduate? How about a new ride for a young family? Maybe it would be a sporty-but-sensible choice for a retiree?
But this bright red Focus four-door wasn’t bound to create many memories for anyone other than a team of engineers and a few observers. Instead, it spent its last moment on earth as a usable sedan sitting in a well-lit laboratory in otherwise tranquil rural Virginia before a vaguely car-like barrier plowed into the side of it, rendering it useless for anything but research.
Flash back to before the Focus’ life came to a smashing halt. Lights in the hangar-sized lab dimmed, illuminating only the red sedan. The room, which was full of hushed conversation fell silent. A garage door clanged open. A countdown began. 10… 9… the Focus sat undisturbed, only black and yellow tape and some wires attached to sensors suggesting it wasn’t parked here by chance…6…5… it is ominously lit, the low glare lights making it look more like a model at a fashion shoot…3… 2… 1…
Zip! Wham! Pop!
A 3,300 lbs. barrier attached to a frame plows into the side of the Focus, pushing its tail out. Its hazard lamps automatically begin flashing to warn nearby drivers that something is amiss. The once-unruffled Focus is crumpled in on its drivers side and the side curtain airbags, which deployed and inflated as quickly as they deflated, dangle in place.
A team of engineers rushes over to the car, clipboards in hand. The lights come up, revealing the immense size of this lab, and the chatter resumes. The team pokes at the car, but doesn’t disturb anything since a photographer still needs to make his rounds. They feverishly take notes, like detectives at a crime scene. The conclusion? The Focus appeared to have performed admirably, something the data gleaned from the sensors will later confirm. A nearby Ford engineer looks smug.
Smashing cars and trucks
This Focus didn’t have a choice. It was plucked from a dealership lot in Charlottesville, Virginia, as a random Ford four-door not specially prepared to perform better than any other assembly line sibling. Instead of being loaded up with groceries and family members, it carried a crew of dummies – the research kind, not the “hey y’all, watch this!” kind – and more sensors and computers than R2D2's fantasy girlfriend.
It will be one of around 80 vehicles expected to give its life in this side impact test this year at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an independent vehicle safety-evaluating facility funded primarily by the nation’s insurance providers, both large and small.
IIHS’ Vehicle Research Center is located in beautiful, hilly terrain a short drive from bustling college town Charlottesville. Since the mid-1990s, IIHS has slammed brand new cars into barriers in the interest of research. It might look like an eight-year-old’s Hot Wheels dream come true, but the VRC, as IIHS acronymically calls it, is probably the world’s most advanced vehicle safety facility.
IIHS fine tuned offset frontal impacts by the late 1990s and then set out to evaluate far more deadly side impacts. From there, rear impacts – which can induce devastating whiplash – became a focus. Most recently, IIHS has turned its attention to roof strength, a measurement that can indicate crashworthiness in the event of a rollover. To say that the testing is comprehensive is an understatement – one underscored by its traffic data research.
Unlike the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, IIHS’ testing is entirely independent. IIHS invites automakers to send engineers to witness their tests, but only as observers. Until recently, some automakers complained that the tests were “too hard,” but IIHS countered, saying that offset front and direct side impacts were based on real-world experience.
Designed for safety
Early on, few cars performed well in IIHS’ testing – so poorly, in fact, that early crash test footage could send shivers down the spine of even the most hardened highway patrol officer or paramedic.It wasn’t until the latest crop of designs that cars began acing the tests. Perform well in front, side and rear collisions and have a roof capable of withstanding four times the vehicle’s weight, and a car will be honored with a Top Safety Pick award.
If you’ve been paying attention to Leftlane, you’ve probably noticed that an increasingly large number of new designs are Top Safety Picks. This begs the question – are automakers designing cars specifically for the tests?
IIHS spokesman Russ Rader gives an emphatic affirmative as we poke around the mangled red Focus in the engineers’ footsteps. But then he reminds us that the tests are designed to mimic actual crashes, even if they are conducted in a lab setting.
“The data is backed up by real world crashes,” Rader tells us. “We’re always studying real accidents to improve our testing.”
And with that, Rader gives us a sneak peak of an upcoming test IIHS is hoping to implement. Rather than the typical frontal offset, where a car is plowed directly into a barrier designed to represent a larger SUV, the new test would send the car into the barrier at somewhat of an angle. As a result, the impact would rip away the fender and the side of the hood, while pushing the engine and the front wheel into the passenger compartment. The test, Rader tells us, represents two cars headed for one another with a split-second, but still too slow, reaction from at least one of the drivers.
The test is officially called “frontal oblique overlap,” although Rader refers to it as the “can opener” for the way it rips sheetmetal away from a car’s structure, which is intentionally avoided by the test. IIHS hopes that the test’s upcoming implementation will be the next step needed toward further reducing highway fatalities, something that’s good news to both its benefactors – the insurance companies – and the buying public, a group much more attuned to safety now than they were 10 years ago.
Heavy hitting
As we’ve said, few new designs don’t earn close to top marks in most of IIHS’ tests. Rader reminds us that the Top Safety Pick rating is applicable to cars within a class. In other words, a Ford Fiesta, the smallest Top Safety Pick, probably isn’t as safe as a Toyota Tundra, one of its largest award-winners.
“The laws of physics are always in play,” Rader says. “It’s a myth that small, light cars are just as safe.”
As a result, IIHS is disheartened with automakers’ efforts to drastically cut weight from vehicles. While a lighter car consumes less fuel and, theoretically, drives better, it doesn’t perform well in crash tests.
Still, IIHS is almost single-handedly responsible for a vast surge in vehicle crashworthiness. Buyers no longer have to shop wisely to get access to important safety tech – like airbags and solid safety structures. And that’s a win for everyone involved, even if it might irk a few enthusiasts and shadetree mechanics who yearn for simpler vehicles – like the 1959 Chevrolet Impala IIHS slammed into a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu.
Boldly displayed in the laboratory’s entryway, the Impala and Malibu illustrated safety advances better than any chart or data sheet ever could. The Impala’s driver almost certainly wouldn’t have survived the modest wreck, while the Malibu’s might only have had to shrug off a daze from the fast-deploying airbag.
That certainly seems to make the red Focus’ sacrifice worthwhile.
Words and photos by Andrew Ganz.
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