Our cars are just cans. Expensive cans
 

I guess that this may have already been posted, if so apologies for the duplication.... Anyway, here goes

http://www.boredstop.com/index.php?o...id=44&Itemid=1

The fact that it peeled open like that is probably what saved his life, as the impact would have been dissipated gently.

There's also the following one of a S8:

http://performancedrive.com.au/audi-...iver-survives/

Pole/tree impacts at high speed are virtually impossible for a vehicle structure to maintain integrity. Particular issue in Germany where many motorways are tree-lined and without crash barriers. Manufacturers have enough trouble managing the energy in a crash with another vehicle when all the load paths are different from car to car and vary with overlap and accident scenario. Once you get past the point of energy management and the structure fails it's down to pot luck how the occupants come out of it......makes you think!

Aluminium cars do seem to rip around a tree rather than wrap around like steel cars, but they also have high survival rates.

just like planes, also big aluminium cans. Just enough strength to fly.
Titanium is the way to go.
Or Buckypaper composite, that's for the future. Maybe then cars will be 1/2 the weight they are today and 10 times as strong structurally.

The properties of the material used will influence crash performance, no doubt about it. If you ever see a video of a fire crew cutting into an aluminium car it's amazing how much harder it is for them than with a steel car. They end up crushing the aluminium and taking 3 or 4 goes at each cut, where with a steel car they go straight through it!

A lot of the injuries in a crash come from the sudden stop, so the car seperating around the object will result in less damage from that angle.

The Rs6 is a steel car...... only a few select bits were ally to save weight, like the bonnet etc.

If you strip a car down its easy to see why they rip across the back seat - Theres nothing holding it together, just a thin bit of box section really. Behind that you have the rear subframe providing lateral strength, and up front the front subframe, engine, and even dashboard are bolted across the car holding everything together... Even the front seats are well bolted in to give some sideways strength. The back seat is the only exposed expanse of metal that has nothing really bolted into it, so I guess statistically the back seat area is the weak point, which is probably a good thing as it surely improves the chances of the driver / passenger walking away........

Of course, not hitting the tree/pole sideways in the first would probably help a lot.... +++