History
Car Safety Trivia
The Hybrid III crash test dummy family portrait.
I don’t know why trivia books are so popular, but they are. We could spend a bit of time pondering what it is about humanity that makes collecting obscure and quirky facts interesting or amusing. However, that wouldn’t be half as much fun as actually sharing a bit of trivia, taking the topic of car safety this time.
Not that car safety is a trivial issue, by any means. These days, a new car review is just as likely to emphasise all the safety features, active and passive, as it is to list the power and torque stats. And no wonder: in the state of Victoria last year, there were 248 fatal road accidents; NSW had 302. Some of these were drivers, some were passengers, some were cyclists and some were pedestrians. This is why safety features exist, everybody. There are a lot of lives that could be saved. When you think about the number of people who do idiot things like not wearing seatbelts, drinking too much and driving at speeds that are just plain too fast for the conditions, “facepalm” and “head-desk” just don’t quite cover it.
Right, enough depressing stuff and on with the trivia…
- Top-level crash testing facilities such as MIRA in the UK don’t just crash-test cars. They also test other vehicles like heavy trucks, and “roadside furniture” such as lamp posts and traffic lights. Yes, they now crash-test lamp-posts to make them safer so wrapping your car around a pole is less likely. Don’t hold your breath for them to make it over to Australia for a while yet, though, so drive safely!
- The first crash test dummy was called “Sierra Sam”. Sam was invented in the late 1940s and was used for testing ejector seats in aircraft. It wasn’t until later that someone realised that using crash test dummies would be a good idea for new car models.
- The average crash test dummy is 1.78 metres tall.
- Airbags were first invented in 1952 by US inventor John W Hetrick. However, it wasn’t until 1971 that Ford first actually put them in.
- The three-point seatbelt that we all know today was invented in 1959 by a guy working for Volvo named Nils Ivar Bohlin. According to Volvo , during the inventor’s lifetime, about 1 million lives were saved by the three-point seatbelt. Let’s all make his name known more widely, because he certainly deserves it.
- The state of Victoria was the first place in the world to enact seat belt legislation in 1970 when they made it compulsory for drivers and front seat passengers to wear some sort of seat belt. That’s over 40 years ago and some people still haven’t managed to get it.
- Crash test dummies aren’t the only things strapped into the seats of cars and propelled at speed into an obstacle. Over the years, testers have used human cadavers and, rather nastily, live pigs under anaesthesia. Testing with live anaesthetised animals wasn’t banned until 1993. Cadaver testing sounds pretty macabre and probably is, but is considered to be the absolute best way to test new passive safety features. When you think about it, it’s no worse than donating organs for transplants or donating your body to medical colleges for research purposes and it does help save lives. It certainly beats using the poor old piggies.
- Airbags inflate at 320 km/h, which is faster than the top speed of most cars they’re installed in.
- The most common type of crash test dummy is the Hybrid III. To be more accurate, the Hybrid III family is used. This crash test dummy family consists of Mr Hybrid III (five foot nine inches), his big brother Uncle Hybrid III (six foot two), Mrs Hybrid III (five foot no inches) and two kids aged six and three. Mr Hybrid represents the 50th percentile for adults, Uncle is the 95th percentile and Mrs Hybrid is the 5th percentile.
- Those percentiles mentioned in the snippet above are now out of date. Thanks to galloping obesity (or, more appropriately, not galloping), there’s a chance that crash testing facilities are going to need big fat dummies.
Safe (very safe) and happy driving,
Megan
A Car That Turns Head For The Wrong Reasons: The Reliant Robin
And on top of the other weirdness, the bonnet opens backwards.
There are some cars that turn heads for the right reasons. You look at them and think “Wow!” I remember nearly going off the road the first time I saw a vehicle that I loved the styling of (it was a 2000 model Ford Falcon XR6, by the way – although I mistook it for a Jaguar at first glance). Others are a pure dream to drive and seem to have been created by designers who really think about what people need and want (something I’ve experienced with the Volvo and the Saab I’ve owned over the years – bravo, Sweden!).
Others turn heads for the wrong reasons. They leave you wondering what on earth the design team was thinking. You wonder how on earth the cars in question got off the drawing board, let alone the sales yard. One car in particular stands out as a real head-turner (for the wrong reasons) and head-scratcher: the Reliant Robin.
If you’ve seen a Mr Bean episode, you’ve probably seen a Reliant Robin. It’s the three-wheeled blue thing that perpetually gets shunted out of the way by Bean’s beloved yellow Mini . This vehicle wasn’t, as I once thought back in my teen years, specially created by the producers of the Mr Bean series as a joke. It is for real. A design team really did sit down and a car company really did make a car with three wheels. What’s more, it sold. Apparently, the “Plastic Pig”, as it came to be called, is the second-most popular fibreglass vehicle. It also went through three facelifts (all of which kept the three wheels) and was produced up until 2001.
The idea behind the Reliant Robin was frugality and innovation. It was developed back in the 1970s during the oil crisis, so cars with small engines were highly desirable (some things don’t change). This had the benefit of bringing the Mini and the Fiat 500 to public attention but it also produced some right horrors. As well as the Reliant Robin, another mid-1970s horror was the Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar, an electric vehicle (yep, things haven’t changed) that was great in the fuel consumption department but looked singularly hideous and had windows that zipped up.
The Sebring Citicar.
But why, oh why did they make it with just three wheels? It doesn’t make for better aerodynamics to increase the fuel economy. It certainly doesn’t make for better handling. Out of all the three-wheeled car designs (the Reliant Robin isn’t the only one in existence), the delta layout (one wheel at the front, two at the back) is the least stable and is prone to rolling when braking The “tadpole” layout – one at the back, two at the front, as seen in the BMW Isetta – is somewhat more stable.
The reason why they made it with three wheels was to make it more accessible: because of the engine size and because it had less than four wheels, it was classed as a motorbike for licensing and registration purposes. If you were a miner working in the north of England who needed to get to work cheaply but didn’t want to freeze your buttocks off on a motorbike, and you didn’t want to pay a packet for car registration, something like the Reliant Robin kind of made sense, especially as you could fit the family in the back, like you would with any three-door hatchback.
Specifications-wise, the Reliant Robin achieved its aim of good fuel economy. The 1970s model’s teeny little 750 cc engine (with 29.5 kW of power and 63 Nm of torque and a 0–100 km/h time of 17 seconds, depending on who you ask) could do 70 miles per gallon (that’s 4 L/100 km). The top speed of the Robin was 136 km/h, although given its performance when braking and cornering, you probably wouldn’t want to flog the little thing that hard. Especially as the body was made of fibreglass to keep the weight and fuel consumption down. Needless to say, the Reliant Robin has a rear-wheel-drive powertrain.
The Robin is notoriously unstable, with a tendency to lift rear wheels off the ground during hard braking or cornering. This is probably the main reason why it ended up being the patsy in the Mr Bean episodes: it was easy to roll, push, tip and otherwise abuse. Top Gear episodes have also taken the mickey out of the Robin. And the three-wheel design makes it look just plain weird.
However, as with all very distinctive cars, there are going to be a few people who are passionate about the quirkiness of the vehicle in question. Some people love the Robin. Heck, one specialist website claims that HRH Princess Anne once owned one. Owners say that they like the way that people stop to stare and smile at the car. Small children have been known to burst into laughter at the sight of a Robin. So I guess the Robin has the advantage of bringing more smiles and laughter into the world. If you want to do this, fine. Just remember two important things: (1) take it very, very easy around the corners, and (2) have another vehicle for taking the kids to school unless you want them to die of embarrassment (although it would make a good parental threat).
Safe and happy driving, whether you prefer two, three or four wheels,
Megan
Ancient Resurrection: The Masters Historic Festival at Brands Hatch
Image Credit: BrandsHatch.co.uk
“A demon of the ancient world. This foe is beyond any of you.”
There are whispers in the dark. Mutterings of a nameless fear once thought long departed from this world. This is the deep breath before the storm. The serenity that dominates our modern world will be broken; shattered as the true power of the past unleashes its voracious fury. On this bank holiday, the Kentish countryside will explode in an illustrious majesty unmatched by anything from the modern world. This is the Masters Historic Festival at Brands Hatch. And Stopwatch as ever is here for all your hospitality needs and more!
This bank holiday weekend, prepare to relive the shining glory of the motorsport past as once again the Masters Historic Festival returns to Brands Hatch. And this year it is better than ever. If I asked you to name some of the great race series from the past, chances are that most of these will be racing this weekend. This is not just historic racing, this is a celebration and resurrection of our racing past in a weekend long festival that will stun, amaze and leave you wanting more.
Making their monstrous return to the undulating Kentish countryside is the FIA Masters Historic Formula One championship, proving exactly what F1 racing should be in all its rapturous, thunderous and almighty glory. No one is saying that the modern championship has a lot to learn from these beastly machines of old, but the vicious combination of speed, power and ungodly noise puts the aggravated bees of the modern day to shame. With machines from the 60s, 70s and 80s including Williams, Tyrell, Lotus and Arrows to name but a few, the golden age of Formula One racing will roar back into life in spectacular fashion.
These titanic time travellers would not be complete without a touring car renaissance, in the form of the Super Touring Championship. In a monster grid of nearly 30 cars, machines from arguably the greatest era of BTCC racing will come together to take on Brands Hatch. The Super Touring era truly defined what it was that makes tin top racing so special. In a time of excess and glamour, the BTCC attracted big manufacturers, big budgets and big names. The 90s may well be over, but the iconic machines remain, ready to reignite the meteoric fires of battle once again. From Nissan Primeras to Honda Accords to Ford Sierra Cosworths, this is not to be missed.
Photo taken from: supertcc.com
If that was not enough to whet your appetite, the FIA Masters Historic Sports Car championship will be pitting classic endurance cars against each other, bringing back the spirit of Le Mans from days gone by. Nothing quite beats the sight and sound of a Ford GT40 on the pit straight at Brands Hatch; truly electrifying. And on top of all that, various support series with classic sports, touring and single-seater machines make this a weekend of racing you do not want to miss.
The weekend is not just about the racing, a host of demonstrations and displays will transform Brands Hatch into the perfect Bank Holiday festival. Do not miss your chance to see classic F1 cars from the late 80s and 90s both on track and up close, while feasting your eyes on car displays including Aston Martin, Ferrari and Lancia among many others.
With such a biblically impressive weekend ahead, you deserve to enjoy the action in style. And there is no better place for that than Stopwatch Hospitality. For the small price of £45 per person, guests will be treated to an unrivalled behind the scenes hospitality experience, including multimedia access to live timing, twitter and video feed, complimentary tea and coffee, cash bar and a spectacular view of the circuit. But most importantly, word has reached our ears that BTCC legend John Cleland has agreed to give us a pit tour, sign autographs and take part in a Q&A session for guests. Cleland is celebrating a staggering 20 years since his most famous championship glory in the BTCC. Now that is not something you hear every day now is it?
On this glorious Bank Holiday weekend, its time to let loose the demons of the ancient world. This is the Masters Historic Festival at Brands Hatch. This is Stopwatch Hospitality.
See you there!
Race Day Tickets: £45 per person (Half Price for Ages 12 and under)
– Includes Circuit Entry and All-day Suite Access
Road Surfaces Over The Millennia
If I were a better artist, I’d love to create a wordless book tracing the development of a road across from a single game trail to a modern superhighway. History is pretty fascinating, so let’s take a look at how road surfaces have changed over the millennia. I’ll just stick to road surfaces, as including the wheres and whys of roading would make this article far too long to read in one sitting.
If you’ve ever seen a house where they park on the grass during winter, you soon see why. All that pressure and squelching soon becomes deep, thick mud, where wheels get bogged. Shortly after the wheel was invented (around 5000 BC), road surfacing followed shortly afterwards.
Roman road still in use in Jebel, Syria.
The earliest form of road surfacing was just plain brick, and examples can still be seen today in the Indus Valley. However, paving stones proved to be superior – they could just be cut out of rock and dropped into place, rather than baked like bricks. What’s more, rain and grit didn’t wear stone away like it did brick.
The Romans were the first ones to do more than just chuck stones down on top of the surface of a dirt track. They figured out that if you put down a good base layer, all the rain would drain away more easily, so you didn’t get problems with rutting and potholing as often. The Romans invented basecourse and subbase, and these techniques are still in use today.
At the bottom of a Roman road, the earth was levelled off at a fair depth down and rammed. After this, a layer of large stones the size of a hand was put down. Next came a layer of concrete (yes, the Romans invented concrete). After that, a layer of very fine gravel. On the very top came flagstones, and they were laid so the middle of the road was higher than the sides, rather like the shell of a tortoise, for better drainage. Not all roads in Roman times got the full treatment, but the most important ones did – the key ones for trade and military manoeuvres. Other rather familiar things found on a proper Roman road were milestones and pavements (sidewalks).
The Romans also introduced the idea of roading standards – they had a set of measurements that had to be stuck to for all roads, as least as much as possible, complete with different measurements for straight bits and for curved bits.
Legionaries building a Roman Road. “Metopa Columna lui Traian Constructie drum”. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons –
Tar did get used to seal roads during Classical times. This mostly happened in the oil-rich Middle East. Back then, tar was the only thing an oil well was good for. But the idea of combining the Roman method of construction with the waterproofing of tar didn’t come for nearly 2000 years later. From 500 BC to about 1800 AD, it was cobblestones all the way. It wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution that a new method was discovered… ironically, it was about the same time that better suspension systems in the form of leaf springs put in an appearance.
The breakthrough was invented by the Scotsman John MacAdam, although some credit does have to go to a couple of other civil engineers of the time, Pierre-Marie-Jérôme Trésaguet and Thomas Telford. These three engineers had the goal of making good roads cheaply. Needless to say, it was hard work making cobblestones that fitted nicely into roads to give it a good smooth finish. Cobblestones, after all, had to be cut by hand by a skilled bloke with a hammer and chisel.
Macadam did two things. Firstly, he did away with the club sandwich of layers that the Romans used, although a plain sandwich of basecourse and subbase still gets used today. Secondly, he found out that a good layer of gravel pushed into the right shape allowed for good drainage and was a lot smoother than cobblestones – and could be bashed into shape by a machine or by a road gang (possibly of convicts) in large quantities. Your typical back-country gravel road is what a Macadam road looked like.
Macadam’s roads had one problem, even though they drained pretty well and gave a comfier ride. They kicked up heaps and heaps of dust, especially once motorized transport became really popular thanks to the manufacturing efforts of Ford and others. A solution was found pretty quickly: tar, which had the added advantage of being waterproof. This was known as “tarred Macadam”. This method involved two coats of tar or bitumen: one on the subgrade before the macadam gravel, then a top layer to seal it all in. You can still see this method used on a lot of country roads.
Then came Edgar Hooley, who had the bright idea of mixing the aggregate (the finely crushed gravel) with the tar before putting it on the road. This was then flattened into place by a steamroller (which really did run on steam) and was super smooth as well as waterproof. He patented his method under the name “tarmac” (short for “tarred Macadam”, although we also call it after the form of tar mixed with the aggregate: bitumen or asphalt.
Modern asphalt/bitument/tarmac.
Naturally, the development of road surfaces is still going on today. Slipping, cracking and rutting still happen. Who knows what they’ll think of next?
Safe and happy driving, whether your wheels are on gravel, cobbles or tarmac,
Megan
Level 2, 9 Help Street