Cars keep getting heavier and physically larger, a trend bemoaned by enthusiasts but accepted as a necessary evil – and a recent crash test has shown why.
German vehicle testing organisation Dekra decided to highlight just how much car safety has advanced by putting a second-generation Volkswagen Golf Mk2 through its paces via crash and driving tests.
Held at its Crash Test Centre, the Golf Mk2 – produced between 1983 and 1992 – was subjected to crashes conducted to Euro NCAP’s previous standards, which were superseded in 2020.
In what’s known as the offset frontal crash test – which sees a vehicle hit the barrier at 64km/h and with a 40 per cent overlap – the Golf was found to have provided little protection for its occupants.
“In the Golf Mk2, occupants would have had little chance of surviving this head-on collision due to the collapse of the passenger compartment, the deep penetration of vehicle components into the passenger compartment, the deceleration and the impact on the steering wheel,” Dekra accident research expert Markus Egelhaaf said.
It was a different case for a contemporary Golf Mk8 however, which in its 2019 Euro NCAP test did a far better job at keeping potential passengers safe.
“The entire passenger compartment remained completely intact, and the occupants were very well protected by the front and side airbags in combination with the seat belts, belt tensioners, and belt force limiters,” Egelhaaf said of the Mk8.
In addition to the physical crash tests, the two Golfs were compared as to how they could potentially avoid ending up in an incident. According to Dekra, the Mk8 Golf’s braking distance was 30 per cent shorter than the Mk2, showing advancements made in brake and tyre technology.
The latter factor also came into play in a test of cornering stability, with Dekra conducting “a standardised double-lane-change test to simulate sudden evasive manoeuvres around an obstacle – driving around it, and then steering back into the original lane.”
With a professional driver behind the wheel, the Mk2 Golf completed the test at 65km/h, while the Mk8 model was able to do it at 75km/h.
“While the Golf Mk2 dipped deeply on the outside of the curve at the front, causing the rear wheel on the inside of the curve to lose contact, the dip was significantly less pronounced in the Golf Mk8 and there was no loss of contact,” Dekra noted.
On top of the crash and crash avoidance tests, Dekra highlighted changes in lighting technology, comparing the Mk2 Golf’s halogen headlights to the modern LED headlights in the Mk8, noting the latter’s “are in a completely different league”.
“Overall, the tests have shown the progress that has been made in vehicle safety over the past 35 years.”
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