Uncle_Unix
09-03-2010, 11:30 AM
From the story
I admit, I have a strange fascination with watching cars crash. And though large, heavy cars can cause some of the most dangerous accidents, there’s something particularly satisfying about watching a small car hit the wall (or get hit by a large, heavy car (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02eghIfyHP0)). As an American I feel hard-wired to expect smaller cars to explode into a million pieces of tin foil and socialized medicine every time I see one making a slow-mo impact in a crash test. But the glory days (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7Q4lAWzL3w&NR=1) of “hoo boy!” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vWTNselXRM) moments in compact crash tests seem to be coming to a close. Toyota’s tiny iQ just logged a five-star rating from Europe’s NCAP crash testers, and as this video shows, the drama just never shows up. A cocoon of airbags, some brilliant crumpling and surprising side-impact resilience take a lot of the “sucks to be that dummy” entertainment value from the iQ test video. Oh well. I guess it’s time to move on to watching Chinese (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amFJwdg7O1E) car crash (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Ts94rjr4M) tests (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vAN2cx2UIE). Schadenfreude doesn’t feed itself.
CE_eUP_BAcU
I admit, I have a strange fascination with watching cars crash. And though large, heavy cars can cause some of the most dangerous accidents, there’s something particularly satisfying about watching a small car hit the wall (or get hit by a large, heavy car (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02eghIfyHP0)). As an American I feel hard-wired to expect smaller cars to explode into a million pieces of tin foil and socialized medicine every time I see one making a slow-mo impact in a crash test. But the glory days (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7Q4lAWzL3w&NR=1) of “hoo boy!” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vWTNselXRM) moments in compact crash tests seem to be coming to a close. Toyota’s tiny iQ just logged a five-star rating from Europe’s NCAP crash testers, and as this video shows, the drama just never shows up. A cocoon of airbags, some brilliant crumpling and surprising side-impact resilience take a lot of the “sucks to be that dummy” entertainment value from the iQ test video. Oh well. I guess it’s time to move on to watching Chinese (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amFJwdg7O1E) car crash (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Ts94rjr4M) tests (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vAN2cx2UIE). Schadenfreude doesn’t feed itself.
CE_eUP_BAcU