GENERAL MOTORS 1970s HIGH SPEED CAR CRASH TESTS with AIR BAG DEPLOYMENT 50244

[@davidhoffman5789]

Interesting collision angles, considering how many more years it took just to get plain 50% offset into perpendicular barrier tests to be accepted. Note the some of test dummies are not even wearing lap belts. The early bags had to deploy with such force in order to slow down an unbelted human that they ended up injuring some people. The European car manufacturers such as BMW, Mercedes Benz, Volvo, Saab, etcetera considered the goals of the proposed completely unbelted occupant requirements by the US DOT to be unrealistic. I remember that the State Farm and Allstate insurance companies basically came to the same conclusion. People were going to have to wear at least a lap belt if the inflatable restraint systems were going to work reasonably well at reducing injuries. Some of the Allstate and State Farm advertisements for airbags showed lap belted occupants.

[@matthewgaines10]

The cars in the videos were all GM X cars. Shown (not in order) were Chevrolet Citation 5Dr hatchback, Chevrolet Citation 3Dr hatchback, Chevrolet Citation 2Dr Sedan, Pontiac Phoenix 2Dr Sedan, and Pontiac Phoenix 3Dr hatchback.

[@PeriscopeFilm]

Thank you so much for this comment, it really clears up why we were having a hard time id'ing these autos!

[@tdvandy2]

There are a couple of Buick Skylarks in their as well. They were also Gm X cars.

[@compu85]

@@PeriscopeFilm You can tell this is testing out the new ACRS airbag system - the dashboard isn't a finished piece in some of the cars, just a cover.

[@stevevarholy2011]

From the louvers on the lower quarters of one Citation coupe, the vehicles are likely model year 1980 cars, with the films as early as late 1979. The louvers were 1980 MY only.

[@reflexindex267]

The driver airbags seemed to work really well. But the passenger one seemed to make the dummy move like the neck was snapped or something

[@AlexSpalex1]

I noticed the air bag module looks like a prototype of the one Cadillac used in the early 90's.

[@theovee4321]

I think this is actually the 80s

[@williswhatchutalkinbout4367]

theo vee read the description.......

[@jillclarke782]

Passenger airbag broke your neck...

[@NoCoMpany741]

That is impressive of you finding this considering that GM or Chrylser mostly hide their crashtest footage and make them unavaible to the public

[@whattheheck1000]

Just because something happened on or after January 1, 1980 doesn't automatically make it "not the 1970s". I don't know when these tests took place, I would guess some time between about 1978-1982, so "late 1970s" seems reasonable. These are tests conducted by GM, and there are X-cars (Chevy Citation, et al) in them, and the X-cars launched in April 1979. It's entirely reasonable that GM would have prototypes available for testing in 1978. January 28, 2021 3:27 am

[@CoolAce1]

These cars came out in 1980 as the Chevy Citation. These are real world crash tests. Much better than today's tests.

[@davidhoffman1278]

The motor vehicle insurance company association, IIHS, uses barrier testing to produce results that are relatively easy to duplicate by any other group. The velocities used and barrier materials used are engineered to give scientifically valid approximations of real world vehicle to vehicle collisions. The offset collisions are valid enough to have slowly influenced changes in vehicle design and engineering such that we have seen increased footwell protection, increased resistence to A-pillar failures, and redesigned side impact window SIRS such that head impact probability into structure is reduced.

[@kz1000ps]

Sooooo much CAR-nage! XD

[@tythornburg3460]

Pontiac Phoenix's, Chevrolet Citations (hatchback 4 Dr., notchback 2 dr.), Buick Skylarks... Just the few I saw.

[@robm4469]

Why did it take them 20 more years to produce the airbags? Imagine how many lived could have been saved smh

[@sasz2107]

Nobody wanted them because they didn't understand the benefits. Airbags were an option on some full sized GM cars in 1974 and 1975 (an option on full sized Buicks and Oldsmobiles), but so few were sold, they were discontinued.

[@kamilkolmer5787]

Still better than european cars from 90s and early 2000.

[@scottpearson9974]

Also at least two Buick Skylarks in there also!

[@redneck400m3]

Shoulda used a caprice.

[@mikeshobbiesandrandomstuff]

Cars in this video range from 83-85

[@darnezzi]

GM X cars from early 80s. they debuted in 1981

[@stevevarholy2011]

*1979 as 1980 model year.

[@inrustwetrust5395]

That's mid '80s.

[@AngelHernandez-ls5wr]

Early.

[@joshhoman]

GM X bodies