Carmine
Old Man with a Hat
I might as well be the guy who posts this since I know some of the backstory and I know not all of you are on the Facebook machine.
Local guy, friend of mine, Finnish-immigrant-turned citizen, was just in a car accident driving a 1973 New Yorker sedan. He posted the story on his own Facebook page, (Detroit's Unforgotten Wheels) so I'm not violating any confidences here. I don't know if he's on this site, but if he is, he doesn't post frequently.
Anyways he was coming home from his work group's summer picnic (GM) and got rear-ended around 14 Mile and Dequindre, which would be either Warren or Madison Heights, depending which side of the road. I'm about 99% sure the thing that hit him was a Kia Forte. I will let those photos speak for themselves.
A little backstory because I think it's interesting.. the car was purchased in 2011 by noted Finnish Mopar collector Hans Granburg. At that time, he used the car to travel literally across the country, centering around the Woodward Dream Cruise. I don't know where the car originated from, but it was a nice solid survivor. While Hans was in town, I took him on a tour of the Warren Stamping Plant and the next door Dodge truck assembly plant, AKA Dodge City. He got to see a rolled coil of Steel come off the end of an assembly line as a finished Ram 1500.
While he was in town, he had some tire problems which we worked on at my house. He flew back to Europe leaving the car in storage, in Michigan, with the idea he would return and use the car whenever he was in the states. Unfortunately he was never able to get back here, at least long enough to use the car. Even more unfortunately, he passed away around 2 years ago. The car accumulated back storage charges. A mutual friend, the Finnish immigrant I mentioned earlier, paid the storage fees and put the car back on the road this summer.
I'm sure there will be much discussion about safety, crumplezones, etc as there always is whenever an accident involves an older car. So I'll just get ahead of it and say that "new cars are safer" but if you have a functional brain, you should also realize that isn't a binary choice. By the early and middle 60s, companies were designing to manage crash energy; hoods were designed to fold, steering wheels and/or steering columns we're designed to collapse, frame rails and unibody rails had designed-in crush points. These were phased in with new platform designs, they didn't all come at any one particular year.. at least until government safety mandates in 1967 began requiring head restraints, etc. I'm attaching a photo that I smuggled out of engineering years ago showing the evidence of prioritizing the passenger compartment. I have others but this one does the job.
And if you want to mention that IIHS test of the 1959 Impala, it was known at the time when the car was new this was a weak design for several different types of crashes. Ford even made an ad out of it. I wouldn't pretend to tell you that an old car was safer than a new one, but I'm also smart enough to know they chose that Impala instead of an Imperial for the stunning aftermath. I doubt it would have been as stunning if they had chosen an Imperial... well it would have been stunning, but probably not in the way that made their point.
Photos attached. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Local guy, friend of mine, Finnish-immigrant-turned citizen, was just in a car accident driving a 1973 New Yorker sedan. He posted the story on his own Facebook page, (Detroit's Unforgotten Wheels) so I'm not violating any confidences here. I don't know if he's on this site, but if he is, he doesn't post frequently.
Anyways he was coming home from his work group's summer picnic (GM) and got rear-ended around 14 Mile and Dequindre, which would be either Warren or Madison Heights, depending which side of the road. I'm about 99% sure the thing that hit him was a Kia Forte. I will let those photos speak for themselves.
A little backstory because I think it's interesting.. the car was purchased in 2011 by noted Finnish Mopar collector Hans Granburg. At that time, he used the car to travel literally across the country, centering around the Woodward Dream Cruise. I don't know where the car originated from, but it was a nice solid survivor. While Hans was in town, I took him on a tour of the Warren Stamping Plant and the next door Dodge truck assembly plant, AKA Dodge City. He got to see a rolled coil of Steel come off the end of an assembly line as a finished Ram 1500.
While he was in town, he had some tire problems which we worked on at my house. He flew back to Europe leaving the car in storage, in Michigan, with the idea he would return and use the car whenever he was in the states. Unfortunately he was never able to get back here, at least long enough to use the car. Even more unfortunately, he passed away around 2 years ago. The car accumulated back storage charges. A mutual friend, the Finnish immigrant I mentioned earlier, paid the storage fees and put the car back on the road this summer.
I'm sure there will be much discussion about safety, crumplezones, etc as there always is whenever an accident involves an older car. So I'll just get ahead of it and say that "new cars are safer" but if you have a functional brain, you should also realize that isn't a binary choice. By the early and middle 60s, companies were designing to manage crash energy; hoods were designed to fold, steering wheels and/or steering columns we're designed to collapse, frame rails and unibody rails had designed-in crush points. These were phased in with new platform designs, they didn't all come at any one particular year.. at least until government safety mandates in 1967 began requiring head restraints, etc. I'm attaching a photo that I smuggled out of engineering years ago showing the evidence of prioritizing the passenger compartment. I have others but this one does the job.
And if you want to mention that IIHS test of the 1959 Impala, it was known at the time when the car was new this was a weak design for several different types of crashes. Ford even made an ad out of it. I wouldn't pretend to tell you that an old car was safer than a new one, but I'm also smart enough to know they chose that Impala instead of an Imperial for the stunning aftermath. I doubt it would have been as stunning if they had chosen an Imperial... well it would have been stunning, but probably not in the way that made their point.
Photos attached. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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