Even though it's a US Pontiac, I thought I'd post this from a Consumer Guide magazine test. It's interesting and humorous how they word it. Typically, they never found beauty in a car, only its potential for danger.
Haha, that's funny. If a pedestrian gets hit by a car that hard I'm not totally convinced the Pontiac would be that much worse!
And what are the odds the point would be the centre of impact?
They should mention that if the pedestrian gets hit just to the side of centre it would actually "roll" them a bit, lessening the impact vs a straight across front end...
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars (now converted to a "factory" 4 speed)
I guarantee if you got hit by a Google "car" at 100 km/h you wouldn't survive. A ton of bricks weighs the same as a ton of feathers.
Consumer Guide 1966. You've got to figure Nader's book "Unsafe at Any Speed" was on the current best-seller list at that time. Since then safety has improved exponentially, yet there are some today that view cars as little more than potential killers, as populous on the earth as insects, and are responsible for all that ails the world. I hate those people.
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67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
I dunno... I wouldn't want to be hit at 20 mph with one of those headlight pods. But it was industry wide, not just Pontiacs. Cars were styled for, well, style and not safety.
That said, as a pedestrian it would be better to be hit by this '66 than any of the huge monster pickups and SUVs of today. They are so tall and blunt that you're not bouncing up over the hood, your entire body is getting mashed by a wall of metal and plastic that's not overly forgiving to human flesh.
Life is dangerous, none of us get out of it alive. There's risk in everything, so be careful out there.
