My Black Brick

Ye olde Volvo commercial. That’s quite a slide.

A brick lover has to be careful when searching YouTube with the term “Volvo 240″. It seems like half the videos involve groups of teenage boys hooning their car into the ground… or off the ground, flying through the air to the music of Rammstein.

The rollover at 5:35 is pretty bad ass. None of the glass broke. Keep watching to see in slo-mo.

We know Volvo loves to crash their vehicles to demonstrate safety features, but in a recent demo the crash was truly an accident. To show off their Collision Avoidance™ system with Full Auto Brake™ technology, Volvo launched an equipped S60 toward a stationary truck at 20 mph, in front of press and video cameras. Unfortunately, the system failed and the car plowed into the bumper, destroying the front end of the vehicle and the careers of the people in Volvo’s PR and engineering departments.

So deadpan; so awesome.

via: Drive, Wired, TechNerd

When the story begins “I was only 15 at the time so of course i wasn’t legal to drive, but i drove anyways” you know it’s not going to end well. From car-accidents.com comes the story of an out-of-control 1989 240, flipping, rolling and sliding on its roof. As usual, the driver lived to see another day.

The frowning driver in this photo must be seething that he has to model with such a fugly car. But what this Volvo Experimental Safety Car (VESC) lacks in looks, it makes up for in driver protection.

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After seeing this video, I have no idea how anyone survived driving in the 1960s. When you combine ridiculous amounts of power with minimal seat belts, no child safety seats and inadequate  chassis rigidity, it’s no wonder accident survival rates were so low.

I love my headrest!

Via How We Drive.

In their Question of the Day “What Car Makes you Feel Safe?” Jalopnik shows the love for the 240:

For an almost 25-year-old wagon it’s quite nimble and we feel maneuverability is just as important as anything else because you’re best advantage in a possible crash is avoiding it.

The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety celebrated their 50th anniversary by playing chicken with a 1959 and a 2009 Chevrolet. Neither car blinked and now they’re dead. If I had a choice, I’d go with the 2009 Malibu… and my life.

This is the extended footage, which includes scary interior footage from the Bel Air.

A 1974 244 runs into a wall at 45 MPH and all the impact is absorbed by the front end, with the passenger compartment barely affected. Nice.

This ad has been posted and pulled from YouTube before, so we’ll see how long it lasts. 45 seconds of crash-porn, showing old bricks being thrown, crushed and rolled to test for safety. The twist is that this is supposed to show how BAD those cars were, because drivers needed to push the brake pedal themselves. With “City Safety” your car will stop for you. Meh.