Head On - 1938 Chevrolet Cars Educational Documentary

[EDNY]

A Chevrolet car is placed in a line of railroad freight cars to prove the box-girder frame is the strongest automobile frame that can be built.

Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a137aMMGnVc

[chopper526]

Very cool. By today's standards we would want to see the car crumple.

[themoose]

State of the art stuff for the time period but as chopper526 states, today the idea  is to build cars without frames that are better able to absorb the impact of an accident through their use of crumple zones thus sacrificing the vehicle and hopefully sparing the occupants. I guess the idea back in the day was to build a rigid box that could sustain the impact without failing while forgetting that the passengers were going to keep moving in the direction of travel until something stopped them (a body in motion tends to stay in motion)... OUCH

Moose

[TFoch]

Frames stiff as a bridge.  Nothing like today's Chevrolets