5th Gear crashed a 2005 Renault Espace Mk4 into a 2005 Range Rover. Both were considered state of the art crash protection at the time.
I can find absolutely no reference to this anywhere.
There was a crash test where they crashed a mk4 Espace into a series 1 discovery. I seen no reference to any Range Rover crash tests on Fifth gear and I don't see why they would when they had already done the disco into the same mk4 espace.
Anyway, like I said they never did these things for the science, they did them for the entertainment of smashing cars. No shock and awe if both cars perform well which is why they always pick mismatched cars and why they always crash them at well above the speed that any NCAP test would be done.
With regards to the Fifth Gear crash test being designed to favour the Renault: that entirely depends on which way you look at it. On the 1 hand, yes, you have a 5 star NCAP Espace against a mid 90s Land Rover; but on the other hand, that aforementioned Land Rover does have that strong separate chassis you mention, which could potentially inflict fatal damage on the Espace.
It could if the cars hit head on but they didn't they had an offset and the shape of the headlight frames and inner wings on the landrover which are all steel, appear to have deflected the espace past the chassis rail, basically it looked so bad because the chassis did not come into play and the body of the car took all the damage, there is no strength in the structure of the landrover.
With regards to driver aids, I have no problem whatsoever with a well designed, non intrusive traction and stability system; however, no offence here, but if someone feels they actually need a car to be capable of checking blind spots, keeping them in lane, or braking for them, then quite frankly, I can't help but think they shouldn't be driving tbh. Also, I wouldn't have much faith in the autonomous braking systems: I remember 306maxi saying about an instance where a chocolate bar wrapper blew in front of the car, causing it to slam its brakes on! I also remember Top Gear a couple of years ago, where they were testing the system on a VW Arteon: Rory Reid was stood in front of the car as it approached, and he actually had to jump to safety, as the system didn't detect him. They repeated the test, this time, with him jumping around, and the car still didn't brake!!
So the car checking a "Blind spot" is clearly adding safety because if by definition there is a blind spot, then there is a spot the driver cannot see into. If alerted there is something in this spot then it is adding safety.
Things that keep cars in lanes stop people drifting, a major cause of accidents is people falling asleep and drifting off the road or into the path of other vehicles. Interesting you should bring up the Arteon, because this has a feature that if you were to fall asleep it slows the car, pulls over to the side of the road and puts the hazard lights on, if after a few attempts it has failed to wake you up.
As for people jumping around in front of the car, well these are supplementary systems like an airbag. They are not always guaranteed to stop you having an accident. Some of them only work at fairly slow speeds, however they might stop you going up the arse of another car in traffic or hitting a car that swaps lanes in front of you, or hitting a cyclist who bumps off a kerb.
Maxi works in R&D so I don't doubt in that process cars might do some odd things while kinks are being worked out. However a car braking for a chocolate bar wrapper is not going to put anyone in danger, unless there is someone not paying attention, driving too close and dangerously behind you.
how many times do humans jam on the brakes for seemingly no good reason?
With regards to the ongoing old vs new debate, I'd never say that the latest cars aren't potentially stronger than the slightly older ones, I do feel that it needs to be kept in perspective: we're talking about 5 star cars from the mid-00s, not designs from the 1980s, with passenger compartments with the structural rigidity of a crisp packet.
exactly.
The old mk1 discovery was designed in the 80s, the Volvo 900 series was derived from the 700 series also with origins in the early 80s. The renaults are usually brand new models built to NCAP standards of crash testing. Back in the 80s there was no NCAP.
The last point regarding the police chase is that did they go into detail about if people where or where not wearing seatbelts? had their seat and steering wheels correctly adjusted etc?
A seatbelt is capable of causing a nasty chest injury (ask my wife after she crashed her MK2b punto and fractured her breast bone) and also the airbag can cause a very nasty injury if sat too close.
