I’ve seen Nascar crashes where a car going 180 goes sideways into a wall, and then gets t-boned by other cars that were also going 180 mph and yet no rollover and the cars barely look damaged and everyone walks away unscathed. Meanwhile normal passenger cars go sideways doing 50mph and they roll over 6 times, gets demolished, and kills the driver. What is it about Nascar cars that make them so crash resistant/resilient?
In: Engineering
What makes that possible, more than anything, is the fact that most of what makes a car, a car, has been chucked in the bin in a racecar in order to reduce weight. This reduction in mass means that any crash is less forceful. A Nascar stock car is mostly a tubular steel frame, wrapped in a fiberglass shell. The heaviest things in that car when in operation are the motor and the driver.
There are a lot of safety features built into the cars:
* 5 point harnesses with energy absorbing dampers built in
* Seat molded to the driver’s body
* Side supports on the headrest which keep the driver’s head stable
* Roll cage and front/rear crumple zones
* Fire suppression built into the car (I forget if it’s automatic or not)
* This one is built into the track: energy-absorbing double walls in the corners
Bad crashes happen with a speed delta. On the street, the car is moving fast but the tree is not. Sudden deceleration events can be deadly. Nascar has worked hard to eliminate a lot of the solid barriers that would lead to a scary difference in speed.
Street cars are a compromise between safety and convenience. If you’re willing to crawl through the window, sit in a seat that pretty much fully wraps around you, wear a harness so only your arms and legs can move, and a helmet, you can have all of the same safety stuff. I had a Polaris RZR and put racing seats and harnesses in it. You can’t even reach things like cupholders after that.
Great answers here but I think there is something missing…that gets to the heart of what you are asking OP.
Race car safety is a different game than street car safety.
Street car safety strategy: provide the greatest chance of survival and minimum level of injuries for the minimally restrained occupants of the car in a crash that likely involves a single major impact. Do this by sacrificing part the structure of the car to slow down the energy transfer (the crumple zone). Minimizing injuries by from initial impact is more important than preserving the structure for subsequent impacts.
Race car safety: provide the greatest chance of survival for a maximally restrained occupant, in a crash that involves likely multiple major impacts. The safety structure must maintain integrity after initial impact. surviving subsequent impacts is more important than slowing down energy transfer to the occupant.
Yes it’s a gross generalization, a modern street car does have a safety cage, and a modern race car safety cage does absorb some impact energy. Nothing is black and white. But the concepts of safety are fundamentally different between the two.
A roll cage is designed to keep its shape, and to keep the occupant contained within it. Race cars don’t have crumple zones like a street car. The impacts of a crash are harsher on the human body than a crash in a street car. That’s why the driver is harnessed, with a helmet, restricted head movement, HANS device etc. it’s not just about the speed. It’s needed to keep the driver alive given the car structure cannot simply sacrifice itself to “cushion” an impact because it it is expected to potentially withstand the next impact, and the next impact, and the next…
NASCAR walls look like they’re solid, but they’re actually SAFER barriers. This is a steel layer (like Armco) which can bend under stress. Then a layer of foam blocks before the solid. They then use a roll cage, which resists deformation under impact. That transfers the impact to the driver. Those impacts are absorbed by head-and-neck support which wraps around a drivers head and limits their vision to prevent whiplash or other neck injuries, along with other seat padding to absorb impact.
Nascars also dedicate lots of space inside the car to crumple zones, which normal car would use for passengers or cargo.
It’s amazing how Nascar cars can withstand such high-speed crashes and keep drivers safe. From what I understand, Nascar cars are designed with safety in mind, using materials like carbon fiber and Kevlar to make the car stronger and more durable. They also have special safety features like roll cages, impact-absorbing foam, and seat belts that keep drivers securely in place during a crash. Additionally, Nascar drivers wear fire-resistant suits, gloves, and helmets that are specially designed to protect them from impact and fire. All of these features work together to make Nascar cars some of the safest on the road, even at high speeds.
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