It’s always struck me as odd that crumple zones help absorb impacts which makes cars safer. Yet race cars have roll cages which make them safer.
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Cages around areas that can’t crumple – smashing people is bad (daily drivers have no crumple cages that are better camouflaged)
Crumple zones everywhere else to absorb as much impact as possible.
Racing cars also have crumple zones. But they also have roll cages because the speeds are higher.
Everyone has addressed cages and crumple zones.
There is no way they could make a consumer vehicle in the style of a race car. Have you seen the way a race car driver has to get in and out of a car? It is impractical for a street vehicle.
Roll cages will kill you if you don’t have a helmet and harness on.
My brother was friends in high school with a guy who had a roll cage welded into his car so he could race on the weekend. Got into a relatively minor accident and despite wearing his seat belt his head struck the pipe running above and it killed him.
A roll cage is ONLY safer if you’re really properly secured into the seat, like you should barely be able to move anything aside from your arms and legs, and you must be wearing a crash helmet for when your head does bang against the roll bars or other things.
This is why a roll cage in a car you drive on the street is NOT a good idea, you’ll get knocked out hitting your head on it in a crash unless you drive around wearing a helmet everywhere, which is gonna cause other issues. On the flip side, a racing seat and harness is NOT a good idea without a roll cage, because if your car rolls over and the roof crumples, you won’t be able to get out of the way!
A race car does still need to have enough of a crumple zone to manage how quickly you are brought to a stop (formula one type cars have some serious crash structures in the nose, side, and back, to handle hitting walls at high speeds), but the key thing is your whole body being so strapped in will come to a stop with the car, rather than the car mostly coming to a stop with you still loosely flying around inside, at the speed the car was previously going.
I do think it’s an interesting question, if every car on the road had full roll cages, and people strapped in with 5 point harnesses, and wearing helmets, would driving be safer? Not sure that question matters since it’s obviously so impractical. So we have our street cars designed knowing that people will be “floppy” inside, which requires big crumple zones to ensure the overall car doesn’t come to a stop too fast.
Consumer cars have larger crumple zone not just for the people in it but for in case they also hit pedestrians in the unlikely scenario as one example.
If you crashed badly in a roll cage on the street without harnesses or a helmet you’d be dead instantly.
Racing cars are designed to maximise driver safety, consumer cars are designed to maximise profits.
Source: An automotive engineer
Both cars have both features, but they aren’t in the same form. A roll cage in a racecar is designed to remain as a ridged structure under far greater forces. Racing cars crash at far higher speeds, so they need to protect against far greater energies. This means their roll cages are big solid pipes welded together, crisscrossing across the interior and extremely durable.
A typical road car must protect against far smaller amounts of energy, crashes happen at much lower speeds and the chances of rolling over or hitting solid barriers are much lower as well. The consumers also like a sleek and clean interior, so the roll cage is covered in plastics or other materials to form sleek pillars and other structures. You don’t need as much cross bracing so you can leave the interior completely clear of such pipes. All the pillars and the frame of your car act as its roll cage. Cars that flip upside down are always able to support their own weight, just like a roll cage on racing cars.
All cars need ways to absorb energy. No matter how strong your frame or roll cage is, the sudden deceleration will always be fatal unless its energy is absorbed. Both types of cars feature extensive energy absorption areas for this purpose, mostly focused on the front.
1. Go find a beater car.
2. Find a sledge hammer
3. Attempt to crush the A pillar with the sledge hammer.
4. Nurse your broken hands, as you’ve now discovered the front A pillar is a part of a cars roll cage.
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