Last week, we found the film from one of these tests. It’s from August 1967, and involves a frontal impact test performed on a Saab 96 at a speed of 50 km/h. It’s enjoyable both from a technical point of view, as well as being a window back in time into how things looked and worked back in the late 1960′s. The track they use today for crash testing at Saab is still in the same location, though it’s now much more sophisticated – and indoors

There is no audio.

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I’m not sure I would have wanted to be the crash test dummy used in that test – both seat and seatbelt technology has come a long way since that time. I have to say, however, that the passenger compartment of the 96 help up remarkably well from the impact, much better than many other cars from this earlier era would have done.

Saab’s crast test facility here in Trollhattan is now a very high-tech affair, having been completely refurbished just a few years ago. I’m hoping to visit there in the next few days as they’ll be conducting some tests that I hope to share here on site (no promises, now, but fingers crossed).

As you can see from these photos, the crash test facilities of the 1960′s were somewhat more spartan and weather dependent.

Enjoy.