MINI vs. Semi

[SilverBeam]

I'm sorry I don't have pictures, but here is the story that my dad relayed over to me on the phone.

A MINI cooper was rear ended by a semi on the road. The semi was fine to say the least, with a bit of red paint on its grill. The MINI on the other hand...

survived in a way that guaranteed that all passangers were fine!

The rear end was pushed in about a foot, so anyone in the back seat would have made use of those rear curtian airbags, but the cabin was in tact enough that it was not a deadly in counter as all. Sadly, the MINI parished in the accident, but she served her owner well.

Lets here it for the MINI :buttrock


Here is a size comparo:

[Koopah]

And another testimony to the durability of the MINI's design:

MINI vs. Dump Truck Head On (http://www.gbmini.net/mtblog/archive/2005/07/crash_mini_vs_d.shtml)

Theo

[Doctor Wha]

It is indeed an amazing piece of engineering. There were lots of survival stories early on, including one by a newspaper reporter somewhere who, swerving to avoid a deer in the road, went head-on into a tree at ~60. The engine disconnected (as it's supposed to, and the front absorbed the impact, leaving the reporter with only a broken fingernail. The cops on the scene were amazed, having expected to find the driver in much worse shape. As I recall, it was also the first recorded MINI airbag deployment in the US, which brought the keenly interested BMW engineers to check out the carcass.

Full story here:
http://www.autoweek.com/article.cms?articleId=5294

DW