Just an interesting thought I had.
If they are only going to make SRT Challengers for 2008, Does that mean they will only be crash testing SRT Challengers?
What a shame.

 

Crash testing is performed well in advance of the vehicle being released to the public for sale to ensure the vehicle meets NHTSA safety standards. Several vehicles of varyious powertrain combinations will be crashed. I know it's a shame, but it is all part of vehicle development.

 

All give a little... some gave it all[X(]

 

Perhaps they'll give them a less expensive, less loaded model than an SRT version.

 

I think crash testing has become minimal these days due to using crash simulations on computers because they are eerily accurate.

 

Crash testing is still alive and well. Check out some videos of them at the link I posted. Sometimes, different models are used to judge another model. The Chrysler 300's results are applied for the Dodge Charger (for obvious reasons). Maybe they have a video of your current car.

Crash Test Vids

 

I remember once six or seven years ago, when I used to watch television, between shows on Speed Channel seeing a fifteen second clip of a '70 Challenger being rolled. Anyone else remember ever seeing that?

 

do they still use those you can learn alot from a dummy dummies?

 

I got to speak with a Chrysler crash test engineer yesterday. He does crash testing on the Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro. He said that they normally crash about 45 cars per model. They perform a crash simulation from quite a few different sides. Frontal, side impact, rear and such. They also perform at least three rollover test. They have to perform each test under different scenarios also. Such as occupant dummies belted and then occupant dummies unbelted, also different size dummies to simulate male verses female and of course children. Makes a little sense why cars can cost so much. These all have to be done preproduction. Once they satisify the Government then the model can be released to the Pre Production stage of manufacturing. These are the engineering lease test mules they use to sort out any final production glitches. I believe he said that these are the cars that they actually get to drive around as every day vehicles and provide feedback to the engineering group. He also said that eventually they can release these cars for sale to the public.

The really sad part of the story is that he could not tell me anything about the Challenger.

Bob

OO[######]OO

 

I have heard the same thing, except that the mules for the production line test do not have VINs , and are also sent to crash test and can not be sold to the public. This was at the plant that was making the Sebring convertible, before its introduction.