I have young Will Shiers (who of the excellent truck & van blog on www.roadtransport.com) to thank for this picture, which is kind of appropriate considering that it's the umpteenth anniversary of the VW Camper (see previous Biglorryblog).Will asks: "Have you ever wondered what happens when you crash test a 1970s T2 Camper Van at 30mph? Stands up surprisingly well I think" So do I and naturally you can tell it's an old van as it's being crashed in black and white---crashing commercial vehicles in colour only happened much later...
Black & white crash testing was common in Europe in the fifties as witnessed by this crunch from 1955 between a Renault car and truck. (NB: This picture was taken some time after the actual crash to allow enough time for the smoke from the photographer's Gauloises to dissipate....)
Naturally the Swedes were at the fore-front of crash testing in colour which is nicely illustrated by this 4 Series under-run wallop.
Apparently they DID try crashing trucks in black and white for a retro effect (as seen above) but as we photographers, say a nice colour image has so much more "impact...." err...ouch?
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