Can trigger the airbag on a large pit?

5 January 2018

American bloggers conducted an unusual experiment

There are many myths about airbags. For example, many believe that they will be able to open up from a simple kick to the bumper. Another popular belief is the possibility of triggering when you hit the deep pit. To check the veracity of this opinion decided the guys from the YouTube channel Warped Perception (Distorted perception).

Previously, this channel had already become famous for its breathtaking video time-lapse. What at least is last video with a fascinating demonstration of the operation of the internal combustion engine.

For fresh experiment, we used an old sedan Mercedes-Benz E320 (W211). It was bought on the secondary market specifically for torture. Up to this guys channel Warped Perception already thoroughly mocked him, they jumped on it over bumps and removed the door lining and external coating of the body.

To verify the myth of the German sedan had to deal with the broken roads of Chicago. The guys from Warped Perception a few times, rode through the pits at different speeds. At 80 km/h wheel just didn't fall in a pothole, so for the next ride the driver decided to slow down to 72 km/h. This, too, was not enough, but at 62 km/h impact from the suspension was very hard, judging by the slow motion at the moment of impact the front suspension worked on lights out due to falling in the previous pothole that worsened the situation. In the end, the side curtain airbags have been disclosed.

She also made the fourth race at speeds of 56 km/h: in this case we could not stand the front tire. From all this we can draw two conclusions. First, when strong shock suspension can still work airbags. Second, the rule "more speed — less pits" still works: if you go fast enough, the wheel simply will not have time to fall into a pothole.