Developing the death-proof car.

As a result of rising death rates in auto crashes, the U.S. Department of Transportation launched the Experimental Safety Vehicle program in 1970. The program was intended as a way for various automakers to learn more about both passive and active safety in cars and apply that knowledge to production cars in the next ten or so years.

It consisted of building prototypes that met certain requirements: they had to keep passengers alive in a 50mph crash into a solid barrier, withstand side impacts at 30mph, protect the car’s occupants in a 75mph rear end collision, and survive two complete rollovers at 60-70mph.

Some of the guidelines revolved around handling so manufacturers couldn’t simply turn an economy sedan into an armored tank that destroyed everything in its way. The prototypes had to stop from 60mph within 155 feet on a dry road, accelerate from 30 to 70mph in less than 12 seconds with a 60% load and make an abrupt 180 degree turn at 70mph without rolling over.

The test cars were organized by weight classes: 1500 pounds, 2000 pounds, 2500 pounds and 4000 pounds. Part of the guidelines was, of course, that the cars actually respect the weight limit in each class, something most of the participating manufacturers had a hard time doing given the extra equipment they bolted on to each car.

These prototypes were remarkable in both the effort and resources put forth to develop and build them but also in the far-fetched ideas that some manufacturers came up with in order to supposedly make a car safer. Popular Mechanics hit the nail on the head when in June of 1972 they observed that “the world may never want to place an ESV in production, but we sure want the answers the cars can give us.”

We picked a few ESV prototypes to take a look at but it’s far from an exhaustive list. Looking at all of them would take ages; lots of manufacturers took part in the program including Opel, Renault, GM and Nissan.

American Machine & Foundry AMF 2

AMF has manufactured a vast variety of products: bicycles, tennis rackets, golf clubs, snowmobiles and even Harley Davidson motorcycles, just to name a few. Conspicuously absent from that list are cars, but they gave the ESV program a shot anyways. Their prototype was part of the 4000 pound category but weighed a whopping 5,791 pounds. It had a steel body with aluminum bumpers that had a thirty inch (!) travel. Rear visibility was assured by a submarine-like periscope, visible on the roof.

Like many other ESV prototypes it had airbags to protect the occupants and AMF took it further by adding automatic fire extinguishers. It is remembered as one of the best ESVs built by an American company.

Fiat ESV 1500

Fiat’s ESV for the 1500 pound category was one of the three the company built in the early 1970s. The other two were in the 2000 pound and 2500 pound category, respectively.

To develop the 1500 pound ESV Fiat used crash test data from the 500. The prototype uses a 500 running gear with a slightly bigger engine to counter the added weight, though the use of 126 parts is noticeable as well. This one met most DOT requirements for its weight class including fire protection, safe driving in foggy weather and pedestrian safety. The requirement it didn’t meet was the weight – it weighed a little over 1700 pounds in a weight class limited to 1500 pounds.

Ford ESV

Unlike a lot of other ESVs Ford’s prototype was based entirely on an existing production car, the LTD. Compared to the car found on dealer lots, the LTD ESV had a longer hood and a shorter trunk. Like the AMF above it was part of the 4000 pound category and also like the AMF, it weighed considerably more: the Ford tipped the scales at almost 5,300 pounds.

Compared to a stock LTD the brakes and suspension were modified to comply with the DOT’s handling requirements, including the addition of an ABS system that acted only on two wheels. The bumpers were hydraulically retractable to withstand a 10mph crash.

Both Ford and GM charged the government $1 for the development of their ESVs.

Honda ESV

Honda’s ESV was not an ESV in the true sense of the term. Instead they tried to build a mass-produced car to ESV standards, the same path that Ford followed. Ford did much better than Honda but they were starting with a bigger and heavier car; Honda was starting with a Civic. Honda strengthened the Civic’s body all around, including the door pillars to increase protection in a rollover. The engine was the same 55hp unit found in the production car.

Because of miscellaneous setbacks revolving around the Civic’s tiny size, the prototype took a year longer to complete than the other ESVs.

Mercedes-Benz ESF 22

Mercedes was very active in the ESV program: the ESF 22 was their third prototype after the ESF 5 in September of 1971 and the ESF 13 in 1972. First two prototypes were based on a w114 250 sedan but the ESF 22 was based on the w116 450 SE.

The ESF 22 used ABS brakes all around and experimented with airbags. Although the ESF 22’s long hood kept occupants alive even in the event of a 40mph crash against a solid structure, Mercedes’ prototypes did not comply with all of the DOT-mandated requirements in the program. Mercedes built a fourth and final one, the ESF 24, and called it quits.

MG SSV 1

This was another small car entry. MG started with a B GT body and added equipment such as a heads up display for the speedometer, airbags, big rubber bumpers and a self leveling suspension that would be later outlawed by DOT.

MG drunk driver-proofed the car by having a little colorful sequence show up on a screen when the key was inserted. Before the car would start, the driver would have to reproduce the sequence. The driver had three tries; if by the third the correct sequence had not been entered, the car would be impossible to start for an hour. The idea was that if someone was drunk enough, they wouldn’t be able to reproduce the sequence in the right order.

One of the few features from the SSV 1 to make it on a production MG are the huge rubber bumpers, though certain MG owners have reported seeing a sequence of flashing lights on the dash followed by their car not starting.

Toyota ESV

Toyota took a smaller approach to the ESV prototype: they developed a 2500 pound two-seater coupe. It was powered by a 1700cc mated to an automatic transmission, seen as safer than a manual transmission since it was run by a computer and not a human.

The prototype was packed full of electronics, including a system that adjusted the brightness of the headlight based on the car’s speed. The car also had radars to scope out the road ahead for obstacles. If one was found too close and the radar judged that a collision was unavoidable, it would send a signal to deploy the “gasbags”. The car also used what Toyota called failure warning board, a sort of on-board computer that monitored brake fluid level, engine oil level, etc.

Volkswagen ESVW-I

Staying true to Volkswagen tradition, their ESV had a 1700cc rear-mounted air-cooled engine. It developed 100 hp and was fully compliant with U.S. emissions.

Interestingly enough Volkswagen opted not to use airbags. Instead, they had seatbelts that automatically restrained passengers in the event of a crash thanks to gas-fired pistons. The car was equipped with what Volkswagen called a “silent co-pilot” system that calculated how much crosswind was hitting the car and from what side and electronically compensated the steering for it.

On the outside the bumpers didn’t stick out near as much as other prototypes and period Volkswagen literature bragged that their ESV had a “nearly normal” appearance, as opposed to other cars in the program.

Volkswagen built a second ESV in 1974, the ESVW – II, based on a first generation Golf/Rabbit. They exited the program soon after because they realized that the safety features would be too costly to implement in a production car.

Volvo VESC

Volvo has always been a leader in auto safety so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they started developing the VESC in 1969, a full year before the DOT started the ESV program. With that said it was not developed with any of the program guidelines in mind but excelled anyways. It weighed a few pounds shy of 3,200 pounds.

The bumper had a seven inch travel distance to absorb shock and the engine was designed to get pushed under the floor in the event of a front collision, something Mercedes introduced on their W168 A-Class in 1997. To effectively stop the car ABS was fitted on all four wheels. On the inside, occupants were protected by both front and rear airbags.

Test mules.

For as long as the automotive press has existed journalists have been trying to get a peak at new models before their official launch. Some folks even make a career out of it, chasing camouflaged BMWs down a French back road to get that one good shot of a future model that no one has seen yet. When pictures are not available journalists sometimes illustrate what they think new models will look like with varying accuracy.

In response to that and in an effort to keep details of a new car secret until the last minute, manufacturers have camouflaged their cars in various ways that range from stickers to an entire new body. We're taking a look at some past test cars from this cat and mouse game.

Mercedes-Benz w114/w115.

This 1965 illustration was published in Germany’s Der Spiegel newspaper to give readers an idea of what the upcoming w114/w115 stroke eight models would look like. The w114/w115's official launch didn't come until 1968 so not many details were available when the illustration was drawn and it relies on w113 SL styling cues. The end result looks like a 1960s CLS.

Production car:

Fiat X1/9.

The doors are recognizable as being the same ones on the production model and the air vent gave away that the engine was not in the front but the rest of the car was given a new body. Fiat must have done a remarkable job at fooling the press: at the time they called the car the 127 Spider when it was based on the 128.

Production car:

Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT.

This early test car gives away the general shape of the Alfetta but it doesn't give away any of the mechanical bits (DeDion rear suspension, rear-mounted transaxle) that would surprise the public in 1972, the year the Alfetta was launched. The front and the wheels look like they’re from a 2000 GTV.

Production car:Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint.

By the mid-1970s rumors of an Alfasud coupe were materializing and a spy photographer shot these pictures on a test track about a year before the car’s 1976 launch. The picture shows a car that is close to the production model but heavily camouflaged. Still, the basic window and door lines are there.

Production car:

Fiat Ritmo/Strada.

The first illustration was drawn by French magazine Auto Journal in 1977. Their design is a bit too futuristic but all things considered, it’s surprisingly close to the production model. As a side note, when this image was published the magazine's headline read: "the new Fiat 138, an Italian Renault 14!" The second illustration is a factory prototype. The front is mostly free of camouflage and reveals the production car’s face but the rest is kept a secret. Fiat even went as far as masking the Ritmo’s round door handles.

Production car:

Mercedes-Benz w126.

The first photo was taken in Tunisia, where the w126 was undergoing hot weather tests. The design is pretty close to the production model but the front is heavily camouflaged with trim on the headlights and a bull bar. All Mercedes emblems were stripped off the car. The second photo was taken on an unidentified test track and looks to be a prototype: the shape is slightly more angular than a production w126 and the taillights are completely different.

Production car:

Citroen BX:

While at first glance this looks like a GS prototype, it was taken in 1979 and hides a BX drivetrain under the hood. Careful observers will notice the BX/C15 four-lug steel wheel, a dead giveaway of what the GS body is hiding.

Saab pulled a similar trick to test out the 99’s chassis and drivetrain: they used a widened 96 body and figured no one would notice the difference.

Production car:

Seat Toledo:

The Volkswagen badge on the hood does a very good job at camouflaging what this is. The first guess that comes to mind is an mk3 Jetta and that’s close but no cigar: it’s a Seat Toledo. The badge is not as random as it might seem since the Toledo was the first Seat designed entirely by Volkswagen and shared its A2 platform with the mk2 Golf and Jetta.

Production car:

The Volkswagen Iltis (type 183).

When the West German army (known locally as the bundeswehr) needed a Jeep-like vehicle after WWII, they rejected Ferry Porsche’s 356-engined type 597 and instead picked the DKW Munga. The 3-cylinder, two-stroke Munga entered production in 1956 and was phased out in 1968. During that time Volkswagen purchased what was left of Auto Union and owned the rights to the Munga.

The German army continued to use the Munga for several years after production ended but as they started to disappear from the fleet, it became evident that there was nothing available to replace them with. They hesitantly ordered Volkswagen 181s (better known as the Thing) but those had no real offroad capacity. In 1976 the army made a call for offers: they needed a vehicle that could transport four people, 500 kilos (about 1,100 pounds) and climb a 50° incline fully loaded. It had to be capable off-road but still be street-legal. It had to measure less than 4 meters (157 inches) long and 1.60 meters (63 inches) wide.

It’s with these and many other guidelines in mind that a team of ex-NSU workers led by a certain Ferdinand Piech mixed and matched Munga, Audi, mk1 Golf and Beetle parts to create the Volkswagen type 183, more commonly called the Iltis (ferret in German). The army approved the design in 1977 and placed an order of 8,800 cars. The first examples were delivered in late 1978.

The 183 was powered by a 1714cc water-cooled four-cylinder that came in two variants: there was a 70hp with lower compression (running on normal gas) or 75hp with higher compression (premium fuel only). A Solex 1B1 carburetor was in charge of fuel delivery.

The transmission was a 4-speed manual unit with a low gear indicated by a G on the shift lever (for gelände, terrain in German).

Under normal driving the 183 was rear wheel drive but there was a lever to engage the front axle and turn it into a 4x4. All 183s had a locking rear differential and some also had a locking front differential. Story has it that it’s this setup that inspired Audi engineers to begin working on the Quattro project.

The 183 had all the equipment one would think of finding on a military car including a NATO-spec 24 volt electrical system (two 12 volt batteries hooked together), a jerrycan of gas, blackout lights, and a flag holder on both front fenders. It had storage space under the hood, above both wheel wheels. On the opposite end of the spectrum, it used four drum brakes borrowed from the eternal Beetle.

Below, a Volkswagen 183 interior, heavily influenced by the Beetle:

Not just for war.

Volkswagen presented a civilian version of the 183 at the 1979 Geneva Auto show and sales began shortly after. Less than 1,000 of them were assembled before the plug was pulled. Several reasons have been pointed out for the 183’s failure on the European market: it’s not a terribly good-looking vehicle, it’s not a particularly comfortable vehicle, it’s too rustic, and so on. In reality the most valid reason for the 183’s lack of success was its price: in 1982 it cost about three times as much as a base-model Golf; it even cost more than a V8-powered Range Rover.

Perhaps in an effort to create publicity for the Iltis Volkswagen fielded four of them in the 1980 Paris-Dakar. The result was spectacular: #137 took first place, #136 took second place, #138 took fourth place and #139, a support vehicle, took ninth place. Patrick Zaniroli, pilot of the #136 car, said that aside from a different cam and a bigger carburetor his Iltis was 100% stock, an impressive feat considering how modified most Dakar cars were (and still are.)

When all was said and done 9,547 examples of the 183 were built, with the last one rolling off of Audi's Ingolstadt assembly line in 1982. That was just part one, though.

The Canadian connection.

In 1983 the Canadian government bought the rights and the tooling for the 183 and gave Bombardier the task of assembling them in their plant in Valcourt, Quebec. On the outside there were very minor differences between the Bombardier 183s and the VW 183s: the emblem on the steering wheel, the emblem on the grille and the taillights are among some of the most significant ones.

2,500 Bombardiers went straight to the Canadian government to be used locally. Another 2,500 were purchased by Belgium in 1985. To save on shipping costs the ones earmarked for Belgium had their bodies shipped from Canada, their engines trucked from Germany and the whole lot assembled in Volkswagen’s Forest, Belgium plant. The exact number of 183s produced by Bombardier is unknown but it is estimated to be close to 6,000.

No civilian Bombardiers were built but the army sold them off when they were finished using them so a few are out there. The Bombardiers are generally considered to be of lesser quality than the VWs and are less desirable. Some companies in Canada even specialize in importing VW 183s from Germany while the Bombardier-branded ones sit on army surplus lots.

In 1985 production for the bundeswehr started back up in Ingolstadt but was sporadic at best. In 1987 the end was near and Volkswagen made a final modification to the 183: they equipped it with a 70hp 1588cc turbo diesel four-cylinder.

Production ended in December of 1988. The second round of German production yielded 1254 examples, bringing the total number of 183s built to about 16,000 units. In the bundeswehr they were progressively replaced by the Mercedes G-Wagen but much like its predecessor, the 183 stuck around for a while after production ended. It saw combat duty in 1991 in ex-Yugoslavia and Canada and Belgium still used them in their fleet in the early 2000s.

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As a side note, in the late 1970s France decided it was time to replace their aging fleet of Hotchkiss Jeeps and like Germany they called out for offers. No French company had a fitting vehicle on hand and designing one from the ground up would have been too expensive so they worked with the manufacturers that did have something to offer. Peugeot teamed up with Mercedes, put a 504 engine in the G-Wagen and called it the P4, Saviem put a Renault 20 engine in Fiat’s Campagnola and dubbed it the TRM500 and Citroen built the C44, a Volkswagen 183 powered by a CX engine. In the end the P4 was awarded the contract and the other two projects were scrapped but a team entered a C44 in the 1981 Paris-Dakar. It did not finish the race.

2011 Avignon Motor Festival part one: not just the usual suspects.

The 9th annual Avignon Motor Festival closed its doors on Sunday night after a rainy last day. As with every year the event is divided up into three parts. The first is the parts and model car swap meet, the second is the auction and the third is the collection parking lot, where participants who show up in a classic car can display it and get half off the entry price.

The most impressive part of this year's show was the growing number of late-1970s, 1980s and even early-1990s cars on display. Until recently these so-called "youngtimers" were shunned from events like this in favor of more traditional classics but times change: Citroen Tractions are interesting but they're ancient history. 2CVs and air-cooled Volkswagens are hideously expensive and Dauphines, 403s and the like are almost 60 years old. There are less and less of them to go around, parts are harder to find and as the overall interest in them wanes a little, younger collectors move on to different cars, cars that they remember from their childhood and that are still relatively affordable.

This is the beginning of a new wave of classic cars and some of the first ones to surf it are the cars featured below. Enjoy the photos and get your hands on these while you still can.

Mercedes-Benz 240D (w123):

Mercedes-Benz 230CE (w123):

Mercedes-Benz 560SEL (w126):

Fiat Abarth Ritmo 130TC:

Alfa Romeo Spider (916 series):

Volkswagen Golf & Golf GTI (mk1):

Volkswagen Golf GTI G60 (mk2):

Peugeot 205 CTi:

Citroen AX GT:

Citroen XM:

Citroen CX (mk2):

Saab 900: