When you look at the pictures of the Doc's car you also get an idea of what a strong shell the mini was back then before age, metal fatigue and rust settled in.

Given that it was a 100km/h crash into a tree the structure is still sound although distorted.

Even in todays cars if you hit a tree at 100 kmh its going to deform the shell and cause injuries, regardless of seat belts and air bags.

The difference these days is that the recovery time will be much shorter due to the advances in reconstructive orthopedic surgery. Long term the effects woul be the same but the injured person would be up and about much quicker.

Modern cars are made crumple though, remember that! Nothing crumpling on that mini to absorb the energy of the impact, so much much more of it going into/through the passengers... lucky to live through that one, nasty crash!

Mini engine is more or less designed to go under the car in a frontal, not through it. But in this case, the tree missed the engine and went through the radiator, then 300mm into the roofline.
I would have been up and about in weeks if the leg wasn't smashed into 100 bits, so they couldn't pin it. I spent 21 weeks tied up in bed ogling the nurses..

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Back in the days when they were hospital trained and entered the hospital at sixteen to begin training.

All nubile !!!!

The mini does have crumple zones, obviously not as effective as modern cars, but they do absorb a bit of energy. The whole front subframe is designed to crumple and protect the passengers. The rest of the car like the floors and pillars also take a fair bit of distortion.

But with that V-tec mini it would be interesting to repeat that crash with a standard mini and see what the outcome is. The fact that the V-tec mini will have a custom subframe would most likely mean its not going to absorb as much energy as the original, not to mention the flip front.

Love the ad:

"Primary damage - all over"

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Cheers
Alec
1275LS - July 78 - XNFAD18Y/102918