Pedestrian Safety Car: Based on the Metro and unveiled at an environmental safety conference at Oxford in 1986.
In 1986, we were treated to a pedestrian-friendly Metro - somewhat ahead of its time, we feel...
Snub-nosed Metro
Pedestrian Safety Car: Based on the Metro and unveiled at an environmental safety
conference at Oxford in 1986.
THE Pedestrian Safety Car One (PSC1) had a re-designed nose, compliant in order to deform on impact with pedestrians. At speeds upto 25mph the polyurethane front bumper, which measured eight inches high and six inches deep, would have deformed on impact with the pedestrians rather than injuring his or her legs. The steeply raked bonnet was weakened to be 'kind' to any pedestrian and reduce serious head injuries, while the headlamps collapsed backwards when struck and the front edges of the wings were designed to break away on impact.
An air dam was integrated into the PSC1's front bumper, as an accepted safety feature as well as for aerodynamic reasons.
Although the bumper was larger than standard, it didn't protude beyond the car's bonnet as that had been lengthened by three inches to lessen the impact. To prevent a pedestrian's head from being pierced by windscreen wiper spindles, these were hidden when not in use.
The car was the brainchild of the Transport and Road Research Laboratory's senior scientist, Adrian Hobbs. It was purely a one-off and was jointly developed by the TRRL in conjunction with Austin-Rover.