Opel OSV 40

The Opel OSV 40 was a vehicle study by Adam Opel AG, built to improve passenger car safety. The designers named the test vehicle after the concept Opel Safety Vehicle, and the number 40 meant it was designed to cope particularly well with a crash at up to 40 miles per hour. It was developed in the early 1970s as a prototype for the second ESV conference on the enhanced safety of vehicles, on the platform of the Opel Kadett C, with a body changed deeply for safety. Its core idea was effective crumple zones, with cavities, longitudinal members and bumpers filled with polyurethane foam, soft plastic front bumpers that absorbed an impact of up to 8 kilometres per hour, foam-covered interior surfaces and head restraints joined to the roof. In crash tests all four doors could still be opened after an impact at 65 kilometres per hour. Belt tensioners and refined crumple zones reached production, and a prototype survives in the Opel factory collection in Rüsselsheim.