Hi,
Does anyone know what happens when a S3 hard top turns over. I'm wondering whether the driver gets squashed as the roof structure has never appeared particularly strong. Presumably it isn't very sensible to put the vehicle in a position where it may role when the hard top is off as .... well I dread to think.
Would love to hear from people who know for my own piece of mind / safety.
Thanks,
With the hard top on, results depend on the violence of the roll-over and what you roll over onto, so no, no-one knows what happens as it's not going to be the same each time. I know of two people who have rolled a series landy, both quite a few rolls down the side of mountainous slopes (not the same one, different mountains, different times), and the top held up well enough to prevent them getting hurt. I doubt it would hold up in a high-speed multi-roll accident though, e.g. flipping the car at 60 MPH. I've never spoken to anyone who suffered a fatal accident in a series landy roll-over but I suspect circumstances might be skewing the results in favour of the survivors!
I've seen quite a lot of Series vehicles that have suffered a rollover incident (most in my professional capacity as a firefighter attending accidents). There have been a few where damage was severe but mostly my reaction has been surprise at how well the roof has survived the accident. That said, fit a roll bar if you value your health.
My old Series 2 suffered quite a few rollovers without the top collapsing, even having been weakened by lots of previous bashing from trees etc, all at low speeds offroad however, but I wouldn't like to hit anything at speed and expect it to hold up. The inside bodywork of a Series motor is not the best thing to throw yourself at anyway but a rollcage is the best suggestion, suitably padded.
Martin
Not a Series III, but there is a famous incident in 1992 of a Defender driving over a 80 foot cliff and landing on its roof. The occupants walked away.
6 inches shorter :)
In message , Ian Rawlings writes
Funnily enough neither have I - yet :(
I have seen S3 hardtops roll whilst competing in RTV trials. The only injuries were due to objects inside the vehicle flying around. One guy did a
1.5 roll down a steep bank. Sadly his cubby box was not screwed down and gave him a nasty bang on the head when it came past on the second time around. Ok these have all been low speed rolls, more like falling over than anything, but the S3 roof stood up to it well in all of them. Me, I have a roll cage and yes I have tested it. more than once...Mike
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.