When i say flying colours i mean it didnt fail miserably, it was rated as 3-4* i think. Stil higher than a lot of modern cars. NCAP tests are up to 40mph IIRC.
Heres a clip from the fifth gear crash test at 70mph. Naturally at that speed the deceleration is rather drastic and probably fatal but that is the same in all small cars, and cars are not designed and tested to
70mph anyway - the vast majority of accidents occur at lower speed and dont involve a solid concrete wall like this vid.as you can see from the picture the shell has almost zero intrusion (havign watched the show its clearer, there was about 3inches shift in the footwell area to one side but no dangerous 'trapping' or cutting issues) but little other damage. The accelerations inside were rather on the high side at that speed so it is assumed the driver would have died, but ive yet to see a crash test that didnt say that and plenty of peolpe do survive.
You do make an interesting point about loss of steering control due to wheel contact, im not sure how they worked around that.