Lamborghini Splits In Half. Somewhere Bela Barenyi Smiles
First photos and now surveillance video of a dramatic wreck involving a Lamborghini Aventador and what looks like a Mazda, in Brooklyn’s Mill Basin neighborhood, have been bouncing around the ‘ol innerwebz because the Lambo split in two, right behind the passenger safety cell, as it was designed to do. The driver was apparently unhurt and you can see him walk away from the accident in the video. Somewhere, Bela Bareny i is smiling. It was Barenyi, working for Mercedes-Benz in the early 1950s, who invented the concept of building a car with front and back “crumple zones” that would deform and absorb energy in the event of a collision, protecting the passengers in a more rigidly constructed, non-deformable safety cell.
By the way, contrary to some reports, it wasn’t the collision with the other car that broke the Aventador apart. It was the corner of the brick wall that the $400,000 supercar hit sideways that tore the back end off of the Lamborghini, not the initial collision with the Mazda, which sent the sports car spinning into the wall. Witnesses say that the sedan was attempting to make a left turn into a driveway. The Mazda’s driver was either distracted or apparently misjudged the closing speed of the Lamborghini, “approaching at a high rate of speed.”
Bela Barenyi’s 1950 drawing laying out the crumple zone / safety cell concept that likely saved the life of the Lamborghini driver.
Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, the original 3D car site.
More by Ronnie Schreiber
Comments
Join the conversation
Fortuitous camera placement.
BTW, if you think the Lamborghini wasn't speeding, you've never lived in Brooklyn.