How to overturn a car?

[reveria]

Okay, this might seem like a strange question, but it's actually revelant to CTI.

I've done a bit of research on this. Apparently it's a lot easier to overturn an SUV than a regular car because SUVs are top-heavy due to the fact that they have large wheels. So if you push the central point (=doors), they'll flip relatively easily. Cars, on the other hand, are bottom heavy, meaning that you'd have to lift most of their weight 90 degrees or higher to flip them.

But then, as we all know, out Clerics drive an elegant little Cadillac Seville.

So I was wondering... if one of those Sweeper Trucks hit the Cadillac hard enough from the side while

a) the Cadillac is not moving or

b) the Cadillac is in motion

c) either a or b, but on slightly downhill ground

would it flip? Which one is more likely? I suck at physics, I've never been in a bad car crash and I don't watch nearly enough actio movies, so I have to ask, sorry ^^

also, how are the chances of severe injury and/or dying when your car flips over? and I'm not being morbid, this is also revelant *clears throat*

thanks for the help!

[Libby]

I think if you write the scene with enough pace then it can all happen very fast. The caddy would have to be moving as being blindsided by a sweeper truck whilst stationary would probably just mean it would be demolished (friend of mind got hit by a fire engine and it caved in the passenger side, pushing her about 30 mtrs, but didn't flip the car). Something to do with forces anyway...if the caddy's moving/swerving then the truck could easily flip it...

I imagine they're solidly built and though we didn't see anyone put on belts, the TG wouldn't want to squander its 'tight resources' by getting Clerics killed in a car accident, so I'd have belts and lots of airbags!

'Course if you wanted to kill someone off, then not wearing the seatbelt could result in a very nasty bloody mess!

Sounds very exciting anyway!

[reveria]

hehe all I'm saying is: Grace goes badass to save some Resistance lives

but yeah... I figured she should probably hit them full speed with the truck as the car approaches, maybe on some slightly downhill and uneven ground, so even if it's pushed for a bit, it gets stuck and then turns or something like that.

[Aedh]

Cadillacs are expressly designed for stability, among other things. It's rather like trying to overturn a Sherman Tank.

If the Caddy were going around a curve, fast, and got hit hard from the inside, that might do it. Or if something made it go partway off the road so it was driving with one side of wheels up on a kerb, and got hit from that way to ... that might do as well.

[reveria]

Sept 14, 2008 14:04:50 GMT -5 Aedh said:

If the Caddy were going around a curve, fast, and got hit hard from the inside, that might do it. Or of something made it go partway off the road so it was driving with one side of wheels up on a kerb, and got hit from that way to ... that might do as well.

hmmm I think I can do that. I mean, roads in the Nethers are probably not in the best condition

[kingofsorrow]

to get the car to flip one side of it would have to be in position that would allow it to lift. i hit another car in the side at 120mph and all i did was move it about 40ft. i did manage however to lift it onto the hood of my car since it has parked at an incline(higher than the path my car was traveling).
basically the car doing the ramming would have to have some part of the front sitting low enough to lift the car it is crashing into.

[reveria]

alright, that works too. thanks for the input