What kind of cars?

I drove by this truck on the highway yesterday, near Detroit. Ignore the crappy cell phone pic, as well as the crack in my windshield...

What kind of cars are on this truck? Obviously, there's a Suburban at the top, front, and I saw two Aveos on the bottom of the stack, below the 'Burb. Are those Corvette wheels on one of those?

I think I see a corvette door...

Aside from the actual models...

Best I can figure is these are some sort of pre-production "non saleable" test cars that have to be destroyed. I see no other reason that they would be crushed whole (with wheels and all). The number on the side and stuff also point that direction...

[edit: Oh yeah...and the fact that you're near Detroit. Duh... Never mind the man behind the curtain!]

eh?

Clem

crazyness!! could they be Chevrolet Crash Test Vehicles?

The horror, the horror! What a TERRIBLE waste of challenge material! I realize that GM is paranoid about liability issues, but there HAS to be a better way to dispose of very valuable automotive art. When I lived in Tampa in the 80's there was a shipload of LUV trucks that got salt water on the trip over from Japan. Every one of them was crushed, probably 250 trucks total. What a waste.

cwh wrote: The horror, the horror! What a TERRIBLE waste of challenge material! I realize that GM is paranoid about liability issues, but there HAS to be a better way to dispose of very valuable automotive art. When I lived in Tampa in the 80's there was a shipload of LUV trucks that got salt water on the trip over from Japan. Every one of them was crushed, probably 250 trucks total. What a waste.

I don't think the blame should be placed on GM. I'm pretty sure there are likely some sort of federal regulations or other red tape issues that make this the only viable way to dispose of certain "units."

Clem

what about those scrapped mazda's that Car & Driver did an article about?

http://jalopnik.com/385441/cougar-ace-mazdas-face-the-crusher-we-cry

Probably prototype mules.

You think that they could at least sell a brother a set of rims or sumthin'.

That's a Z06 wheel! More disturbing is the wheel above that, that's a showpiece that Pontiac used on the Woodward GTO show car.

So sad, lots of goodness in there but rules is rules. Squash em and squeeze out more.

My uncle worked at a car breaker and they had to thrash some new cars that were in a train accident so it doesn't surprise me. I live just a few miles from a crusher and almost never see wheels on the cars. A hell of a thing to see is a huge ship getting filled up with scrap. Before 9/11 my pops and I used to walk the dog through the port and by the scrap.

benzbaron wrote: My uncle worked at a car breaker and they had to thrash some new cars that were in a train accident so it doesn't surprise me.

Were they Explorers? Was this 1994? My parents ordered an Explorer in 1994. They had to wait until another one could be made because the train carrying them wrecked and the Explorers didn't survive. I wonder if your uncle killed our SUV?

Nothing says "crash test car" quite like the green painted wheels/tires and the black/yellow "roundels" like on the front bumper of the Suburban.

Crash test/pre-production mules post-crusher.

Interesting to see them like that.

Must have been back in the 70s or 80s so think funky old american iron.

Right before the the last generation Riviera went on sale, GM put a bunch of their service reps in them to get real world feedback. Those cars had cheapie cloth interiors, cheap looking paint, you name it. My GM rep told me they would evaluate them for 10K miles and then squash them. Damn shame.

In contrast, I have 'The Healey Book' and all kinds of Jensen Healey literature. Donald Healey sold all of his test mule cars to the general public including both Healeys and Austin Healeys; the book describes the first two 100-6's which have been restored and notes the very crude preproduction work, like the firewalls sledgehammered to make room for the 6 banger.

The Jensen Healy crash test cars couldn't be sold (obviously!) but the first four preproduction cars were used as press cars and afterwards were sold to the general public. Two of those four are currently undergoing restoration in England.

Tons of pre-production cars are crushed. Remember our Street Touring 2002 Civic Si? Flattened. Our original Neon ACR? Smushed. I think our silver MINI Cooper S was also destroyed. I once inquired about an Integra Type R that was in the press fleet and was informed that it was targeted for termination. That stung.