Rearview camera and airbags: the Volvo VESC concept ahead of its time (7 photos + 1 video)

Volvo VESC turns 50 this year. Prototype 1972, which debuted at the Geneva Motor Show the same year, striking public with its completely innovative equipment to provide security.





For the Swedish company Volvo, safety is one of the main brand development priorities. A striking example of this approach was the prototype Volvo VESC (Volvo Experimental Safety Car) is an innovative sedan, which incorporates many promising technical solutions in security areas.



The Geneva International Motor Show in 1972 became a platform for such high-profile premieres like the Citroën GS, Ford Granada and Ferrari Dino. Against their backdrop four-door sedan in dark orange coloring looked pretty unsightly. However, under the shell of a nondescript body were hiding technologies that determined the vector of development of active and passive security systems for decades to come.

This was especially true due to the fact that since the mid-1960s in There has been an active discussion in the United States about the safety of American cars. The reason for it was the book by Ralph Nader with the apt title "Dangerous on any speed”, in which the author spoke about serious problems with safety of many American models. Passions then played out serious, but it was thanks to Nader's research that in the USA there were adopted the first federal vehicle safety standards. In general, the appearance of Volvo VESC was very timely, especially given that the Swedes were preparing for active expansion into the American market.

On the front panel of the car was a CRT video camera monitor





Not all Volvo VESC innovations were completely new or belonged to Volvo, but for the first time in the world they were assembled in one car. He received:

- Bumpers with hydraulic cylinders capable of absorbing impact energy at speeds up to 16 km / h without damage

— Cleaners and washers head optics

- Disc brakes on all wheels with ABS

- Front and rear seats with head restraints

- Three-point seat belts with pretensioners

- Four airbags (the rear ones were built into the driver's and right passenger's seats)

- Telescopic steering rack

- rear view camera

- CRT screen



The VESC body was segmented. Front and back, he had crushed sections, which surrounded the solid frame of the cabin, reinforced with tubular inserts in doors and roof. The engine was mounted on special pillows, thanks to which, during a frontal accident, he “dived” down, and not entered the salon. As the developers reported, the Volvo VESC body could ensure the safety of passengers even in a frontal impact at a speed of 80 km/h!



It is no exaggeration to say that at that time VESC was the most safest car in the world. However, this was not his only dignity. Among other things, the Swedes equipped the car four-cylinder B20 engine with exhaust recirculation system gases and a catalyst that satisfied all available and many forward-looking environmental standards.



Volvo VESC served as a carrier of promising technologies and to serial production was never planned. To a large extent this concept anticipated the development of automotive safety systems, and many ideas embodied in the Volvo 240 of the 1974 model. But this is completely different story.

At the stern flaunted a "miniature" rear-view camera