No surprises from this video. As much as I like old iron, I am aware of the safety advances we've made in the past 50 years. If you watch the video closely you can see that the '59 Chevy is not designed to absorb the crash impact. The hood doesn't even fold up as it should to help absorb the impact. The passenger compartment ends up failing because it is not designed to be stronger than the front end - like a modern car. Notice the A-Pillars on the '59 and how easily they failed? Notice how poor the door latches held? Notice the steering column didn't absorb energy? These are all things that were later improved with safety standards.
Although these old full frame cars are often thought to be "tougher" and "stronger", I've often thought there is really little structure in front of the firewall to absorb impact. Really, the front fenders are bolted to a rad support, neither of which are very strong (even though the sheetmetal is thicker, there is little structural strength).
Tthe '59 Chevy did use an X-frame, which wasn't the best design. GM used this frame to help have the car sit lower for that lower,longer, wider look. The idea behind it was to make the body more structural than the old bodies which just sat on the frame. Although this was the case, these cars probably were not the safest design even in their day. Oldsmobile actually added side frame rails in their '59's to add strength to the frames. Pontiac, and Olds switched away from X-frames in 1961, Chevy continued until 1964. The Perimeter frames were across the board in 1965, for both GM and Ford. Both companies designed the body assist with giving the car structural strength and rigidity much like the X-frame cars.
That said, I doubt there'd be much difference with any car from that vintage, even one much stronger than the Chevy. I am sure even if the car faired better in the crash (in terms of body damage), the occupant would still suffer just as badly. There is a reason Ralph Nader wrote unsafe at any speed, and it wasn't just about the Corvair. It hammered the entire car industries lack of saftey design. Just because a car is strong, doesn't mean it's safe.
