Thomas of Sweden contacted me last week about my earlier message on crash testing Mini based cars (read it here). Thomas got hold of the full crash test report of the Midas Gold some years ago, classed as confidential. Naturally, I asked him how he got it and if he hasn't had any troubles with it. He wrote: "I have this document from a Midas Gold owner in Sweden, and he has got it from what he calls MED. I don’t know was this means but I think it was Midas Cars themselves. I think the document was confidential at MIRA when they did the crash test. But I asked him in 2015 if it was okay to publish it on my blog, which was fine." The crash test focusses on the movements of the steering column, or so it seems, but have a look for yourself. I have uploaded a few of the pages below. The full report can still be found on Thomas' website here.
Confidential Project No. 435500, carried out for Midas Cars Ltd. on 11 March 1986
Picture courtesy Thomas / Minimoke.se
The Midas was towed up to a speed of 49.2 kmh (30.6 mph) and crashed on a 90 Degrees barrier
Picture courtesy Thomas / Minimoke.se
Before the crash. The report states that six high speed colour films were taken of the test, too…
Picture courtesy Thomas / Minimoke.se
The Midas Gold passed the test with flying colours. All the photos and graphs are on Thomas' websbite
Picture courtesy Thomas / Minimoke.se
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ReplyDeleteI missed this last Friday due to taking a long weekend in Devon, but I think that it is worth making a few comments:
I inherited a copy of the original report, along with the seat belt anchor test reports for the Gold coupe and convertible, when I bought up the assets of the Midas Cars Ltd. I have supplied copies to a number of Midas owners who have needed help when trying to re-register their cars in Europe, including one in Sweden who is probably the source of this copy. It would appear that Confidential has a different meaning in Swedish!
It would also appear that Jeroen Booij and “Thomas of Sweden” have their own interpretation of copyright law. The copyright for the report belongs to MIRA and there is a clear statement at the bottom of page 1: “Information contained in this report may not be published in any form of advertising or other matter without the prior agreement of the Director of MIRA” My contact at MIRA knows of no request from either Mr Booij, or Mr Thomas of Sweden, to publish the report.
For my own part, I don’t mind this report being published. I know that Harold Dermott made extensive use of the post-test photos and the colour photo that he used in his advertising can be seen on my website: http://midascars.co.uk/page9.html
I would have taken a different view if the seat belt reports had been published. As they contain details of the construction of the Midas monocoque, which I consider as part of the IP belonging to my company.
Alistair Courtney, Alternative Cars Ltd.
Thank you very much for your reply, Alistair. If there is anyone objecting to me using this material please let me know and I will delete them immediately from my webpage.
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