4,500 lb-ish mini-van? I wouldn’t call that mini by any means. But let’s start off with some roll-cage tubing and you’re already ahead of the game. Air bags all around. Look at any nascar and you will see some of the safest cars around. How many cars on the street can hit a wall at 150+ mph, flip a dozen times, land upside down on fire and the driver still comes out unharmed? A little shaken maybe, but still physically ok. Sure some die, but very rare for the kinds of crashes they have.
Give me the dosh and I’ll sort it out.
I’ll put the biggest wheels you’ve ever seen on your car.
50 feet in diameter. Maybe 100 feet. True, you’ll probably need a helicopter to get in it, but your only side impact worry will be from low flying aircraft.
Six foot diameter tires would be enough since no car is narow enough to squeeze in between front and rear wheels of that type from the side. If the tires extend ahead andbehind the font and rear bumpers and the car body is slightly narrower than a standard car you have front and rear crash protection as well.
Of course, then you have the problem of being able to get into the car!
I think someone mentioned a helicopter. Problem solved! I mean… come on, who doesn’t have a helicopter?
Placing the door in front or back or both with a mid mounted engine would solve this problem.
Unless, of course, you’re parallel parked.
if the wheelbase were around eight feet then there would be two feet of space on the sides of the car for a side entry door.
Ejector seat/compartment. Have yer aforementioned “impending lethal impact” sensors fire explosive charges to get your arse outta there - straight up. I guess an additional prolonged burn would get you high enough for a parachute to deploy safely.
Would be a bummer in tunnels though…
I love you people !!! 
Okay, I’m pretty close to going to Wal-Mart, buying a coupla toys trucks and cars and trying to make up what we’re heading towards here. If I do indeed come up with something, I’ll get a Doper with a web site to post a shot, ok?
Keep workin’ this, I sense we’ve not really solved some of of the delicate safety issues…
Been thinking about this, and there’s a number of problems with it. The biggest one being that anything travelling fast enough to puncture the door is going rip right through those tires. The other problem is that the car’s going to have to be shaped like this:
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reasonbeing those big wheels are going to be a devil to turn, additionally, you’re going to be creating huge blind spots for the driver. To compensate for that, you’re going to have to elevate the driver’s position to one above the wheels, which is going to put the driver on a level with a semi, so why not simply drive one of those?
I have a couple of articles on a car called “Sir Vival” designed by a guy back in the 1950s that was supposed to be the ultimate in safe cars. It’s the damned ugliest thing you ever saw. I’ll try and get them scanned in and posted on the web for all to see and scream at. (It would, however, protect the driver in a side impact collision.)
Sure the tires would take damage in a crash but better to pop a tire than crush the car body.