Ah, yes, the Ford Pinto, the car that made entire generations believe cars explode in every accident.
There was an 80s arcade game called Spy Hunter that was also for the Apple IIe. When you rear ended a motorcycle they’d swerve off and explode.
Much to my parents amusement I called them Pintos.
I was about to comment “Ah yes, the explodey car”. How did you read my mind? 🙃
For those that want to know why, IIRC the bolts on the differential were too long and the gas tank was directly behind it. If the car was rear ended the bolts could pierce the tank. To make matters worse, during a rear end collision the tail light assembly could short and spark, thus igniting the leaking fuel. Ford added a rubber bladder to the tank and shortened the bolts, but the PR damage was done.
PS: I think there was a possibility of the doors not opening after a rear end collision, trapping people inside the burning car, but I am not sure.
SOURCE: We had to study that case in college back in the 90’s.
nowadays, your autopilot just drives you into a lake
Efficient.
Or you just listen to your GPS and ignore what is in front of you
And the official service fix for this was … drumroll please …
Taking two sheets of thick plastic and zip tying them to the back side of the differential.
Source: I saw one in my dad’s shop in the late 1980s.
I’ll do you one better.
The 1983 Mustang LX had a whopping 90 HP & a one barrel carburetor. Absolute shittiest car I’ve ever owned.
Ahh the 80’s. The absolute shittiest decade for cars in the history of cars.
So far.
Touche`
The Rabbit GTi takes offense to this
Well my best friend’s mom had an 80’s Rabbit Diesel. His dad tuned it for economy, which meant it did 0-60mph in something under a week. We would have killed for something like a GTi.
*American cars. My 80s civic was amazing, it had auto fuel shutoff during deceleration to lower gas consumption, bucket seats, sliding height seat belts in door pillar ( now standard on cars), adjustable steering, and a turning radius so tight you could do a Uturn on a regular road. The only thing that was a bit quirky was if you decelrated a lot then hit the gas hard coming out of a corner, the sudden refueling of the engine sometimes made it a bit wild when the power hit.
I knew a girl in highschool that had a pinto station wagon and her dad had mounted a 350 V8 in the back. It had header exhaust that came out the back windows. I can’t imagine what it was like to drive but she always drove it.
It’s only more fun when I think that in Brazil pinto means flacid penis
How many horse power was the explosion?
pinto’s
Nope.
It’s no XR3i.
