I’m sure most of us have heard about the Ford Pinto’s infamous design flaw where they would catch fire or explode when rear-ended by other cars (inspiring such bumper stickers as “Rear-end me and we all die!”) Getting to the point, I have heard from various sources that this design flaw was also shared by early models of the Ford Mustang and various other vehicles from the company. Anybody know if this is true or not?
The Pinto problem, IIRC, was that the bolts on the differential would rupture the gas tank when said tank was shoved into it by a rear end collision. If you recall the early Pinto design, it had a natural flexure point that coincided with the rear of the roof where it took on a downward slope to accomodate the backglass.
So it was predisposed to crunch in just the right way to propel to gas tank towards those hungry rear-end bolts when hit from behind.
I don’t know if it’s a similar issue or not, but the Police Interceptor Crown Vics have also been a rear-end-collision-burn-to-death controversy.
IIRC, other Ford cars had the same design flaw. However, the Pinto, being the smallest of the bunch, had less sheet metal and less mass to absorb the impact, and had substantially more failures. If you rear-ended a bigger model at a higher speed, it could happen, as well.
IIRC Ford has offered retrofit shields for all CVPI models. Hit any motor vehicle fast/hard enough, there will be a fire.
Yeah, the Crown Vic fires that I heard about seemed to involve them getting hit at rather high speeds, as high as 100MPH in at least one case, unless I heard it completley wrong (As allways, feel free to call me out if I am completley wrong)
One of my favorite funny/frightening moments came several years ago on a California freeway, riding as a passenger as my friend tailgated a Pinto. Bad enough. Then I realized that the car we were in was a Corvair. Whee!
I think the Mustang II was just a rebadged Pinto, thus the same problem. That may have been what you heard.