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The Ford Pinto was a compact car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. It was first introduced in 1971, and was built through the 1980 model year. Like many Ford cars, it had a twin in the Mercury Bobcat . Body styles included a 2-door sedan, a three-door hatchback, a two-door station wagon, and the Ford Pinto Cruising Wagon, produced 1977-1980 and styled to resemble a tiny van conversion (very much the trend in the late 1970s) complete with a round "bubble window" in the sheet-metal side panels.
The car's design was conventional, with unibody construction, a longitudinally-mounted engine in front driving the rear wheels through either a manual or automatic transmission and live axle rear end. Suspension was by unequal length A-arms with coil springs at the front and the live axle rear was suspended on leaf springs. The Rack and pinion steering had optional power assist, as did the brakes.
Original engines included a British-built 1.6 L pushrod straight-4The straight-4 or inline-4 is an internal combustion engine with four cylinders aligned in one row. This is the most common configuration used in cars with an engine size up to 2. 0, in some cases up to 3 litres displacement. The straight-4 engine is not and a German-built 2 L SOHC straight-4The straight-4 or inline-4 is an internal combustion engine with four cylinders aligned in one row. This is the most common configuration used in cars with an engine size up to 2. 0, in some cases up to 3 litres displacement. The straight-4 engine is not. In 1974, the 1.6 L powerplant was dropped and a new 2.3 L engine became available; a 2.8 L V6Ford Essex V6 engine A V6 is an internal combustion piston engine with six cylinders in a " V" configuration. It is the second most common engine configuration in modern cars after the straight-4; it shares with that engine a compactness very suited to th was available from 1975.
1 Safety problems
Through the production run of the model, it became a focus of a major scandalA scandal involves widely publicized allegations of wrong-doing, disgrace or moral outrage. A scandal may be based on reality, or the product of false allegations. Some scandals are broken by a whistle-blower revealing wrongdoing within an organization or when it was discovered that the car's design allowed its fuel tank to be easily damaged in the event of a rear end collision which often resulted in deadly fires and explosions. Furthermore, it was alleged that Ford was aware of this design flaw, but they refused to pay the minimal expense of a redesign. Instead, it was argued, Ford decided it would be cheaper to pay off possible lawsuits for resulting deaths. This discovery of Ford's apparent disregard for human lives in favour of profits led to major lawsuits, inconclusive criminal charges, and a costly recall of all affected Pintos.
More recently, it has been argued (in a 1991 law review paper by Gary Schwartz, among others) that the case against the Pinto was less clear cut than commonly supposed. Only 27 people ever died in Pinto fires, which given the Pinto's production figures (over 2 million built) was no worse than typical for the time. Schwartz argues that the car was no more fire-prone than other cars of the time, and that the supposed 'smoking gun' document showing Ford's callousness actually referred to the auto industry in general rather than the Pinto specifically.
2 See also
- Ford Pinto engineThe Ford Pinto engine is the unofficial but ubiquitous nickname for a 4 cylinder internal combustion engine built by the Ford Motor Company in Europe. Officially it was known as the EAO or OHC engine, it is also sometimes called the Metric engine since it - used in many other cars too
- AVE MizarThe AVE Mizar (frequently misspelled "Mitzar", but named after the star Mizar) was a flying car built between 1971 and 1973 by Advanced Vehicle Engineers (AVE) of Oxnard, California. The company was started by Henry Smolinski, a Northrop-trained engineer. - A flying Pinto
