From: C. E. White on
"Scott Dorsey" <kludge(a)panix.com> wrote in message
news:<hrmvrq$d7v$1(a)panix2.panix.com>...
> C. E. White <cewhite3(a)mindspring.com> wrote:
> >I like Wikipedia also. However, they give far too much weight to
> >the
> >Mother Jones attack piece and not enough to what a sham job of
> >reporting it was. There was no Ford analysis that claimed it was
> >better to payoff Pinto lawsuits than fix the Pinto. There was a
> >document written before the Pinto was designed that related the
> >cost
> >of certain safety improvement to the cost of a human life, but the
> >cost used was provided by the Government and was not Ford's number
> >and
> >it wasn't even actually realted to the Pinto at all (despite the
> >lies
> >told in the MJ article). And while it might be true that 1971
> >Pinto's
> >had light rear bumpers, the 1973 model had the Government mandatd 5
> >mph bumpers.
>
> As the owner of a Pinto that went through eleven... count them...
> eleven
> engine blocks under warranty (many of which arrived at the dealer
> obviously
> damaged or improperly machined and were sent back without being
> installed),
> I have to say that the Pinto had a lot of issues that were unrelated
> to the
> gas tank design.
> --scott

Which year and which engine? At least for early Pintos like we owned,
all the engines came from Europe (we had the 2000 cc German built
engine in the two my family owned, a good friend had the English built
1600 cc in his). Ee never had any engine problems. In fact, the only
mechanical problem either of the Pintos owned by my family had was a
burned out starter, and that was my fault - it happened under warranty
(I bought a tank of gas that was really at least 25% water - I abused
the started trying to avoid dropping the tank to empty out the water).
I autocrossed my Pinto constantly for the three yeare I drove it while
I was in college. My younder siter drove it another three years, and
then I drove it again for a year before finally selling it. My older
Sister had the other Pinto. She drove it for 7 years and then I drove
it for about 6 months after an accident damaged my "regular" car. I
sold that one to a freind who let this three kids drive it to college
for another 5 years before he finally sold it. Heck it may yet be out
there.....

It sounds to me like you had a dealership problem. I can't imagine
Ford screwed up 11 engines. I assume you were getting long
blocks......there wasn't much to them since the cam was in the head.

Ed


From: cuhulin on
Legendary flops in automotive history.
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=288658

When the Pinto cars first came on the market place, a guy who worked
where I worked, he bought a new red Pinto car.I reckon it was a good
car, he never said anything about having any problems with that car.He
drove it at least 80 miles every day, going back and forth to his home
and work.That's the way the mop flops.
cuhulin

From: cuhulin on
On the flip side, my snail mail June 2010 Motor Trend magazine has an
article titled, Dream Machines.The cars featured in the article are,
Alfa Romeo Aerodinamica Tecnica (1954)
Buick Lesabre (1951)
Lamborghini Marzal (1967)
Lincoln Futura (1955)
Sting Ray (1959)
Chrysler Portofino (1987)
Cadillac Sixteen (2003)
Pontiac Bonneville Special (1954)
Ford Mustang I (1962)
Chrysler Norseman (1956)
Cadillac Cyclone (1959)
Dodge Firearrow I (1953)
Alfa Romero Brera (2002)
GM Firebird III (1959)
Ferrari Mondulo (1970)
VW Concept 1 (1994)
Ford GT90 (1995)
and, Aero-Vette (1977)
http://www.motortrend.com
cuhulin

From: chuckcar on
aemeijers <aemeijers(a)att.net> wrote in
news:SvydnfC5CodhLX3WnZ2dnUVZ_o6gnZ2d(a)giganews.com:

> chuckcar wrote:
>> aemeijers <aemeijers(a)att.net> wrote in
>> news:-7adnTcjYZX7e0DWnZ2dnUVZ_rOdnZ2d(a)giganews.com:
>>
>>> But I'm probably wrong- I never really followed Vettes, as I never
>>> found them that interesting. (and people say SUVs are useless?) I'f
>>> I'm gonna have a sporty 2-seater, I'd prefer one that does a little
>>> better on gas, and has better vision. All the Vettes I've ridden in
>>> felt like I was sitting in a bathtub.
>>>
>> Low center of gravity for cornering. Any ZR1 could wipe the floor
>> with any NASCAR car on a road circuit given two proper race drivers
>> in them..
>>
> And thus, pretty useless on a street car, unless you live someplace
> with very flat streets, no potholes, and it is always warm and sunny.
> And no cops, of course.
>
I figured that's what you were meaning.

Same could be said for anyone owning a Ferrari, Lotus or Lambo and so
on. Moreso in fact. However, there's at least two road courses that have
track days less than 100 miles from here. There's a guy that parks his
Testerossa outside a restaurant in Little Italy here every day except in
winter of course. I would guess he saves on maintenance by never driving
it hard.


--
(setq (chuck nil) car(chuck) )
From: supraman_88 on
On Wed, 05 May 2010 11:48:44 +0000, chuckcar wrote:

> aemeijers <aemeijers(a)att.net> wrote in
> news:SvydnfC5CodhLX3WnZ2dnUVZ_o6gnZ2d(a)giganews.com:
>
>> chuckcar wrote:
>>> aemeijers <aemeijers(a)att.net> wrote in
>>> news:-7adnTcjYZX7e0DWnZ2dnUVZ_rOdnZ2d(a)giganews.com:
>>>
>>>> But I'm probably wrong- I never really followed Vettes, as I never
>>>> found them that interesting. (and people say SUVs are useless?) I'f
>>>> I'm gonna have a sporty 2-seater, I'd prefer one that does a little
>>>> better on gas, and has better vision. All the Vettes I've ridden in
>>>> felt like I was sitting in a bathtub.
>>>>
>>> Low center of gravity for cornering. Any ZR1 could wipe the floor with
>>> any NASCAR car on a road circuit given two proper race drivers in
>>> them..
>>>
>> And thus, pretty useless on a street car, unless you live someplace with
>> very flat streets, no potholes, and it is always warm and sunny. And no
>> cops, of course.
>>
> I figured that's what you were meaning.
>
> Same could be said for anyone owning a Ferrari, Lotus or Lambo and so on.
> Moreso in fact. However, there's at least two road courses that have track
> days less than 100 miles from here. There's a guy that parks his
> Testerossa outside a restaurant in Little Italy here every day except in
> winter of course. I would guess he saves on maintenance by never driving
> it hard.

There's a guy around here that never drives his Ferrari over ~40 MPH.
Never even takes it on the highway, always uses secondary roads!

That said, I can prodly and truthfully say I blew off a Ferrari 360 with a
Toyota Tercel! ;)





First  |  Prev  |  Next  |  Last
Pages: 1 2 3
Prev: Best Mold
Next: Rough downshift - 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan