psdenno Posted February 20, 2015 Report Share Posted February 20, 2015 The Avanti’s gas tank placement was used as an example in the case of national litigation involving what car.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunslinger Posted February 20, 2015 Report Share Posted February 20, 2015 While there's a span of years between the two, it sounds like you're speaking of the Ford Pinto. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plwindish Posted February 20, 2015 Report Share Posted February 20, 2015 Has to be the Pinto litigation. About the only other litigation involving gas tank placement was GM's placement on the sides of the vehicle outside the frame rails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunslinger Posted February 20, 2015 Report Share Posted February 20, 2015 GM's placing the gas tank outside the frame rails plus NBC's addition of explosives to make their point (without saying so). Calling Brian Williams! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plwindish Posted February 20, 2015 Report Share Posted February 20, 2015 Maybe BW got it wrong, it was a GM gas tank that went whizzing by him and caused him to fill his pants! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad Posted February 20, 2015 Report Share Posted February 20, 2015 Originally the spare tire well was to be the fuel tank. They couldn't come up with the fuel proof liner and decided to "re-arrange" things Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psdenno Posted February 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 While there's a span of years between the two, it sounds like you're speaking of the Ford Pinto. It was the Ford Pinto. Lawyers used the Avanti tank placement as an example to show that a safer tank location was already "state of the art" by the time the Pinto was designed. I remember seeing a political cartoon of a B-52 dropping Pintos, instead of bombs, on North Viet Nam at the time of the law suits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1963r2 Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 I'm sure I saw a movie where a butterfly lands on a Pinto and it explodes. pb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunslinger Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 During the same time period as the Pinto debacle there were several crashes of DC-10 airliners due to improper sealing of rear doors. When the Pinto assembly lines were being shut down in California Ford was helping employees being laid off transition to new jobs with Douglas Aircraft not far away. One evening Johnny Carson in his monologue quipped "Can you believe that? The same people that built the Pinto will now be building DC-10's!" I about fell on the floor laughing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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