While watching the play-offs I'm thumbing through a book titled, "Lemon's - The World's Worst Cars." Of course there is our prized Pinto within these pages. The "expert" author (Timothy Jacobs) made the following statements:
1. "Even the last year produced, the 1976 Pinto, ..."
(Not 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980?)
2. "The Pinto's ... insensibly long hood ..."
(Compared to???. The slope of the front and rear glass, and the lack of a flat, extended trunk was what makes the normal
sized hood appear long)
3. "The explosion problem was due, after all, to a defective gas tank ventilation system."
(So, it had nothing to do with the bolts on the rearend piecing the tank or the filler tube sliding out)
4. "Thanks to a long standing convention of developing parallel vehicle lines, the slightly more upscale Mercury Comets of
1970-1976 suffered the same woes as their Pinto brethren."
(So, there was a 1970 Pinto? And, it was the Comet, not the Bobcat that was the Pinto spin-off??? Ah..., no!)
5. "This was the year (1974) that energy absorbing bumpers were added to the little car, giving it a more substantial
appearance."
(I'll probably step on a few toes here, but I think it is a general consensus that the 1971-73, small bumper Pinto's have the
"better" appearance.")
In a handful of paragraphs this author has perpetuated inaccuracies regarding our beloved Pinto's.
Tom