I know times are tough, but this takes the cake!
http://kstp.com/news/stories/s2680597.shtml
Tester
Hah…and people thought the ORIGINAL gas tank was unsafe!
ReaLLY? Deemed unsafe due to gas tank location, unsafer yet?
Speaking of having the fuel in the cab, my 1950 Chevy pickup, as well as other pickup trucks of the period, had the fuel tank in the cab behind the seat. I think the Studebaker pickup truck of that time period may have been the exception.
At any rate, the Pinto driver certainly protected the fuel supply from a rear end connection.
I wonder what the driver wore on wet days. The hole in the driver’s foot well is huge, but not nearly as large as the one behind the gas tank. I’m surprised it didn’t crack in half.
My 72 F150 Crew Cab had the fuel tank behind the rear seat.
Pinto’s were NEVER a good car. Right up with there with the Vega.
The state patrol made a good call in this case and the owner must have a death wish to even consider tooling around in that thing.
Imagine the passenger side door getting rammed with that gas container sitting there.
I like the snowmobile kill switch as the on/off for the elc fuel pump.
Many years ago, as a fun project, myself and some friends put together a V8 Pinto…Used a 302 out of a Maverick…C-4 tranny and the V8 running gear out of a V8 Mustang II including the suspension, brakes and rear axle. Most of the stuff just bolted in…Also added were dual exhausts and a 500CFM Autolite 2V carburetor gleaned from a 390 Ford pick-up truck…The water pump was a unique unit Ford used on the early V8 Mustangs, very short nosed, to keep the fan out of the radiator which still had to be relocated forward, tricky to do and still have the hood close properly…
Anyway, the finished car was a real street sleeper, very quick because of its light weight and it drove quite nicely without any bad habits…
It’s near impossible to find a Pinto in this neck of the woods. Some years ago the people running the local 3/8 mile dirt track started a Mini-Stock class and the Pinto was the weapon of choice for the downsized racers with a few scattered Toyotas, etc. filling out the card.
It was actually fun to watch but crashes and rollovers took their toll on the Pinto population.
Yeah I think it probably was a “rez-dog” but what can I say. There’s probably one trooper that gets up there once a month or so. Personally, I don’t see how a plastic gas can is worse than the original equipment but it was probably the seat and the long hair that got him.
I used to have a '71 Chevy pickup that had the fuel tank in the cab behind the seats. As for this Pinto, while it is quite rusted and not the least bit safe, there is a Ford Fairlane that runs around my town that is probably worse. This Fairlane has a phenomenal amount of rust on it and looks like it is literally going to fall apart while going down the road. If someone were to hit it, it would probably turn to a pile of dust.
The frightening thing is many of the comments on the news site seem to be against the police, claiming they should not have taken that car off the road!
Wow.
Take a man’s car away! Unthinkable! I do get mildly nostalgic when I see a Pinto. They were so common and distinctive in my youth and we were a Ford family. Do families still think like that? I guess I’ve known some Honda and Subaru families.
Pinto’s haven’t been around here in the North East in years. They were very prone to rust. They’ve all rusted away by now. Any that you might find were brought here recently from places like Arizona.
Looking at the pics, I now understand why he did what he did… There was no other solid surface to put the gas tank… YIKES !! How did he not fall thurgh I have no idea. With all that rust, I would have run the fuel line thrugh the floor and up to the carb, this way the line was not so exposed…
The rusted out belly-pan was more of a hazard than the 6 gallon marine gas tank…Ford made millions of Mustangs where the top of the gas tank was also the floor or the trunk. The tops of these tanks had a bad habit of rusting out, flooding the trunk with gasoline…In the Fastback models, the rear seat folded down and a panel opened into the trunk allowing you to carry long objects with ease…Now the gas tank had direct access to the passenger compartment…Many pick-ups and Jeeps also had the gas tank mounted in the passenger compartment…Somehow, we all survived as did the driver of the Pinto…
The plastic tank filled with gasoline resting on the spare placed over the passenger seat location is reason enough for me to call that Pinto a death trap. The cop would have been doing the driver a favor if he cut the tires and called a cab. But opinions seem to vary.
Should we submit the driver for a Darwin Award?
@caddyman I totally forgot about he old CJ-5’s whose gas tank was right under the drivers seat… FROM THE FACTORY !! Yeah that just seems like a bad idea now.