WEBVTT - SYSK Live: Back When Ford Pintos Were Flaming Deathtraps 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:02.960 Hey, everybody. We've already made our big tour announcement for 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:06.040 the year, but this is a little different because we 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:09.119 have added a show because Denver sold out, so we 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:11.560 have added a second show in Denver. Nice. Yeah, we're 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:15.120 going to be there on Wednesday. Then we added a 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:19.119 show the day before the same place, Gothic Theater, Englewood, Colorado. 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:21.639 And you can go to s y s K live 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.360 dot com to get info and tickets for that show 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:27.400 and all the rest of our shows to Chuck. That's right, Boston, 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:32.040 April fourth, d C April five. St. Louis, May and Cleveland, Ohio. 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:36.640 Come out and see us. Welcome to Stuff you Should 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:46.840 Know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey what, Actually, 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:48.839 I shouldn't say that yet, Chuck, because we're going to 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:51.200 start the podcast later. This is like a pre thing, 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:55.720 that's right, a pre welcome to this episode, a very 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.120 special episode of Stuff you should Know. That's right because 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:03.120 well it's live, and not only that, where are we live. 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:08.240 We are live in our beloved town of Atlanta's right, Hotlanta. 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:11.959 Well no you don't. No one calls it that everybody, 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.479 but we we did this special show at the Buckhead 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.320 Theater sold it out by the way, UM, and it 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:19.800 was a it was a benefit show. Yeah, it was 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:22.679 pretty great. We toured this topic in quite a few 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:24.760 cities last year. We had a lot of fun, and 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:28.000 we decided, actually, is your idea, give you full credit. Hey, 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.480 let's make this Atlanta local show a benefit show and 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:35.319 give all of the dough to uh charities of our choice. 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:40.360 So mine, Chuck was the National Down Syndrome Society UM, 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:44.360 which is this great organization who advocate for people with 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:47.200 Down syndrome obviously UM, but one of the things that 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:51.240 the National Down Syndrome Society is dedicated to, especially right now, 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:55.440 they have something called law Syndrome uh checkout law syndrome 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:58.160 dot org. And basically they're trying to get the laws 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:03.640 changed that make people with Down syndrome choose between pursuing 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:06.600 like a career and actually being able to support themselves 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.680 or uh not in staying at home and living with 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:12.720 their parents but still getting access to the really great 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:17.760 government Medicaid healthcare that they need. So UM, the n 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:20.240 d s S is saying they shouldn't have to choose, 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:23.160 that we should want both of them, uh want them 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:25.480 to have both of them. So that's that's their push 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:27.400 right now. Uh, and you can go to n d 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:30.000 s S dot org and they have all sorts of 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:31.880 ways for you to donate and you can do that 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:34.240 and feel great about yourself. It's great. And they actually 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.360 sent people from the society to the show and we 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:39.080 met them and they were just they were wonderful and 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:41.480 what it was a great place to uh to pick 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.160 what a great way to donate your money people. Yeah, 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:46.880 shout out to Colleen and Cale for coming to the show, 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.440 Thank you very much. And for my charity, I picked 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.600 the Lifeline Animal Project right here in Atlanta. They are 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:57.600 a sort of local grassroots see animal rescue organization. Uh. 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:00.320 They have a few locations in Atlanta there to terrific. 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:04.640 They have low costs spaying neuter programs. Obviously you can uh, 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:08.280 you can adopt, you can volunteer. Um. They're they're really 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:11.160 just great and they do it all um not for 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.840 fame or glory or money, but because Atlanta has a serious, 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:18.680 serious problem with stray pets. And they're just the nicest people. 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.440 So it's great that you guys are supporting them, and 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:26.440 it's uh, it's very worthy cause they are who Emily 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:29.720 and I are charitable with every year on our own anyway, 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:32.560 and it was great to efficiently partner with them, uh 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.800 and be able to combine with our regular donating and 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:37.960 write them a big old fat check thanks to Stuff 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:40.520 you Should Know listeners. Yeah, so, so here's the thing. 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:44.120 We donated of our proceeds from that show, and we 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:48.480 twisted every arm involved. Um, how stuff works, got T 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:52.880 shirts made up. Legendary super fan and friend Aaron Cooper 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.360 donated his time to design the T shirts. Uh. The 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:58.840 people who made the T shirts donated them for free. 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.960 All the proceeds from the T shirts went to National 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:05.880 Down Syndrome Society and Lifeline Animal Rescue. So what we're 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:08.920 trying to say now is we're releasing this episode and 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.000 we are hoping that you are beloved Stuff you Should 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:15.040 Know listeners, Well, take the time to go make a 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.520 donation yourself in exchange for this free live episode that 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:20.919 we're bringing you. That's right, And if you want to 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.800 just donate regular style, you can go to Lifeline Animal 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.040 dot org. That would be great, but they made it 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:29.440 super easy and set up a text donation campaign, so 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:34.240 all you have to do is text Lifeline whatever amount 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:39.000 of money. So text Lifeline dollar sign five to five 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:42.920 zero one five, and you have just donated five bucks 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:45.400 or however much money you want to donate. It's really 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:48.120 really easy, right, And you can go to the n 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.720 d S S dot org website and you can donate there. 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:55.120 Um and they make it pretty easy on you. I 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:59.720 believe both donations are donations to both organizations are text deductible. 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.600 It's got that bonus two. That's right. So one more 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.400 time for Lifeline, you can text to the number five, 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.320 text the words Lifeline dollar sign and whatever number you 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:13.120 want to donate, and then that's n D S S 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:19.440 dot org and away with the show. Hey, welcome to 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:23.440 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:27.440 Jerry's not here, but we are with all these beautiful 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:31.160 people live at the Buckhead Theater in our own Atlanta 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:53.240 g A good wow. Hey yeah they are not too shabby. Everybody. Yeah, 0:05:55.040 --> 0:06:02.920 So let's start. Man, I feel great. So I feel great. Since, uh, 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.680 since this is a live podcast and it's actually set 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:08.840 a little further back in time, we thought we would 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:14.440 all get into the way back machine. So for those 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:16.680 of you who have seen us lie before, you know, 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:20.160 The Way Back Machine is made up. It's not a 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.640 real thing, you but it does take a twinkle in 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:27.160 your eye and a heartful of magic to get into 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:29.160 the way Back Machine. So I hope all of you 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.240 have that going on right now. That was my best 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:36.960 Sarah Silverman impression. It's pretty good. Thanks. So we're all 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.520 on the way Back Machine, okay, and we're going back 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:44.839 to Detroit, Michigan, back to like the mid sixties or 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.200 something like that. We'll say, yeah, back when people still 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:52.599 wanted to go to Detroit. I'm purpose sorry, ma'am. Yeah, 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:58.880 I told you. And we're gonna fly in does and 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:01.600 we're very small and invisible by the way, So we're 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:05.279 gonna fly in over the shoulder of an up and 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:09.480 coming auto executive with a beautiful head of hair named 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:15.160 Lee I A Coca and Lee Lee. At the time, 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:17.760 he was what you might call a young turk, up 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.200 and coming, like ready to take on the world. Great 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:22.880 guy um and he had a lot of cred around 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:27.200 the company that he worked at called Ford Motor Company's 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:30.760 tried his pre Chrysler right, and he had a lot 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:34.280 of cred because he had designed the Mustang right. It 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:37.200 was known as Lee's car even. Yeah. I mean if 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:40.200 you if you are the guy in the lead of 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:42.800 the Ford Mustang project, then you've kind of bought your 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.200 ticket in the car industry. If you have a great car, 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.720 do you make the car that Vanilla Ice will eventually love, 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.480 You've done something quite right with your life, right. Did 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.560 he have a Mustang rolling in my five point oh 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.600 with the rag top down? That's a Mustang, buddy, is 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:04.280 it sure? I think it's even in the video. I've 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:09.280 never been more ashamed to not know the lyrics of 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:14.560 a song. Yeah, because it's f and Vanilla Ice. So 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:16.200 I don't feel like I should have known it. I 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:19.400 just feel like a stooge. Oh no, it's fine. Now 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:21.520 you've got a Wan shirt on, you probably should know 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:26.000 those lyrics. But I know I know that lyric. Yeah, 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:30.080 I didn't know. It's my understanding, right everybody. Yeah, I 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:32.760 thought it was a Volkswagen Beetle. No. No, but that 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:36.320 does come up starting now because Lee I Coca was 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:38.199 one of the few people in Detroit at the time 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:43.760 who realized that the American auto industry's lunch was being 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:47.679 eaten in the subcompact market, mainly because no American car 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:50.319 company was making subcompacts at the time. Right, we liked 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:55.439 our cars very large, like land yachts. Yeah, okay, so 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:59.040 Li said, the Germans are eating our lunch with their 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:04.320 little Volkswagen Beetle Hitler's car. Look it up, I had 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:09.600 two Volkswagen Beetles. Those were two Hitler's cars. You supported 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:16.240 Hitler in a way. My mom is over there, she 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:25.560 bought that car. She's going like uh. And then the 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.600 Toyota Corolla was also killing people, right, killing Detroit, I 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.360 should say, And so Lee said, we need to get 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.080 a car to market. But I'm not the president. There's 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:37.680 a man who is president. And what is his name, Chuck? 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:41.680 I can't even remember, honestly, Oh no, I do remember. 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:46.880 His name is Bunky Knudsen. If you're the president of 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:49.800 car company and your name is Bunky Knudson, you gotta 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.680 know you have a target on your back. Right, nobody's 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.480 gonna let that stand for very long, especially not Lee. 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.960 I a coca. Yeah. The only thing Bunky Ninson and 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:00.920 that year would have been president of is the the 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:06.440 super secret, super secret Treehouse Playboy magazine club led by 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.600 Bunkie News, right or the local Union of the Guys 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:11.960 who sell those like monkeys that play the symbols on 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.520 the street, you know, the wind up ones. Alright. So 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:19.560 regardless of that, Bunky Knutson was in charge and Leah 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:21.840 Coca had his eight had sights set on that job. 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:25.360 And so they settle things in the traditional way in 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:31.440 the car industry at the time, which was arm wrestling. Serious. 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.840 So Leaa Coca had this thing where um, and we 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:38.160 think this is probably how he rose to power. He 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.319 could rip the sleeve clean off of his shirt right 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.160 at the shoulder, right before an arm wrestling match, right. 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:48.520 It's very intimidating, and he always kept his arms oiled. 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.640 Every morning he would oil him up and very gingerly 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:53.800 put the shirt on over him so the oil wouldn't 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:56.120 show too So it really had like a pronounced effect 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.240 when he tore his shirtslee of off and went like that. 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.120 So when he did this, the Bunky nuts in and 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.800 Bunky saw that oil bicep. He knew his time running 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:09.920 for a company had grown short. That's right, funky news, 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:13.360 and knew what time it was that was totally made up. 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:17.120 You all realized the stunt silence threw me off a 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.080 little bit. It was back to the Treehouse for Bunky. 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.520 So Leah Coca found himself in charge of Forward, and 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:26.560 he said, we gotta get a subcompact going fast, dudes. 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:29.160 So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna get a 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:31.719 project going. I'm even gonna give it a code name, 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:36.000 which is really weird and sort of sman mark, kind 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:39.120 of a Newts and move. But he named it Project Phoenix, 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.079 which is very cute and a little ironic once you 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:43.959 know what this is about. And he said, I want 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:48.000 a car I want on the market, and what twenty 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:51.760 four months? Yeah, and normally it took like forty three 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:55.319 months dating car from concept to production. I cocy said, no, 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:59.079 twenty four so super fast, and it can't weigh more 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:01.880 than two thousand sounds and it can't cost a customer 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.720 more than two thousand dollars. And he totally should have 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:07.000 called it Project two thousand, so that would have been 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:10.800 a super cool name. In the early nineteen seventies, that 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.439 car would go on to be known as the Ford Pinto. 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:19.400 For those of you who aren't going, like a couple 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:22.439 of collaps, a couple of booze, a couple of groans, 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:26.280 and a lot of like we're gonna fill the people 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:28.640 in on this, Okay. Yeah, So the deal with the 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:32.000 Ford Pinto was if you don't know, and you did 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:38.600 grow up in the seventies, um, it had a problem. 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:41.240 We don't know a lot about cars, but we know 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.640 that the Ford Pinto had a problem. If you would 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:49.240 hit the Ford Pinto from the rear going very very slow, 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:57.000 sometimes it would burst into a fiery ball. And that 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.360 is not a good thing for a car to do. 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:04.880 It's asleep when you're still in the car. Has anyone 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:09.679 seen the movie Top Secret? Remember that one? There's there's 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.040 a scene where Valkimer I think, is on a motorcycle. 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:16.079 He's being chased by Germans, and um, he somehow out 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:20.120 maneuvers them and they swerve off the road and slam 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:23.520 on their brakes and almost come to a complete stop 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:26.560 right before hitting hitting a Pinto in the rear, but 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:30.560 don't quite make it. It makes that crystal thing sound 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:34.080 and then boom they just blow up into flames. Right 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:36.440 And this is in the eighties. This was like at 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:40.040 least ten years after the Pinto had this reputation. That's 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:43.360 not that far from the truth, actually, we found from 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:47.320 doing this research, so there's actually a lot of choice 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:49.640 quotes that we found a lot of people love taking 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.199 pot shots at the Pinto. Some have written some pretty 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.440 great stuff. Um, you want to take the first one? Yeah. 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:59.160 The first one was from Popular Mechanics magazine and they said, 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.600 Argue dobably, the most dangerous fuel tank of all time 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:07.199 was a rear mounted vessel installed on the seventy one 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:11.000 through seventies Ford Pinto. It's possibly the best example of 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:19.360 what happens when poor engineering meets corporate negligence. Good quote, 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.680 I got one. There was this guy named Dr Leslie Ball. 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:26.560 He was the chief safety officer for NASA's manned Space program. 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:30.640 So this guy new safety. Right. Um, he said that 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:34.040 the release to production of the Pinto was the most 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:39.160 reprehensible decision in the history of American engineering. So there's 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:42.520 a couple of things I wanted to try. A couple 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:44.760 of things to note in this quote. One he said 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:49.160 was the most reprehensible decision, not one of the and 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:53.680 he also qualifies it with American engineering, not automotive engineering. 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:58.240 He's including like, um, easy bake ovens and other stuff 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:02.320 that have killed like millions people. You know, he's including 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:08.160 everything ever built basically easy, big governance or death traps too. 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:11.800 So the Pinto, it was kind of an issue for Ford. 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:14.400 Is we're going to see But there's this one Tippitt 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:16.880 we ran acrost that we just love. There was a 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:20.680 radio spot for the Pinto in the seventies and Ford 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:24.600 had to get there um their agency to get rid 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:27.960 of it because it had the line the Pinto leaves 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:36.800 you with that warm feeling for real, this is this 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:41.560 is a fun one of research, alright. So again I 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.360 want to reiterate, we don't know anything about the design 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:47.760 of cars. You know how to drive cars, and that's 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:50.480 about where it ends. But we do know this. The 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.440 original design of the Pinto had a gas tank that 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:58.560 started six inches from the rear bumper. I know that's 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.240 not a good idea. If I was in Detroit, I 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.520 would have said, well, that's weird, and why would you 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:08.840 want to do that, because you know, accidents happen. No 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:13.560 one thought about it. No. That's made even worse by 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.320 the fact that a car critic would later call that 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:20.600 bumper a little more than ornamentation, right, like cars supposed 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:22.200 to have a bumper, just put that thing that looks 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.120 like a bumper on it. Basically there was a later 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:27.960 improved version of the bumper on the Pinto that could 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:32.360 with stand a five impact. That was the improved version. 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.640 And again, this is all happening six inches away from 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:41.400 the gas tank. That's that's just one side of the 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:44.200 fuel tank. There's a whole other side, and it had 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.200 like its own issues. Basically, Yeah, there's there's something on 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:53.640 a car called a differential. Uh. The mechanics say, we 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:55.960 don't know what that is, but um, I did some 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:59.800 research and here's what I'm gonna call it. It's the 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:04.600 magic box that makes the car go room. It's pretty accurate. 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:08.000 What's what's so funny is like we pride ourselves like 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:11.680 chasing down every tidbit of information when it comes to cars. 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:16.240 Were just like out no idea. Who would want to 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.439 hear a live podcast about a car. So this magic 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:24.440 box on the Ford Pinto had four protruding bolts facing 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:29.680 the gas tank that uh see you're getting it now 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:33.439 that uh in court later on, and this would end 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:35.440 up in court that you see where this is going. 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:40.520 Lawyers would call them can openers, and we're just gonna 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:45.040 call them for this show, flaming death bolts. I wish 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:47.119 we had a sound effect or like a jingle like 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:51.879 Flaming Death Bolts, And we should totally trademark Flaming Death Bolts, 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:54.000 I think so too, or at least that's a band name. 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:55.639 I think we should at least call it out as 0:17:55.720 --> 0:18:00.320 that a right do you hear that the Flamings Faults 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:07.040 behind us? That came out uh on the wrong night? So, 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:09.040 like I said, there was there's a lot of good 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:11.320 quotes out there, but probably the best of them, the 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:14.240 best came from this journalist named Mark Dowie who figures 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:17.760 big time into the story, and he probably got across 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:20.400 the problem with the Pinto better than anybody. And if 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:25.680 I may, okay, Mark Daway said, if you ran into 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:28.520 a Pinto you were following it over thirty miles, the 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:31.040 rear end of the car would buckle like an accordion 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:33.600 right up to the back seat, and the tube bleeding 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:35.960 to the gas tank cap would be ripped away from 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:39.520 the tank itself and gas would immediately begin squashing onto 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:43.040 the road around the car. Right the buckle. Gas tank 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:46.280 would be jammed up against the differential housing, which contained 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.600 four sharp protruding bolts, likely to gash holes in the 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:53.760 tank and spill still more gas. Now, all you need 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:56.159 is a spark from a cigarette. And this is me 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:59.399 interjecting here. This is the seventies. So every single person 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:03.159 in every single car was smoking every single second of 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:06.359 every moment they were driving. There four lit cigarettes in 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:10.600 every car at all times, with windows up. Barring that 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:14.159 you could also get it from the ignition or scraping metal, 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.679 and both cars would be engulfed in flames. If you 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:20.200 gave that pin to a really good whack, say at 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.440 forty miles per hour, chances are excellent that it's doors 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:25.880 with jam and you would have to stand by and 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:34.000 watch its trap passengers burned to death. You're let's not 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:39.840 me saying this your additional what do you call that? 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:46.040 Pantomiming acting? Uh, it's it's in the pantomime trade fantastic 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:54.320 reading rainbow with Josh. Give LaVar Burton a run for 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:59.320 his money, all right, So there was one thirty mile 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:01.960 per hour crap dust with the pinto that found that 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:06.800 all thirteen gallons, all thirteen gallons uh spilled out in 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:11.200 less than sixty seconds. So we all drive here in 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:13.639 Atlanta and you all pump gas. You know how fast 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:15.879 when you're pumping gas it's coming out and you're like, 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:20.040 oh my god, that's so fast coming out. It's so 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:24.120 fast you can't pump or take a gas in sixty seconds. 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:26.800 So the Pinto is spilling gas faster than you can 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:29.679 pump gas. Think about that next time you go to 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:33.840 the gas station. Yeah, I think, thank God, I'm not 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:39.120 driving in early seventies Pinto. So the weird thing is this, 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:45.560 despite the Pinto's reputation, whether it's from top secret, you 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:48.160 learned about it from your older brother, who knows where 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:50.639 you heard it from, but a lot most people, I 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.080 would even say, know of the Pinto is a flaming 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:57.159 death trap. It turns out in retrospect, the Pinto was 0:20:57.240 --> 0:20:59.920 really not much worse than any other car and it's 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:02.800 class at the time, which is not to say that 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:06.160 the Pinto wasn't a flaming death trap, but instead all 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:09.520 cars were flaming death traps. At the time. The idea 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:13.080 of being safe if you got into a crash was 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:17.120 totally lost on Detroit at a time. It wasn't a thing. 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:20.400 So we wondered, okay, well, how did the Pinto actually 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:23.840 get this reputation? And to answer that question, we have 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:27.600 to go to the Great Periodical Room in the sky, 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.040 and we have to go back to the ninth we 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:34.080 all have to die. No, No, that's the great part 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:37.480 about it. You can go there alive. Usually when you 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:38.920 say the great thing in the sky, that means you're 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:42.960 totally dead. It's just in the sky. Okay, alright, Great, 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:45.359 we're going to the Great Periodical in the sky and 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:49.840 we're all living. All right, it's great. We're gonna go 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.080 back to the nineteen seventy seven section and we're going 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:58.000 to find the nineteen seventies seven year for Mother Jones Magazine. 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:00.360 Has everyone ever heard of? Mother Jones Magazine is still 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:05.239 around today. One might characterize it as slightly left at 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:08.240 center maybe, and it was very much the same back 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:12.600 of the day. And in this in this September October 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:16.159 ninety seven issue of Mother Jones Magazine, there was an 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:19.000 article by Mark Dowie. That's right, it's called Pinto Madness. 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:21.800 You can still read this article today. It was one 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:24.240 of the main sources we used. It's a great deep 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:26.560 dive if you want to read some more stuff about 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.159 the Pinto but um. Mark Dowie was the quote you 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:31.399 read earlier, and he was a journalist there at the time, 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:34.840 and uh, this is this is one reason you know. 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:37.760 This is also the seventies when they released this article 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:41.600 in a print magazine, they had a press conference about it, 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:45.800 which is adorable when you think about it, especially through 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:49.320 today's lens. So they even traveled. They went to Washington, 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:52.720 d C. From San Francisco, held a big press conference 0:22:52.840 --> 0:22:56.200 there on Capitol Hill about a magazine article, and they 0:22:56.240 --> 0:23:02.639 invited Ralph Nader to attend, which, yeah, uh, if you 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:04.920 don't know who Ralph Nader is, he is a great American. 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:09.640 He uh it was a consumer crusader who cared really 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:11.720 about one thing in life, and that is making sure 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:17.359 that corporations didn't screw you over and they kept you safe. 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:19.720 And he it's not like he got rich doing it. 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:22.600 Ralph Nader was a great, great dude, right. He like 0:23:22.760 --> 0:23:25.200 lived like a hermit to show that it wasn't being 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:27.600 influenced by one side or the other. He had like 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:30.800 a mattress on the floor of like a studio apartment. 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:34.440 I think he had a hot plate that he lived with. Ironically, 0:23:34.480 --> 0:23:39.159 it's very dangerous I think about it. It was like 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:41.280 probably one of the safer hot places. But yeah, I 0:23:41.320 --> 0:23:42.919 bet it was the best hot plate on the market, 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:45.520 you think so, but he bought it with his own money, 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:48.200 he did so any Ralph Nader was there, They got 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:51.800 everyone together and they had this big press conference in Washington, 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:56.879 d C. And uh Dowie starts to poke around a 0:23:56.880 --> 0:23:59.359 little bit and do a little more research for this article, 0:23:59.520 --> 0:24:01.720 and uh say, you know, I need to go to 0:24:01.760 --> 0:24:03.560 these need to go to d O T and need 0:24:03.600 --> 0:24:05.320 to go what was the other one called the an 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:08.320 h T S A once that stand for nationale man 0:24:08.840 --> 0:24:15.119 the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Correct some mouthful because 0:24:15.240 --> 0:24:16.959