If the so-called “Toys for Boys” six-Porsche assortment from a U.Okay. climate-controlled storage is just too boring for you, might we provide one thing from the opposite finish of the automotive spectrum. Toys for Males, if you’ll, as a result of it may take some elbow grease to get this six-Pinto assortment from Hacienda Heights, California, up and operating.
All six automobiles are 2-door wagons — capturing brakes if you wish to be cool, and all of them put on the identical shade of Seventies pale yellow. For the reason that advert was posted to Fb Market, it naturally comes with minimal description, leaving the explanation for the hoarding a thriller.
There’s not even that many images contemplating it is a half-dozen automobiles being supplied. The vendor states that the Pintos “all completely different years” and that they “simply acquired half of them operating.” So actually you would be shopping for three operable Pinto Wagons and three challenge automobiles.
Not like the Porsches we instructed you about, all the Pintos on the market have handbook transmissions, and the vendor goes on to state that they every have clear interiors as properly. Mileage ranges from 23,000 to 70,000. From the one inside photograph posted, the black vinyl seems to have survived the Southern California solar fairly properly for the previous 50 years.
Based on Barn Finds, which believes they’re 1973-74 fashions, these automobiles would’ve include a 2.0- or 2.3-liter inline-four making round 86 horsepower. In 1974, a Pinto Wagon would have offered for round $2,775 new. In 2024 the vendor desires $16,000 or finest provide on every automotive.
The Ford Pinto is maybe finest identified for being the topic of a recall and nationwide scare about its gasoline tank being liable to leaks, and thus the fiery deaths of its occupants, throughout rear impacts. A leaked “Pinto Memo” shocked the nation when it confirmed Ford knowingly calculated the prices of issuing a recall versus how a lot human lives could be value in the event that they let crash statistics play out.
The households of two separate Pinto drivers took Ford to courtroom in high-profile instances after their family members perished in rear-ending collisions. The jury in a single case awarded the plaintiffs what was on the time the most important punitive damages sum in a product legal responsibility case. The opposite discovered Ford was not liable.
The NHTSA ultimately compelled Ford to problem a recall. Nonetheless, the general public consciousness and furor over the instances irreparably broken the Pinto’s popularity. It was generally utilized in fashionable tradition as an object of derision.
Which brings us to at the least one use we are able to consider for the six Pintos on the market. Since they’re positioned close to Los Angeles, maybe a Hollywood manufacturing firm may purchase the lot. Stunt coordinators usually want a number of similar copies of the identical automotive to destroy or modify. These automobiles could be good for the following Seventies interval piece.