<VV> Re: FC is Cab Forward

[Tony Underwood]

At 09:46 hours 09/23/2004 -0400, airvair wrote:
>No, you're confusing that with a Pinto.
>
>-Mark
>
>UltraMonzaWest@aol.com wrote:
>
>>>J R,
>>>I believe FC is for 'Forward Control'; where the driver is over the front 
>>>wheels.
>>>Andy K.
>>>
>>>    
>>>
>>**********************************************************
>>Gee.. I always thought it was "Firey Coffin"   gggg  wcuh       



By the way:    


More people have been burned to death in Mustangs than in Pintos.    The
Pinto "explosion" story was an over-reaction based on staged tests which
were rigged to cause the Pinto gas tanks to ignite after the cars were
demolished in rear end collisions severe enough to crush the entire rear
section of the car up into the passenger compartment, buckling the roof and
floors,  breaking the seats loose from their supports and likely killing
the occupants from impact trauma before any potential fires would result.
Even in crashes this severe, many of the test vehicles still didn't catch
fire.   The tests were then performed with incendiary (electrical) devices
in the impacting vehicles and the gas caps were removed from the
filled-to-the-brim Pinto fuel tanks.   When the Pintos were rammed from
behind hard enough to crush the fuel tanks, *then* the sparking devices in
the impacting vehicles would ignite the gasoline that exited from the tank
filler spout and from split seams in the tank itself.          

The result was a reputation of exploding bombs on wheels and a huge recall
which left a stigma on the Pinto that was undeserved.   

A similar "test" was done to demonstrate how the infamous Chrysler minivan
hatch would come off in a fender bender, where the vans were impacted in
side-collisions by trolleys carrying blocks of concrete the size of
refrigerator crates and weighing several tons.   The impacts were performed
at various speeds but it wasn't until the side impacts were approaching
speeds beyond 40 mph that the hatches actually flew open during the
collisions.   The tests performed at those impact speeds also caved the
body in like a stepped-on beer can and knocked the van completely off the
roadway, spinning it like a top.   Even then, oft times the hatch still
wouldn't open unless the concrete block impacted the rearward quarter of
the van, which usually caused the hatch to fly open because the latches and
hinges were ripped from the body of the van along with part of the hatch
jamb.    

The worst case scenario footage is what gets shown to the committees...
who see these catastrophic events and assume them to  be the norm rather
than fringe extreme that they actually were.    Oh well...  


tony..