The Ford Pinto of the Netflix summer series hides an explosive history plagued by controversy

At this point we can say that '  Stranger Things  ', more than just a series of adventures and suspense among the endless options offered by Netflix, has already become a pop culture phenomenon that has brought back to the forefront of the scene  the aesthetics of the 1980s and 1990s.

The series has not only brought back the happiness of nostalgics with the most varied references, ranging from 'ET' to 'Goonies', passing through 'Stand by Me' or 'Red Dawn'... the  fictional town of Hawkins  (Indiana, USA) has also returned a piece of history to car enthusiasts.

And it is that few  petrolheads  will have overlooked how well selected the fleet is for when the plot unfolds.

On this occasion, if you are ready for an "explosion of nostalgia" -never better said-, we review the story of one of the most striking cars of the first two seasons of Stranger Things:  the little Ford Pinto of Joyce Byers.

The cars of the "not so backward" world

With a few exceptions that we've seen in the last two seasons of the show, if you're between 35 and 50 and have a  particular fondness for American cars,  you'll remember when the roads should have looked exactly like those in 'Stranger Things'.

Well, in the real world, you know... not in the Upside Down.

The streets and highways of Hawkins offer a near-perfect selection of cars that really could have spent their glory days in any humble Midwestern town since the early 1980s.

Often these cars become part of the story and even become an extension of the character driving them.

To cite examples, examples of this are Barb's Volkswagen Cabrio, Steve's beautiful 1980 BMW 733i, Hopper's Chevy K5 and of course:  Joyce Byers' little green 1976 Ford Pinto , played by a brand new Winona Laura Horowitz (better known as Winona Ryder).

Chronicle of an “explosive” car: the little Ford Pinto

When the Ford Pinto subcompact was  born in 1970 , it was one innovative car among so many gas-guzzling behemoths rolling off the Detroit assembly lines, quickly becoming  America's alternative to the Toyota Corolla  and Volkswagen Beetle of the day. .

These cars were affordable to the general public and had relatively low fuel consumption, so they spread like wildfire through poorer American neighborhoods in response to rising fuel prices that were beginning to cause  the oil crisis  of that decade. .

Ford president at the time,  Lee Iacocca  (who was also the father of the  Ford Mustang  ), had given clear instructions to his leaders: the company was to develop a car that cost about $2,000 and weighed about 2,000 kg to satisfy new consumer preferences and dominate the market.

When it went from paper to dealership (in  a record time of around 24 months  ), the car was one of the cheapest at the time and in return it offered a capacity of five people, a fuel consumption that did not burn a hole in the bank and, most importantly, the whole thing, a fairly spacious trunk.

Registrations topped  half a million units a year  soon after its launch, making the Pinto the best-selling vehicle in its class.

But just when the car—and everything it stood for—began to make the “American Dream” a reality, it all blew up. Literally.

The accident that sparked the controversy

By 1972, hundreds of thousands of Americans had purchased the iconic Ford Pinto, and Californian  Lily Gray was one of them . One day among many others when he was about to join the highway with Richard Grimshaw - 13 years old - as co-pilot, the car stopped suddenly.

Then he  was rammed from behind by another vehicle at 45 km/h , but despite the reduced speed, the fuel tank caught fire and from then on the fate of the two was doomed: the vapors from the tank quickly entered the car. cabin and the Pinto transformed into a ball of fire.

The structure of the car was deformed by the heat, to the point of locking the doors creating  a deadly cage.

When they were able to rescue the two victims, nothing could be done for the driver, while although Grimshaw was left with most of his body covered in severe burns, he survived. After multiple operations,  the teenager remained disfigured forever.

This tragic accident triggered a series of events that led to the Pinto controversy: more than 26,000 units were recalled because the accelerator pedal was stuck, another 220,000 units due to vulnerabilities in the carburettors. .

Perhaps the haste in its development had something to do with it, and security could not overcome ambition. Or maybe an accumulation of "unfortunate misfortunes" was exploited by the press at the time, but the truth is that in the end the car ended up costing the company dearly.

And not just because its price quickly started to drop until it was clearly no longer profitable, because young Grimshaw eventually went to court and  filed a lawsuit against Ford  in which he alleged that the Pinto "was an unsafe, dangerous car that was particularly vulnerable to rear-end collisions.

To back up such a damning statement for a company of Ford's caliber before a jury, Grimshaw's attorneys made  sure they had enough evidence , and presumably they found it.

Among them, they had documentation of some of the company's crash tests which they said showed "that some of the people responsible for developing the car" might have been aware of the Pinto's problems before they put it on the road. market.

Generally speaking, the documents appeared to show that the Pinto's gas tank, being located behind the rear axle, was particularly vulnerable to damage from rear-end collisions, as it could move and impact the axle bolts (unprotected).

Additionally, a controversial memo  was uncovered  as part of a report Ford had commissioned from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which sought to understand the associated social and economic costs. to the safety standards of subcompacts like the Pinto.

To do this, Ford used the so-called "cost-benefit analysis", a common practice in the industry at the time and also based on figures provided by NHTSA as a basis.

However, it only appeared that Ford would have "determined the cost to society of each car burned at $700, each burn at $67,000, and each life lost at $200,000". And that data was part of a report that was somehow taken out of context.

The memo became public because it was leaked by Grimshaw's lawyers to Mark Dowie, an investigative reporter for 'Mother Jones' magazine. Just as the trial date of Grimshaw v. Ford was coming, Dowie was releasing "  Pinto Madness  ". And here the real madness was unleashed.

Written in the aftermath of the notorious "Watergate", the report emphasized an alleged "organizational conspiracy and immoral calculation of the memorandum", but did not take into account aspects such as the NHTSA guidelines for  automotive safety tests at at the time , the requirements make the reports or the results of the Pinto vis-a-vis its competitors (similar or worse in certain cases).

Fortunately, today's safety standards for new cars have nothing to do with those of then.

In the end,  Ford ended up paying Grimshaw nearly $128 million in  compensation, after the popular jury ruled in his favor. In the same year of the conviction, Ford withdrew nearly 2 million Pintos manufactured between 1971-1976 from circulation for overhaul, and despite this,  more than three million units were sold.

The one who was once the protagonist of the “American dream” has faded into the history of the American automotive industry with a record stained forever and obliterated by the very society for which it was created.