Plastic automotive engine
Version one was based on Ford's 2.3-liter Pinto engine and weighed (vs. for its cast iron counterpart). It was designed to produce at 9200 rpm. It was composed of metal cylinder sleeves, metal combustion chamber tops, metal piston crowns, bearings, valves and seats, and a stock 2.3L Pinto crankshaft. Nearly everything else in the engine, including the block, rods and piston skirts, were made of glass reinforced Polyamide-imide thermoplastic resins manufactured at the time by Amoco Chemicals Co. The engine was never installed in a vehicle.
Economy car
The Ford Pinto was introduced one day after the Vega. It was small, economical, and a top seller. However, it had a key safety design fault - the position of the fuel tank meant that it would be crushed in a rear-end collision, creating a major fire risk. Ford Company memos presented as evidence during the civil trials revealed that these remedies were discussed, with the conclusion that to shut down production and retool would be too expensive. Official memos published in "Mother Jones" detailed a cost analysis of corporate liability in the event of having to compensate crash victims. The "Ford Pinto memo" ruthlessly calculated the cost of reinforcing the rear end ($121 million) versus the potential payout to victims (). The Ford Pinto engine though was successful in European Fords for twenty years, in successive mid and large European sized mainstay models of the; UK Ford Cortina, German Ford Taunus, the Ford Sierra, and the Ford Granada amongst others.