Back in the days when the American idea of a compact car was a Chevy II, Falcon or Valiant, it took some convincing to sell folks used to larger domestic iron to take a chance on a weensy car. So the braintrust handling Ford's advertising decided that they'd set up a whole bunch of wind-tunnel-grade fans and demonstrate the diminutive runabout's lack of propensity to be blown into oncoming traffic. Guess what? It didn't replicate the topsoil in 1930s Oklahoma! Sadly, there was that little explosion issue.
We may earn a commission from links on this page.