Word: tanked
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...California drivers started at the first sign of shortage to "top off' their tanks -buy a few gallons for an already mostly full tank-and thus caused a huge surge of panic demand. Secretary of the Treasury Michael Blumenthal told Congress last week that the average California gas purchase has lately been a mere $3-barely enough to fill a quarter of the tank of a compact car at today's prices. "I've had this car washed four times in six days," reported Fred Tyler as he stood beside a dripping Mercedes 280 on Santa Monica...
...California, where drivers are now lining up before dawn and service station operators grant appointments like doctors, a customer at a San Francisco self-service pump jumped to the head of the queue, then stabbed a man in line behind him who tried to protest. In Miami, some drivers tank up and roar off without paying when attendants turn their backs...
...exceeding the 55 m.p.h. speed limit," intones the engine. "Time to fill 'er up," announces the gas tank. It sounds like something out of Looney Tunes, but a talking Ford may well be in the future, not to mention babbling Buicks and loquacious Lincolns. Ford and General Motors are tinkering with computerized voice synthesizers that in several years could replace the dashboard gauges with oral announcements about the condition of the car. Officials of both companies stress that audible autos are still a long way off, but, says a GM spokesman, "We might have something to show...
...million a year. Yarborough is supported by a 17-man staff, including a pit crew of seven. They not only tune the 560-plus horsepower engine of his Oldsmobile to howling perfection, but perform miracles in the pits. They have changed two tires and filled the gas tank in 12.5 seconds, and have actually replaced an engine in mid-race in less than 13 minutes...
...bent in Los Angeles on the night of Dec. 13, 1941, six days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The city is engulfed by the fear of invasion, and it is hard to separate the real paranoids from the merely cautious. A sergeant (Dan Aykroyd) steals a tank and starts a blackout by zapping the brightly lit Santa Claus decorations on Hollywood Boulevard. A crazy pilot (John Belushi) flies a P-40 fighter-bomber to search for enemy aircraft but succeeds only in creating panic below. A riot breaks out between native whites and Chicano zoot suiters, and General...