I knew a girl in highschool that had a pinto station wagon and her dad had mounted a 350 V8 in the back. It had header exhaust that came out the back windows. I can’t imagine what it was like to drive but she always drove it.
*American cars. My 80s civic was amazing, it had auto fuel shutoff during deceleration to lower gas consumption, bucket seats, sliding height seat belts in door pillar ( now standard on cars), adjustable steering, and a turning radius so tight you could do a Uturn on a regular road. The only thing that was a bit quirky was if you decelrated a lot then hit the gas hard coming out of a corner, the sudden refueling of the engine sometimes made it a bit wild when the power hit.
Well my best friend’s mom had an 80’s Rabbit Diesel. His dad tuned it for economy, which meant it did 0-60mph in something under a week. We would have killed for something like a GTi.
For those that want to know why, IIRC the bolts on the differential were too long and the gas tank was directly behind it. If the car was rear ended the bolts could pierce the tank. To make matters worse, during a rear end collision the tail light assembly could short and spark, thus igniting the leaking fuel. Ford added a rubber bladder to the tank and shortened the bolts, but the PR damage was done.
PS: I think there was a possibility of the doors not opening after a rear end collision, trapping people inside the burning car, but I am not sure.
SOURCE: We had to study that case in college back in the 90’s.
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