[norwaypinesavage]

"I’ve owned a lot of those old “internal combustion engine” cars over the course of my life - and not a single one of them has ever exploded."

Actually, I had one that did - a '64 Corvette. You maybe could blame the government, though. 1964 was the first year of smog rules, and Chevrolet eliminated crankcase emissions by porting the crankcase vent up, into the air cleaner rather than down to the road. This caused the air cleaner to soak up oil from the crankcase.

I experienced a backfire, which then lit the oil soaked air cleaner. The resulting fire then lit the fiberglass hood resins. It was not fun.

[going hot]

This caused the air cleaner to soak up oil from the crankcase.

venting into the intake tract also causes the flash point of the fuel mixture to drop, thus predisposing to pinging and detonation.