You reminded me of a stunt/promotion I saw on TV in the 1970's where they drained the oil from a Japanese import and then ran the engine (red-lined it as I recall, perhaps a brick on the accelerator) until they blew the engine.

This was when there was a lot of grousing about those cheap (and fuel efficient!) Japanese cars catching on in the U.S. market.

Hilariously, the Japanese car just kept running and they had to intervene — maybe drain the radiator?

I wish I could find something about it but even ChatGPT comes up empty handed. Maybe it was a half-time stunt? I feel like it was in a stadium anyway.

(My first car was a used 1974 Datsun B210.)