After several years of resisting a recall of cars and trucks with faulty ignition switches that spontaneously caught on fire, Ford Motors on Thursday finally yielded to public pressure and announced the largest recall ever by a single car maker. The ignition switches in more than 8.7 million cars shipped between 1988 and 1993, it seems, have the annoying tendency to short-circuit and catch fire without warning, some even after the car has been parked for hours. The pressure on Ford to issue the recall came from all sides -- from governments in the United States and Canada, from class-action lawsuits, and, in what must be a first, a page on our own World Wide Web. The last nudge may have come from the Association of Flaming Fords Home Page maintained by Debra and Edward G[...] of Marietta, Ga. We'll let the G[...]'s tell you about the time their 1985 Ford Ranger went pyrotechnic in their driveway. There's also tons of background material, a list of the affected vehicles and lots of pictures.