Proof that the Ford Pinto makes a capable street machine?

bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) said:

I have been enjoying the Fuzzy Dice guys resurrecting a V8 Pinto and driving it a very long way. 

Buying a Craigslist Ford Pinto and Driving it 3000 Miles Home (Plans, Purchase, Parts) (Ep.1) - YouTube

They have overheating issues the whole way, as does every V8 Pinto ever, but it is a fun journey. I do not understand why they did not just strap a great big truck radiator to the front and go but unless it happens in episode 4 it will not I guess. I am pretty sure the problem is a simple case of inadequate heat removal. They have a transmission cooler as well and I am not sure that is helping a small lightweight car that is not pulling anything. Seems like it is just adding to the work the radiator has to do. 

I'm ridiculously invested in this adventure . . . thanks for the link.

My good friend had one in high school, brown and orange. It was sooo cool. 
 

I had no idea anyone liked them here, I love seeing the DP class AX one and the bean! 

wspohn said:

A far better car (and better looking) was the Mk 3 Cortina. Same driveline but better looks and handling. We got them for a couple of years in Canada, but sadly they never sent them to the US. I owned two of them, one of which I modded the engine on - it was great fun.

And I owned one, mine had the 2 litre with a timing belt and when it snapped there was no head damage. I would love to find another- and I would be over the moon if it was Dennis Repel’s old B Sedan.

Rons said:

wspohn said:

A far better car (and better looking) was the Mk 3 Cortina. Same driveline but better looks and handling. We got them for a couple of years in Canada, but sadly they never sent them to the US. I owned two of them, one of which I modded the engine on - it was great fun.

And I owned one, mine had the 2 litre with a timing belt and when it snapped there was no head damage. I would love to find another- and I would be over the moon if it was Dennis Repel’s old B Sedan.

I figured that out early on - that it wasn't an 'interference' engine so didn't change the timing belt at recommended intervals. It made it more than double the suggested mileage before it finally snapped - just as I was rolling into my driveway. Picked up another belt and changed it - fairly quick job - and it was good as long as I owned it.

An under-rated car, mostly because no one on this continent except us Canadians even knew about them.

I recall Dennis from my early Westwood days - I was racing an MGA (and this as in the early 70s so they hadn't even invented 'vintage' racing yet) and he, like many others, was running a Mini.

In reply to jharry3 :

I remember that article.  They did the Z-bar because adding a stiffer rear sway bar, with the open differential, just led to tire spin in a corner as the inside rear tire got light.

I had a 1971 Grabber Lime Runabout (Hatchback).  I put on Mustang II V-8 sway bars, and cut the cam keyway .070".  The cam trick was supposed to be worth 0.7 seconds off the 0-60 and 4 mpg.  I couldn't reliably measure the 0-60, but I easily got the mpg increase. 

One of the things my wife laughs at is knowing one of my "lottery winner" cars would be a 1971 Pinto.  Sure, I want a Mid-engine Corvette, a 66 GT350, a 427 Cobra and a Dino 246GTS, but the Pinto would be a surprising equal.

Oh yeah, I pulled the shift lever out of mine banging the gears leaving a toll booth late one night in Richmond, VA.  But, in the cars defense, I believe I had not put it back properly the previous time I had worked on it.

I miss that car...

While not a pinto but same platform ofcourse 

Obviously the Pinto can be an amazing race car. Proof:

If it's good enough for Bob Glidden, it's good enough for me.

Mickey Thompson endorsing it is a whole different level:

In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :

I liked that series of videos. 

My guess is that maybe the head gaskets were on backwards; easy to do on a 302 if you don't know what you are doing. Makes it so that the majority of the coolant shunts across the front of the engine.  It might be why it was parked originally. 

In reply to wspohn :I had a friend who had a cortina with the 1600 engine and it was great fun to flog it. Not very fast, definitely a momentum car, a bit too much body roll but could nonetheless be driven quickly enough to draw John laws attention. Sadly I lost track of both the car and him over the years

Jerry "Racer" Walsh in Suffern NY was a big vendor of Pinto performance parts.  His son now owns and vintages races Jerry's #93 and Pat Bedard's Car & Driver #00 Pinto from the IMSA RS series.  

In 1972 at Stafford CT Speedway, Bob Judkins' #2x Nascar Modified started the "Pinto Revolution" at eastern short tracks, where Pinto, Vega and Gremlin bodies soon replaced the old pre-war coupes and coaches.  Look up the Maynard Troyer #6, Richie Evans #61, Geoff Bodine #1 for examples of superb crafstmanship.

Ford really offered a "Pinto Squire" two-door wagon with "wood" sides.  We have one, parked next to our restored Gremlin. I can't even explain why.

200mph said:

Ford really offered a "Pinto Squire" two-door wagon with "wood" sides.  We have one, parked next to our restored Gremlin. I can't even explain why.

When I was a teenager, a local kid had a Pinto Cruisin' Wagon.  It didn't have much street cred with the local crowd who were driving around in Trans Ams, Olds 4-4-2s, Chevelle SS's and the like, but it did stand out.

Around the same time my sister had a Pinto hatchback she bought new, I think it was around a 1972 or 1973.  It was actually a pretty fun little car.

Had a '74 wagon to cover a 5-state territory.  Put over 300K miles with three head rebuilds.  Notched the cam gear, added a header and tweaked the carb.  Embarrassed a few at the lights and on ramps.

After a crash resulted in a fire with injuries (death?), the  local Ford dealer was caught taking the cash to recall and refit the gas tank problem without doing the work.

The dealership had a new owner soon.

This is for sale by me and is super reasonable and sorted.  Someone buy this.  302 swapped auto.

My dad raced one in B-Sedan and then GT3 from 1976 to 1983.  So many fond memories of time at the track.  Will post photos later.

In reply to The Staff of Motorsport Marketing :

When I was president of Martin Sports Car Club in Orlando in the early 1980's we had a number of very quick autocross Pintos. There was even a member who IMSA raced one pretty successfully.

I took my driver's test in my folk's '73 Pinto Squire wagon that had a Capri 2300 and 5 speed installed in it, as well as the swaybar upgrades. Great little car. Olive green with the brown houndstooth interior. And then my second car was my first race car, a '72 Pinto coupe (with the trunk, not the hatch) that I bought for $100 and installed a mildly warmed over 2 liter and 5 speed. Learned to autocross in that car, and taught by brother and sister as they got older.

That thing saw more abuse over the years than any car should take. Finally ended when my sister rolled it off an embankment.

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

I can remember buying a new one for the price advertised in the paper of $2,388. They were under the Chevy dealers stripper Vega by about $100. A couple of years later I bought a '69 Mustang with a 351 for $900. The Pinto was the better autocrosser. Damn that was a long time ago.

I'm not surprised.  I haven't ever driven one but I'm told that compared to whatever else was coming out of Detroit at the time they drove VERY well.  I've often thought that with a modern day lightweight I4 they'd be a wicked fun little car.   

Our first "family car" was a new 1971 Pinto, 2 liter engine and 4 speed stick.  That car was never modified other than a set of larger size Michelin radials when we needed tires.  It was pretty bloody quick right as it came from the factory.  Enjoyed a track event at Blackhawk Farms with it once.  Had a brief stoplight drag with a guy on a quick motorcycle who couldn't pull me.  Next light, he asked in a surprised way, "Is that thing stock?"  Drove it for close to 100,000 miles and sold only when we were moving to Alaska and took the Jeep instead.   A ton of fun for about five years.

They were the car to beat in the 4cyl stock class at the local circle track. Even the Rabbits couldn't touch them. 

I had a 74 notch back with the 2.3l and the 4 speed. I wish I had never sold that car. I peruse market place fairly regularly looking for another but they are selling for 10-20 times what I sold mine for. 

Beef up the frame to a full frame with a roll cage, good size sway bars good motor mounts and a 289 motor, heck yeah they can be a good street and track car.

My dad raced two Pintos from 1976 until 1983, mostly at Waterford Hills in Michigan.  The first one (#47) he built himself and raced until 1980.  After that he collaborated with a fellow Ford engineer  to create a much more radical car (#67), arguably the fastest production-based Pinto of the time. Fast but fragile.
 

In reply to 84FSP :

Billbag414@gmail.com where are u, $$s

A long time ago someone made an aerodynamic fiberglass long nose for the Pinto.

VolvoHeretic said:

A long time ago someone made an aerodynamic fiberglass long nose for the Pinto.

Wasn't that the "Pangra"?