Per Schroeder
Per Schroeder PowerDork
4/17/25 8:58 a.m.

Even before the gas crisis erupted in the 1970s, U.S. automakers saw the potential in the subcompact market. General Motors released their Vega, AMC had its Gremlins, and Ford developed the Pinto. In addition to the domestics, import manufacturers such as BMW, Toyota, Datsun and Mazda were developi…

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Motojunky
Motojunky HalfDork
4/17/25 11:49 a.m.

Confession: I have been keeping an eye out for "the right" Pinto for a couple of years now. You know, that barn find ex-race car that just needs a carb rebuild. I don't even know what the use case would be, it's just an idea that has been bouncing around in my head since I watched the video below.

 

 

Or maybe it was this series:

 

Tom1200
Tom1200 UltimaDork
4/17/25 1:25 p.m.

Love those cars.

There is one issue here; those of us running 1200cc engines will kill for one of those 2300cc big blocks. Just sayin.

Geno1
Geno1 New Reader
4/17/25 1:27 p.m.

Had a '74 wagon.  Notched the cam gear, re-jetted and fiddled with the distributor.  Shocked a few boy racers.  Put 300K on it and rebuilt the head twice.  Loved that little scooter!

Toyman!
Toyman! MegaDork
4/17/25 2:41 p.m.

If I could find a mid to late 70s notchback Pinto that hadn't been chopped up and wasn't rusted out, I'd buy it. 

Everything around here is tubbed for drags, chopped up for dirt track, or rusted into the ground. 

I should never have sold mine. 

 

DavyZ
DavyZ Reader
4/17/25 3:20 p.m.

Yep, that's the key: finding a decent Pinto to do a build on.  Always looking out for the next project :)

Tomwas1
Tomwas1 New Reader
4/18/25 12:00 a.m.

My first new car after starting my job at IBM Corp.. Got a brand new 71 Forest green metallic pinto trunk back.. Great little car. The standard floor shifter was fun. Didn't have it all that long. So!d it to my sister in law and picked up a year old 70 mgb roadster. Couple of guys at my work also had pintos, used to haul ass on the interstate to work doing 90 and 100 mph. Cool cars. Ford did a great job 

Tom1200
Tom1200 UltimaDork
4/18/25 11:17 a.m.

In reply to Tomwas1 :

I used to loathe my mother's Pinto. It was slow and the automatic trans would up shift at the worst possible moment.

Yet while loathing it I used to hurl it down gravel roads with great abandon.

The 17yr old me couldn't simply appreciate it had good bones.

 

bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter)
bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) UberDork
4/18/25 11:30 a.m.

In high school I had a friend with a little blue Pinto and he found two nice Cragar SS mags for it. But he only had two so he put them on the driver side and he had two crummy old steelies on the passenger side. Whenever he came into town he would only drive one way as there was a park on the other side with no one in it. So past all the stores and the high school he looked really flash. But he would go all the way around on the back streets to make sure that he never had to come the opposite direction through town.

chaparral
chaparral SuperDork
4/18/25 12:22 p.m.

I drove a great Pinto yesterday, built by my friend Simon.

The car's just the right size for a 302 and T5. He fabricated an entire rear tub to install a Miata subframe and a Thunderbird differential.  His mods fixed most of the handling issues and it's so nice to drive a car with a torquey engine and light flywheel. 

He and his wife drive it all over SoCal and on occasional trackdays. 

Datsun240ZGuy
Datsun240ZGuy MegaDork
4/18/25 12:39 p.m.

My buddy had two prior Ford Pinto's and heard they were canceling so he ordered this exact car.  He then lowered it, added a header and exhaust, better tires and European air horns.  He was always messing with the carb and claimed it was never right.  

Everyone at work made fun of him cause they were all muscle car guys.  He always talked about how awesome the Pinto was.  I started to veer away from drag racing towards road racing and was sold by what he taught me.  He also introduced me to the giant Autoweek newspaper. 

In 1985 he asked me to go to Honda with him and he put money down on one of the first Honda CRX Si's (sight unseen - sold at MSRP).  I helped him lower the CRX too. 
 

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