Car of the Week: 1972 Ford Pinto

Ah yes -- the Pinto:

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FYI -- I had a 76 Mustang II ("dad's revenge") in babyshit yellow. It shared a chassis with the Pinto and was undeniably the worst car I ever drove.
 
My family went through like 3 of those. Maybe my sister had a forth one, I'm not certain.

We had 5 Gremlins for sure though. We always had one nice car and a beater.
 
Pinto got a bum rap. Funny how people so easily forget the early Mustang having a far greater perpencity to shower the occupants with flaming gasoline after getting rear ended and becoming a mobile crematorium. The fact that Lee Iococa managed to become something of a "hero" years later at Chrysler just proves how blindly ignorant the American car buying public has always been. He should have been in prison.

Anyway, I always sort of liked the Pinto. The Wagon was not at all ugly either.

Pretty sure I told you guys about the '74 Pinto Wagon I picked up off of a surfer brah in San Clemente back in the late 80s for $400 that had a built 289 stuffed under the hood.

That thing was an unholy beast. It had a Lincoln - locked diff, and could smoke those little pizza cutter tires right off the wheels. It also had a massive muffler that kept it nearly dead silent at a stop light. Sleeper from Hell.
 
OGG said:
Pinto got a bum rap. Funny how people so easily forget the early Mustang having a far greater perpencity to shower the occupants with flaming gasoline after getting rear ended and becoming a mobile crematorium. The fact that Lee Iococa managed to become something of a "hero" years later at Chrysler just proves how blindly ignorant the American car buying public has always been. He should have been in prison.

Anyway, I always sort of liked the Pinto. The Wagon was not at all ugly either.

Pretty sure I told you guys about the '74 Pinto Wagon I picked up off of a surfer brah in San Clemente back in the late 80s for $400 that had a built 289 stuffed under the hood.

That thing was an unholy beast. It had a Lincoln - locked diff, and could smoke those little pizza cutter tires right off the wheels. It also had a massive muffler that kept it nearly dead silent at a stop light. Sleeper from Hell.
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a guy i used to know in high school (not a classmate) had a 1961 MGA roadster with a chevy 283 4bbl stuffed in it.....poor man's Cobra.
 
OGG said:
Pinto got a bum rap. Funny how people so easily forget the early Mustang having a far greater perpencity to shower the occupants with flaming gasoline after getting rear ended and becoming a mobile crematorium. The fact that Lee Iococa managed to become something of a "hero" years later at Chrysler just proves how blindly ignorant the American car buying public has always been. He should have been in prison.

Anyway, I always sort of liked the Pinto. The Wagon was not at all ugly either.

Pretty sure I told you guys about the '74 Pinto Wagon I picked up off of a surfer brah in San Clemente back in the late 80s for $400 that had a built 289 stuffed under the hood.

That thing was an unholy beast. It had a Lincoln - locked diff, and could smoke those little pizza cutter tires right off the wheels. It also had a massive muffler that kept it nearly dead silent at a stop light. Sleeper from Hell.
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Some have stuffed a big V8 under the hood of a Vega as well.
 
Coralkong said:
No the pinto.

Why? It was a shitbox when new, so why bother with it?

Vegas were pretty awful, too, though.
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Yeah, they were economy cars. That's it. My girlfriend had one, spend a lot of time twisting wrenches on it. The wagons were always cool though.
 
mongooz said:
that must have gone like a banshee :eek:
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Aftermarket kits for this conversion were huge back then, but lots of guys did the swap with whatever they had. Iirc, the biggest hurdle was the front springs. The stock ones would not hold up under a V8, and the rear-end wouldn't either. That's why everyone was stuffing Monza differentials under them. My Vega came stock with a THM350.
 
Steverino said:
Aftermarket kits for this conversion were huge back then, but lots of guys did the swap with whatever they had. Iirc, the biggest hurdle was the front springs. The stock ones would not hold up under a V8, and the rear-end wouldn't either. That's why everyone was stuffing Monza differentials under them. My Vega came stock with a THM350.
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i'm surprised you could get the 327 to fit between the shock towers.
 
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