"Unsafe" Ford Pinto

[tbird430]

Check out this "modded" Pinto guys:

http://www.kare11.com/news/article/982267/391/State-Trooper-pulls-over-driver-of-unsafe-Ford-Pinto

If you can imagine one being EVEN MORE unsafe!!! LOL!!

-Jon in TX.

[simplyconnected]

This brings back fond memories of my new '71 3-Door Runabout. It had the optional (German) 2-L engine, auto, and A/C. Cars back then ran extremely lean.

We were returning home from Niagara Falls, Canada, when the car started smoking terribly. I got to the Detroit border in the wee hours of the morning, wife sound asleep next to me. The Customs Officer took one look at the situation and simply waved us through. He never asked one question because he didn't want the car to stall right there. It was bad.

We hobbled home with the engine clacking but not over heating. The very next day I pulled the engine in my driveway. I was young, newly married, had a house with no garage, and we had little money. I carried the block down the basement and found #1 piston had a hole down the side and into the oil ring slot. The cylinder looked decent with minimal scuff. It was cold outside but I remember carrying the block upstairs and outside to hone it. Then, I fitted new TRW 11:1 forged pistons.

That car hauled my dirt bikes and went an additional 100,000 miles before the body rusted out, sending it back to the earth.

Pinto and Ford Courier, both rear wheel drive, were two very small (and inexpensive) cars that hot rodders loved to put big engines in. Thinking back, a 302 would have been 'monster' for the Pinto. - Dave