As an original purchaser of a 1971 and a 1973 Pinto, and pondering "Pintos" today, I thought I'd check to see if any had survived all these years, and was there any interest in keeping these cars alive.
Turns out: yes on both counts!
Pretty amazing to see all this interest and enthusiasm.
My 1971 blue sedan / trunk, 2.0 4-speed, deluxe black interior (knitted vinyl seats, a nicer steering wheel, some dash dress-up [fake] chrome), fold down rear seat, was my first new car. I purchased in the summer after graduation from high school, out the door price just over $2k and it took most of a week's pay from the auto parts store where I worked to cover the monthly payment ($74).
I'd come from a background of loving anything with an engine, and especially sports cars of any type. I had owned a 1970 VW, and had modified it with stiffer sway bars, exhaust header, and dogbone Dunlop tires to participate in autocross/gymkhana events as well as bracket racing at the drag strip (hey, no snickering...I even won my class (17.0 second et's and slower) a few times!).
So my purchase of a new Pinto was influenced by the reported quickness of the 2.0, 100hp engine mt combo, and one test drive hooked me. I'd cross-shopped Vega's, but the model I'd want to have (the GT) was out of my price range. Took delivery of my new car that summer, and it was a revelation to drive. Coming from driving VWs, various Fiats, Triumphs, MGs, etc. the Pinto really rocked! Egad could that engine rev...no tach was supplied, so no suggested redline; I added one and used 7500 as a shift point (!). I showed the tailights many times to other 4-cyl cars of the era, and my buddies couldn't believe a 4-cyl car could be that fun to drive. But it was.
I tried my Pinto out in bracket racing, and in autocross. It made a pretty good bracket-racer, too, being able to put down 17.10'sh elapsed times pretty consistently, and of course that's the key in that type of competition. They classified Pintos pretty fairly for autocross (with 1600 BMWs I think, and Datsun 510s) but my Pinto had an issue with the inside rear lifting on sharp corners and, with no limited-slip rear, reduced it's ability to compete.
I modified that car just a bit. I added a set of Ansen mags, and mounted my stock Goodyear Polyglas A70-13 white-lettered tires on them. I made my own short-throw shifter by cutting down the stock shifter length, and fitted a Stebro exhaust in place of the stock muffler (um, no, they didn't actually have a Pinto fitment...I ordered a "universal" twin-pipe muffler with the right inlet size). With the addition of an under-dash 8-track deck and some 5 1/4 speakers mounted in the rear seat side panels, I had most of what I needed at age 18. With the fold-down seat, I actually slept in the back/trunk a couple of times on trips to the lake (ah, youth).
But then, in a fit or something, fall of '72 I decided to sell it to get rid of the payments so I could attend college full time. And then, didn't.
So in fall '73 I purchased *another* new Pinto, this time white with a blue standard interior (it looked upgraded from the '71s, so no need to invest in the deluxe interior), and the 2.0 / four-speed option again. I was expecting pretty much the same experience / performance from this one as I'd had with my '71. But alas, 'twas not to be.
The '73 models had been modified to comply with tightening emissions standards, so they'd pretty much emasculated that fine German 2.0 engine. Compression had been lowered, cam changes had been made, along with an EGR valve and enough vacuum plumbing and weird little one-way limiter valves to choke a horse (hey...isn't a pinto a....never mind). My '73 had nowhere near the zing of my '71. Could only manage 17.90'sh quarter mile times. So I went to work on "fixing" it.
We pulled the head and milled .060 to get more compression. Added steel tube headers with a 3" collector feeding into a Thrush muffler and an angled side-exit tailpipe. Added a Mallory distributor, along with a Judson Electronic Magneto (somewhat of a very enhanced coil). I kept ruining alternators (bearings would fail) until I a) added an Accel alternator (that had the capability to be switched to non-charge to reduce drag) and b) learned to adjust belt tension properly. I even added leaf spring traction bars (just like the big guys!) to stop axle hop on launch, and prevent me from ever using a drive-through car wash again. Installed a Hurst shifter. So with all this, it ran...17.10's. Sigh. I finally gave up; put a real exhaust system on it, and added Sears aftermarket air conditioning to keep my commute cool.
I actually owned this car 3 years, selling it to buy a '71 Camaro, and thus ended my Pinto experience.
Gee. Looks like this turned out to be something of a ramble...but I hope it may be of interest to any younger gen Pinto owners who wondered what it was like to buy a new one "back in the day".
