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There really were Pinto race cars


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#1 raisin27

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Posted 30 January 2018 - 02:50 PM

Found this pic online. It's the Pinto I used to race at Flat Rock and Toledo Speedways back in the '70s.

 

ministock.jpg


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#2 Bill from NH

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Posted 30 January 2018 - 02:53 PM

Neat car, Mike! I recall when Pintos were a popular body for modifieds here in the Northeast.


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#3 Racer36

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Posted 30 January 2018 - 02:56 PM

Fortunately they installed fuel cells to get rid of the "kaboom" problem!


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#4 Dave Crevie

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Posted 30 January 2018 - 03:05 PM

There was also a road racing version you could buy from a fellow named Hintz back in the '70s. They called it a Hinto. I raced against them with my Toyota SR-5.



#5 Dave Crevie

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Posted 30 January 2018 - 03:41 PM

Here's one I raced with the Bensenville group. Hardbody on scratchbuilt chassis, Falcon 3 motor.

 

IMG_0370.JPG


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#6 FVracer

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Posted 30 January 2018 - 06:14 PM

Still running them - GT Pinto. They have been running since at least the 80s when I ran FC in the Northeast.

 

https://www.motorspo...56379D6E300776C


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#7 Mike Patterson

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Posted 30 January 2018 - 09:34 PM

Didn't Car & Driver race one back in the mid 70s, and wrote about it in the magazine? Or am I having another "false memory" surface?

 

And Mike, which cost more to race, retro or the Pinto? :D


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#8 MSwiss

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Posted 30 January 2018 - 09:55 PM

I had a red, 71 Pinto.

 

Bigger 2.0L engine, lowered, big sway bars, small diameter padded steering wheel, Koni's, Pirelli's, but ultimately a bit lame, with an automatic.

 

I sold it to a friend's dad, when I bought my X1/9.

 

My friend, Ron Burgett, who I worked with at a hobby shop, in Downtown Chicago, reconnected with me, in about 2009, when visiting relatives, in the area.

 

He wound up with the car, and raced it for quite a few years, in some sort of hobbystock class, down in Arkansas, where he had moved.

 

He said it was still a makeshift storage unit, on his property, a farm. LOL

 

Mine was the "runabout"/hatchback, and it did not suffer from the gas tank filler hose maladies.

 

Below is a semi-common paint job, you'll see on a Pinto, especially back when there was more on the road.

 

I definitely saw one or two, painted this way, out on road, back in the day.

 

67053.jpg


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#9 raisin27

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Posted 31 January 2018 - 05:37 AM

Statistically the Pinto was no more or less prone to gas tank fires than most small cars of its day. It became an issue for Ford because the magazine "Mother Jones" got a hold of some inner office memos from Ford where they had looked into the issue and decided it would be cheaper to pay off claims than to make the car safer.


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#10 Mr. HP

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Posted 31 January 2018 - 09:00 AM

The coolest Pinto in the history of Pintos... Bob Glidden's

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#11 Eddie Fleming

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Posted 31 January 2018 - 09:33 AM

For Glidden the Pinto was a snap. He even made the Fairmont cool. That was a trick.


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#12 TG Racing

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Posted 31 January 2018 - 11:27 AM

I had 77 Pinto my Sr. year at BGSU.  It was black w/ white "SE" stripes, 4 speed 4 banger.  I even put a small steering wheel and 60 series tires on it.LOL!  Saw one race at Laguna Seca (IMSA) in 82.  His hood flew back and he limped back to the pits!


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#13 Steve Deiters

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Posted 31 January 2018 - 12:10 PM

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a number of years ago about a race track in PA that had a Pinto class.  Guys were pulling them out of junkyards and for a couple hundred bucks and a roll bar they had a "race car".

 

"Racer" Walsh who raced them on a regular basis in  SCCA and/or IMSA races still shows up at vintage races and runs them. I've seen the car.  Frankly I think it is the original untouched car in the same shape he ran it in the '70's. LOL  He was at the PRI show last year selling Pinto related performance parts.


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#14 Ralph Thorne

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Posted 31 January 2018 - 12:19 PM

I got to do some SCCA events in a Pinto, it was actually the exact car that Lynn St. James started racing in.

 

Racer Walsh had some very cool Pinto's and Mustang's, I stopped by his shop years ago on the way to Sebring.


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#15 Dave Crevie

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Posted 31 January 2018 - 01:44 PM

Santa Fe Speedway had a class for small four-banger cars, They were called "lightning rods". Us guys running

the big cars called them nimrods. There were a lot of Pintos in that class. They had as much fun as we did.



#16 NSwanberg

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Posted 02 February 2018 - 03:23 AM

I owned a 74 Pinto. I lived.

 

I remember my friend's father trying to convince me how much more car his Vega was. :crazy:


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