If I treated this the way I treated my Mom's Pinto wagon as a kid I'd kill myself. Gawd, that little car would take a beating. It just had the 2.3, but it would tear up a dirt road and get way sideways.
A V8 in a Pinto is just plain sick. I like it. Nice Price.
I'd start by taking off those bumpers... blech. But there's lots of potential here. As someone has already said those 5.0s are a dime a dozen, it's the clean looking body, overall niceness that is attractive to me. The AOD would have to go in place of a C4, manual valve body,etc... Maybe a mini tub, and some 10.5" tires. Then a little more beef under the hood. Yep, that ought'a do it.
I was slowly being lulled into it's cocoon of potential world of hoonage and Jalop-street-cred when upon discovering the auto transmission, I suddenly found myself with a very angered expression on my face, and a lit torch and pitchfork in my hands.
Then thoughts of Crack Pipes swirled around in my seething brain. Thus did I vote.
@Flagrant German Fanboy: Of course, an auto is not a bad thing in drag racing, where consistency is the key to winning. If, like engineerd, you want to roadrace, then the auto is a drag.
I prefer a manual, especially in FWD and low horse power. After driving a 5.0 Mustang with an auto (not mine) I can say it's not terrible. Certainly it is not preferred, but, it's not pitchfork and torch terrible.
V8? Check
Roll Cage? Check
Chrome Cragars? Check
Arrest-me Red? Check
Unique at a car show in a sea of Mustangs and Camaros? Check Check
Makes me want a beer? Check
Either the intake or the engine is not from a '93 Mustang. The '86-93 had the throttle body pointing straight to the passenger side of the car, no 45* angle. The intake is from a '94-95 Mustang or an earlier Thunderbird, both of which had lower rated HP than the earlier Mustang 5.0s.
I would prefer a turbo 2.3 for lightness, weirdness, maintenance and awesomeness. But rollin' in a five-point-oh has its own merits, irrespective of the ability to put the rag top down so your hair can blow.
Holy crap, it's Ford's own clownshoe. I'd maybe work the price down a bit if I found detail issues with the powerplant but overall, this is too cool for school.
Oh. I'll give this thing a Nice Price rating mostly because of concept, but I'm not very enthusiastic. It'll be fast in a straight line, but you know that massive understeer will probably be the order of the day with that big lump under the hood. Now if it had the Cruising Van body with the bubble window...
The Pinto is not a bad car. It got a bad rap because Ford cheaped out on the fuel tank (originally supposed to be a bladder), but it was, considering the time, a decent performer and showed some serious cajones in suspension and *gasp* lightness.
Ford should build another Pinto. Oh wait, they are. It's called the Fiesta.
That's not why we're here though. We're here to share the results of over 1 billion calculations as performed by the engineerd Fair Market Value (eFMV patent pending) WOPR-like computer. What did it say?
Well, the eFMV is obviously a fan. Only one other Pinto of that era was found on AutoTrader Classic, which sets our base price at $3500. The eFMV then added $5000 for it being a classic (it's a computer, it uses the objective 25 year rule), $1500 for mods, and $1500 for general awesomeness. This yields an eFMV of $11500 putting this example solidly in nice price territory.
Although, it did tell me it would rather road race a Pinto than drag race one.
11500-4500 = $7k. Should be more than enough for new wheels and tires, some suspension bits, and a manual swap. With enough change for a season of two of entry fees.
09/01/09
A V8 in a Pinto is just plain sick. I like it. Nice Price.
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Then thoughts of Crack Pipes swirled around in my seething brain. Thus did I vote.
09/01/09
I prefer a manual, especially in FWD and low horse power. After driving a 5.0 Mustang with an auto (not mine) I can say it's not terrible. Certainly it is not preferred, but, it's not pitchfork and torch terrible.
09/01/09
Roll Cage? Check
Chrome Cragars? Check
Arrest-me Red? Check
Unique at a car show in a sea of Mustangs and Camaros? Check Check
Makes me want a beer? Check
$4500? Nice Price
09/01/09
/Ford nerd
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Ford should build another Pinto. Oh wait, they are. It's called the Fiesta.
That's not why we're here though. We're here to share the results of over 1 billion calculations as performed by the engineerd Fair Market Value (eFMV patent pending) WOPR-like computer. What did it say?
Well, the eFMV is obviously a fan. Only one other Pinto of that era was found on AutoTrader Classic, which sets our base price at $3500. The eFMV then added $5000 for it being a classic (it's a computer, it uses the objective 25 year rule), $1500 for mods, and $1500 for general awesomeness. This yields an eFMV of $11500 putting this example solidly in nice price territory.
Although, it did tell me it would rather road race a Pinto than drag race one.
09/01/09
11500-4500 = $7k. Should be more than enough for new wheels and tires, some suspension bits, and a manual swap. With enough change for a season of two of entry fees.
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What's up with the grille? It looks like it got lifted off an Escort. But all in all, I love it and I'd saddle this Pinto any day.
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