The Worst Muscle Cars Made. The Pinto was a M.C.?

[Linked Image from fototime.com]
 
Nice looking!

One needs to trust their tires at that speed. I've had my old 530i up to about 135 MPH but I chickened out going any faster. The tires were new and are V rated but still...
 
Originally Posted by kschachn
Nice looking!

One needs to trust their tires at that speed. I've had my old 530i up to about 135 MPH but I chickened out going any faster. The tires were new and are V rated but still...


I had my E39 M5 up to 270Km/h (~168Mph) *on a closed course and not a public road* which was when I discovered the speed limiter had been deleted. It was certainly capable of using every bit of that 300Km/h speedometer.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Then you probably haven't been on PA rt. 15 back in the 90's.

Not to see that, and I doubt anyone else not involved did, either. Wee hours racing on an empty highway, right? Not like everyone with too much power did it constantly because the car made them do it.

And that photo looks suspiciously like it was taken inside a garage.
smirk.gif
 
Originally Posted by MrMoody
Originally Posted by atikovi
Then you probably haven't been on PA rt. 15 back in the 90's.

Not to see that, and I doubt anyone else not involved did, either. Wee hours racing on an empty highway, right? Not like everyone with too much power did it constantly because the car made them do it.

And that photo looks suspiciously like it was taken inside a garage.
smirk.gif




Haha, I was goona say. Lot's of these youtube vids or just pictures are taken with the drive wheels off the ground or on a dino.
 
Originally Posted by MrMoody
Originally Posted by atikovi
Then you probably haven't been on PA rt. 15 back in the 90's.

Not to see that, and I doubt anyone else not involved did, either. Wee hours racing on an empty highway, right? Not like everyone with too much power did it constantly because the car made them do it.

And that photo looks suspiciously like it was taken inside a garage.
smirk.gif



Nope but that's a signal generator feeding into the speed sensor. Didn't say I was driving it. It was a Supra Turbo I hit the 155mph speed limiter on that road with.
 
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Pinto was OK. A good chassis in need of a better engine.

'71 Featured a 2.0 with 2 bbl Weber as an o[ption I believe it was made in Germany. Stout engine.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Nope but that's a signal generator feeding into the speed sensor. Didn't say I was driving it. It was a Supra Turbo I hit the 155mph speed limiter on that road with.

Worthless.

Thanks for nothing. And thanks for MrMoody for his observation, I should have known better.
 
Another non-muscle car sleeper was the Maverick. It was available with a 302 V-8 which could be easily be hopped up. With its sub 3000 lb weight it was extremely popular at the drags. The Grabber appearance package was cool with stripes and a spoiler. Also fake hood scoops were part of the package for a few years.
smile.gif
 
We had a few of those as MP patrol cars when I was in. The army stuck them all suddenly away in storage never to move again I guess. They worried about those blowing up but were perfectly happy to make us patrol city streets, cobblestone no less in those M151 Jeeps. Death traps on wheels those awful things they counted the machine gun Pintle as a roll bar. They didn't even have an add on seat belt in the 70s just those canvas doors and the " don't fall out" strap. Those things just wanted to flip . Some guys just love em but they never had to drive them on the winter or wet roads
Mavericks with a 6 really were ok police cars . I used those a lot in Germany . 302 would have been nice though but that's really too much power for many to handle in a light car. Our 6 bangers topped out around 120 on a good day.
 
or bot spew garbage.
a pinto with a rear engine?
ROFLOL!
and the pinto will not hold up to a boss 302 without lots of reinforcement.
i built one and it busted the windshield everytime i got good hookup when launching.
a lot of work to get it reliable and ultimately the waste of a engine i wish i would have ratholed.
Originally Posted by Kruse
A click-bait site assembled by a foreign 2nd grader. Good thing I have Ad Block installed.
As far as the Pinto having more than a 4, the V6 was offered, IIRC, only for the station wagon.
If you wanted anything that resembled a Pinto V8, you ordered a Mustang II with the 302, a very lethargic 302 I might add. Even during the 74, and parts of the 75 era, the V8 wasn't offered.
 
my best friends mom bought a new pinto wagon with the v6. it had cheap skinny bias ply non radial tires. would burn rubber like mad . the car was so overpowered we learned how to drift it.. was a muscle car of sorts
 
Originally Posted by tenderloin
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Pinto was OK. A good chassis in need of a better engine.

'71 Featured a 2.0 with 2 bbl Weber as an option I believe it was made in Germany. Stout engine.






I meant more power. Rated at 100 making about 80.
smile.gif


Agree these engines were better and more reliable than the Vega engine.
 
Originally Posted by MrMoody
Originally Posted by Farnsworth
A v6 Camry is faster than most muscle cars of the 60's. Maybe that's why it's so nuts out there with this speed in the hands of the general public.

That depends on how you define muscle car. I would never have considered a 14+ second car a muscle car. They all had models in the late 60s that would run low 13s. These were what I considered muscle cars.
Actually, Farnsworth is fairly accurate in his assessment.
In pure stock form with stock tires (the way that the cars came from the factory), back in the late sixties and early seventies only a small number of the regular production muscle car models equipped with the highest horsepower engines available would break into the low to mid 13's. Only the true "beasts" of the era like HEMI Cudas, LS6 Chevelles, and L88 Corvettes (etc) would do that.
In stock form, most of the more common mass produced big-block muscle cars from the era would "only" do in the low to mid 14's, very close to what a modern 33mpg Camry V/6 will do. Go to any Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race event and you will see this for yourself. It took modifications and better tires to get them down into the 13's, and substantial modifications to get them down into the 12's. Highly modified street legal/street driven cars that got down into the 11's were considered VERY fast and would only get there with slicks on them. Today's modern muscle cars are WAY faster!
 
I just mentioned last month that the new VW Jetta GLI 2.0t

has a quicker ET and faster trap than a stock
New, as then tested, 1967 Shelby GT 500 428 Cobra

motorweek test
(go to 3min35sec for acceleration test)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0lnVLaO-s8


My junkbox 1.4t jetta manual trans is faster and quicker than a 1980 Z28 350v8
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by super20dan
my best friends mom bought a new pinto wagon with the v6. it had cheap skinny bias ply non radial tires. would burn rubber like mad . the car was so overpowered we learned how to drift it.. was a muscle car of sorts



Went to an autocross and the fastest car there was a V6 Pinto wagon with an automatic transmission.
 
Originally Posted by demarpaint
Originally Posted by HemiBenny
Originally Posted by demarpaint
The Pinto was an exploding POS if it got rear ended. I do remember quite a few people dropping in some big V8s though, and Ford did offer it with a V6. Not my cup of tea.


I remember seeing a Mercury Bobcat that the owner had dropped a 302 in. It wasn't my cup of tea either, but it was interesting chatting to the old guy that did it.

I remember being with my cousin going to drag races in the 70's and seeing a Pinto with a Ford 427 engine jammed into it, and a 4 speed Muncie bolted to it. That car was very memorable. Those were great times.



Reminds me of the time I was cruising and saw an early Corvair parked with the trunk (now hood) open. Had a full chassis with a front engine 348 or 409 Chevy.
 
The 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado was rated at 400hp. That seems like a LOT of power on a fwd car. Those have always been one of my fave cars!
 
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