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

Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
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!


That would have been SAE GROSS, so you can drop that figure down a fair bit. It'd be more like 260-300HP SAE NET.
 
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
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!


That would have been SAE GROSS, so you can drop that figure down a fair bit. It'd be more like 260-300HP SAE NET.


My grandfather and a buddy had Toronados, they could smoke the tires, but weren't powerful enough to be considered muscle cars to me. They were what I think two door luxury cars were called: personal luxury cars, along the lines of a Continental MK, or a Riviera.
 
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Yup, there was a guy that we ran into at Shannonville that had a 534 in a Pinto, it was insane.


You sure he didn't have a 534 wearing a Pinto? Seems more plausible...
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Originally Posted by The_Nuke
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Yup, there was a guy that we ran into at Shannonville that had a 534 in a Pinto, it was insane.


You sure he didn't have a 534 wearing a Pinto? Seems more plausible...
grin.gif



LOL!!!
 
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
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.


There's a Buffalo Bills fan called Pinto Ron that sometimes drove his 1980 Red Pinto to games in nearby stadiums (with several hundred thousand miles on it) and still used to mount a grill on the hood.

While Ford made some bad decisions, things were misrepresented and overblown in the media. The Pinto was no worse in rear end collisions that just about any other small car of that era...
 
Originally Posted by Jackson_Slugger
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
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.


There's a Buffalo Bills fan called Pinto Ron that sometimes drove his 1980 Red Pinto to games in nearby stadiums (with several hundred thousand miles on it) and still used to mount a grill on the hood.

While Ford made some bad decisions, things were misrepresented and overblown in the media. The Pinto was no worse in rear end collisions that just about any other small car of that era...


Are you sure about that? Look at this clip, such a small bump too...



(No Pinto thread is complete without this.)
 
I had a Mustang II Ghia and a fastback, both with 302 engines. The Ghia was bored .30 with flattop pistons, ported with a drill and stones (knocked down the air injection bumps in the exhaust ports mostly), installed an Erson cam .460 lift 292 degrees duration from base circle, double roller timing chain, Edelbrock dual plane, Holley 750 double pumper, the big Accel ignition coil, dual exhaust, and the suspension rebuilt with polyurethane, KYB shocks, and 1 coil off the front springs. All that made it pretty [censored] fast. The cars had horrible aero lift over 120 mph though.
 
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Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
I always liked the Mustang II Cobra.


OMG! That was my car! Exactly! Mine came with a rear-louvered hatchback cover that matched the side louvers, although it was probably aftermarket.
I was right out of auto tech school when I purchased mine. I eventually built up a very warm 302 that had '69 351W heads on it. Hot Rod magazine did an article that had Valley Head Service massage these heads where they flowed as good as some of the best small block Chevy heads. That's what I had them do to mine. (Remember at the time that aftermarket Ford heads were really nonexistent) I had some headers on it and a hard-shifting C4 tranny. I eventually put on a 3X2 Buddy bar six pack that I still own. My nephew now has this car and has it in his garage. Remember that we are talking 35+ years ago, but.....that car was a chick magnet!
 
Some of these examples might be laughable now but back in the day everyone knew someone who had a sleeper. The Chevy II or Nova would be a good example. Money was tight back then and a lot of mundane automobiles were turned into head movers.
 
When comparing stock 0-60 and 1/4 mile times, remember that Car &Driver admitted later that their musclecar era reported times were pure fiction....
 
Originally Posted by HangFire
When comparing stock 0-60 and 1/4 mile times, remember that Car &Driver admitted later that their musclecar era reported times were pure fiction....


I have a 1991 magazine that is a compilation of several road tests from the old Hi-Performance Cars magazine. The fastest 1/4 mile was a 12.5 posted by a 1969 Motion Performance big block Camaro- with uncapped headers and slicks. Aside from that car most of the others put up 1/4 mile ETs in the 13.5-14.5 second range.
 
My Mustang II experience(s):

When I was in law school back in the early '80s I was one of only a few car guys in my class. As a result, I often got called on for advice- and every now and then I would perform minor mechanical repairs and/or upgrades for my classmates(including installing a sound system for a delightfully eccentric young lady who could have passed for Debbie Harry's identical twin sister- but I digress...)

Anyway, one of my friends had a Mustang II(so did my girlfriend; that particular model motivated me to study hard- so that I would land a job that ensured I would never have to own or drive one ever again...) So one day my friend tells me that the car is stalling after it has been driven for 10-20 minutes. After 30 minutes or so it would fire up, run another 10-20 minutes and stall again. I tell him it could be anything from a ignition module that fails hot to a fuel system issue. I suggest taking it to a dealer or indie shop.

So... he takes it to his nearest Ford dealer. They change the fuel filter and "blow out the fuel lines." I told him that I hoped it worked, but that my guess was that whatever clogged the lines was still in the tank.

Two days later, the trusty steed stalls again. Back to the dealer it goes. This time they again blow out the lines and "install new EGR valve." I thought that call was a little sketchy, so I looked under the hood and found an EGR valve that looked like it had been on the car since it was new(Ford V8s of that vintage had an EGR valve assembly that was sandwiched between the carb and the intake manifold- I had dealt with them while doing my time in DIY mechanic purgatory servicing my parents' 1973 Bronco and 1974 Maverick). At this point I'm thinking the next thing they should do is drop the tank and clean it out.

Anyone care to guess what happened next? This time I decide to go back to the dealer with my friend; I tell him to ask to speak to the Service Manager and to politely explain that the car had stalled again and to ask why a new EGR valve was installed(As for me, I was going to act as if I was just the guy who was giving him a ride- I really wanted to hear what the guy would say.) Anyways... when we go back to the dealer the SM comes out and apologizes for the problem. He pops the hood and pokes around the air cleaner and intake manifold for a minute and then announces, "I'm sorry for the mistake- this car doesn't even have an EGR valve. I think what we need to do is drop the gas tank and clean it out." At this point I've decided that any landing you walk away from is a good one- if the SM wants to take the EGR valve off the bill because he thinks the car doesn't have one I'm not going to get in his way. Sometimes a failure cascade works to your advantage.

And yes, the car ran fine after the tank was cleaned. My girlfriend and I parted amicably- but not before I talked her into ditching the Mustang II for a new Accord coupe. My buddy and I both passed the Bar, thereby relegating future Mustang II ownership to the ash heap of history. And I met my future wife, who permanently endeared herself to me by locating my first BMW: a 1973 Bavaria 3.0. Talk about living HAPPILY ever after...
 
Originally Posted by MCompact
Originally Posted by HangFire
When comparing stock 0-60 and 1/4 mile times, remember that Car &Driver admitted later that their musclecar era reported times were pure fiction....


I have a 1991 magazine that is a compilation of several road tests from the old Hi-Performance Cars magazine. The fastest 1/4 mile was a 12.5 posted by a 1969 Motion Performance big block Camaro- with uncapped headers and slicks. Aside from that car most of the others put up 1/4 mile ETs in the 13.5-14.5 second range.


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IIRC, one of the fastest cars from that era was the TASCA Super BOSS, hardly a production car in any sense of the word, but ran 11's on polyglass.
 
My friend told me about his uncle who ran his bone stock '65 El Camino 283 4 speed at Fremont Drag Strip. It turned mid 12's...
 
The Baldwin Motion Big Block Corvettes were supposed to run 10s or else!
4:88 gears with a few tweaks to the IRS! With an overdrive. 🚀
 
Originally Posted by Powerglide
The Baldwin Motion Big Block Corvettes were supposed to run 10s or else!
4:88 gears with a few tweaks to the IRS! With an overdrive. 🚀


The TASCA was a 9 second car on a real tire, bottom 11's on polyglass, IIRC. It had a 494ci version of the BOSS 429, Ford's competition variant.
 
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