Readers who are old enough to start cracking explosion jokes when they see the photo above will fall into 2 categories. One who think the idea of a Pinto race car is ridiculous and then the real enthusiasts who know that the Pinto had great potential as a race car.
It just makes sense, the car was light weight and had a low, wide stance. It was reasonably aerodynamic compared to many of the other small cars of the day. The rear wheels were motivated by a series of small 4 cylinder engines. The original base engine was a 1.6 liter 4 cylinder that then grew to 2.0 and then 2.3. If that doesn’t make sense to you, let me switch it up a bit: 1.6 = 1,600 cc = Formula Ford. 2.0 = 2,000 cc = Formula 2000.
The folks at Car and Driver saw the same potential and so, led by Patrick Bedard, they picked up a nice used 1972 Pinto and built a race car. The car was entered in the Goodrich Radial Challenge, an IMSA road racing series for small production based cars. In the car’s second event at Charlotte, the little Ford won its class. The car was only entered in 4 events in ’74, where it started from pole twice. A regional racer drove the car at a few events in 1975 and then it sat until 2007 when it was completely restored and sorted for vintage racing.
This is a super nice little vintage car that has an interesting history. The e-bay auction is currently sitting at just over $4,000 and the reserve hasn’t been met. Obviously I have no idea what the reserve is, but this car would be a great entry level car for vintage racing. Cute, quick and likely dead reliable, the Pinto would also be quite economical to campaign.
We’ve got a huge gallery of photos after the break courtesy of Fox Motorsports. They also have the complete history of the car listed on that page.
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Lee White, the head of Toyota’s competition dept. , used to race one in the Bulova Series at Mosport way back before here was light.