I owned a 1977 Pinto in the late 1970s and it was a good car. It had the all-glass hatchback and it was good looking with that along with the restyled front end.
I had a new 78 Pinto Ralley and that commercial is spot on. The rice burners of the time were slow, underpowered and rotted away before the engines wore out. Even my Dads 78 Celica rottedaway in about 4 years while my Pinto had no rust on it when I traded it in on a 80 Cruising Wagon. That car had 150K on it and was clean when I traded it in on a Mustang GT in 85.
The Pinto had a 4 cylinder. It specifically says that it was tested with a standard transmission and you could only get a 2.8 V6 with an Automatic. Trust me, I had a few of them and have a 2.8 Ralley and it was available only with the auto. That Red Pinto has the 2.3 and the 4 speed. My new in 78 Ralley had a 2.3 and a 4 speed and it kicked all the three Jap cars rears. The B210, the Corolla and the CVCC.
Cabbage King The power to weight ratio is what counts. The 3 Japanese cars all weigh significantly less than the Ford Pinto, so the acceleration tests should be on equal footing, where the Pinto shines in this test is it's off idle and overall torque, that's where the extra cc's on the Pinto 2.3L engine makes it presence felt. The Pinto was designed to run in an American road environment, whereas the Japanese economy cars of the time(late 60's to early 80s) hadn't yet developed into the cars we're accustomed to nowadays. Even though the Pinto had a bad rap over fuel tank issues, it was a very reliable car, every bit as much as it's Japanese rivals of it's era and the Pinto was a much better car than the Escort that replaced it in 1981(that was a turd IMO).
A friend of mine had a 72 or 3 pinto in high school in the early 80's,we beat the shit out of that thing,it must have been special,couse it took it and kept running.
78 pinto didnt blow up though that problem was fixed in 76. And actually it never amounted to anything all the small cars back then were vulnerable in the same way.
But you are more likely to find a 1977-78 Datsun B-210 or Toyota Corolla still on the road today compared to a 77-78 Ford Pinto! Especially on the West Coast of America!
In fairness you see more Japanese cars from the '80s and '90s than American cars of that same vintage. However, I don't see Pintos or Japanese cars from the 70s much at all anymore.
I think it's Scottish because of Sir Jackie was born in Scotland and his accent is all aboot the combination of British and Scottish accents that we can hear his own accent.
@@M60gunner1971 Read it and weep. www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.caranddriver.com/features/a15147925/rocket-sleds-the-best-performers-from-50-years-of-car-and-driver-testing/&ved=2ahUKEwj_rZqu9rzqAhWCJzQIHc3ZC-IQFjAPegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw0G8JYQ6doyIQkzrrOrgSDl
HAD ONE CUZ THE BED WAS 6': CRAPPY ENGINES, OIL BURNER FROM 45K, FIT AND FINISH WAS COMICAL, NO ENGINE LASTED MORE THAN 65K. IN CITY DRIVING, IV BEEN REARENDED 3X (WHIPLASH VERTEBRAE OPERATIONS 2X), THANKFULLY, NEVER IN THE PINTO!!
The Pinto did all of this while getting a whopping 21 MPG.... those Japan cars were only doubling and almost tripling that! In other words.... those Pintos really loved the gas.... LOL.... get it? Pintos.... loved gasoline. What???? Too soon?
My 78 got 31 on the HWY. My current 78 with a V6 and a 3 spd auto gets about 27. My Dads Corolla got about 2 miles more per gallon than mine did and his Celica got worse than my 80 Cruising Wagon. And they both ROTTED out when mine still showed no rust at all.
The Toyota Celica, Honda Accord, and the Datsun 510 or 610 would have killed the Pinto. Can you imagine the suffering Jackie Stewart would of went through if he actually had to drive the Pinto?
Yeah, That's what I'm sayin, I drove all those cars, The Pinto would be in last place and if you pull out the Datsun Z car of that time, Ford didn't have anything for it, their fastest Mustang would have fallen on it's face.
I'm gonna have to call you on that one, Give me one of those Toyota's or Honda's. That Pinto is going down. Give me the Datsun 280zx and that Pinto won't get off the starting line before I cross the finish line. So to make it fair, bring your fastest Mustang of that time.
Superior to whom? The Japanese may have been slower, but were also more economical, safer, and their build quality was at least as good, or superior to 70's US compact cars. At least the Pacer and Vega. Not sure about the Pinto. A VW Rabbit was an overall better car i think. Except for the rust prevention.
DolleHengst Japanese build quality was decent, right up until parts started falling off the car. The Rabbit was a good car except for the rust and repair issues. The Vega was far ahead of its time engine wise and the styling was pretty good, but like most new GMs it suffered from serious under testing. The Gremlin was actually the rival to the others and a Gremlin with a 304V8 and a 4 spd was a serious street racer right out of the box.
+Cw Tbird True. That engine was nearly indestructable. But 88hp from 2.3L isn't that much; Ford Eur. OHC 1.6 from the same era had 88 hp too. Pinto/Mustang 2.3L4 engine was easy to tune and loved for it.
Aside from the inclination to make a "the pinto won cuz it had a afterburner option" let's be real here folks...the ford issue was rear axle spring attach bolts that moved up and punctured the gas tank in some accidents..the ford recall fix after the litigations were done was done and pintos made after that had it incorporated into the build In any event a rear end accident hard enough to do that to a pinto in any of the other comparable japanese cars would have resulted in a very bad day for anyone inside....The pinto aside from the bad press was much more survivable in a side or front end impact than any of them as well but realistically speaking comparing all of them with the mindset we have today in safety features skews this somewhat..they all were sketchy in some way..lol
No one would suspect it had a 351W(Windstewart), in it, with the optional "Rally Fudge-Pack." Still does, probably. If only it had been Painted "Antarctic Blue," up, at the Assembly Line. Bombed or Skyrocketed. We will never know.
I have a feeling none of them since they basically all exploded even after a little tiny love cap on the back bumper. Insert RobotChicken exploding pinto meme here.
Thank you- I had a 76 MPG manual notchback, the few times I checked I got 28.5 mpg, fortunately I never was rear ended though and YES Ford did cover up that cost cutting idea
They stopped the video as it barely passed the truck and all because they knew the foreign cars 🚙 were gonna come back and pass the crap American car 🚗! 😑😐
