Yup, I've heard them all...lol! My response is to pop the hood of the Pinto II that we own and let it speak for itself. I'm used to the jibes, thus the nym I used here. Like Rodney Dangerfield, it gets no respect. I like to tell the early Mustang owners that there's more Falcon in their car than Pinto in mine. Same with the Fox guys, there's more Fairmont in their car than Pinto in mine. They tell me that my horse is going the wrong way. It's all in good fun though!
It is in good fun, Rodney. I love cars too much to actually dislike an entire breed. There was a low mileage Pinto glassback at Mechum, orange, black interior, sport wheels. Probably the best looking stock one I've seen. A good friend of mine from high school who still has his '68 Mustang gets to hear it from me. He tends to boast about his car. I call his coupe a ''slowback''. But I'm just a Tri 5 dork..
Why? Just wait a bit and someone is guaranteed to call it one for you! I have a 78 Mach1 with T tops. Came with the V6 and 4 speed that could barely do mach .1, and that's downhill and with the wind at its back. I solved that problem within a year of buying it.
Actually it was a motorcycle to ride while the II was being prepared for an injection of 351W. A Camaro? I'd rather drive the real deal, a Trans Am!
Yup! You noticed that I didn't say "a Trans Am", eh? I became aware of fast cars in the Trans Am era and the #6 Camaro in blue and yellow livery rocked my world as a kid. In high school it seemed that everyone owned a Chevy and they all had a small block in them. The preacher's kid at our school had a 69 Z-28 and for a while I ribbed him that when it came to Camaro I preferred "Trans Am". He eventually figured it out when I kept joking about how ridiculous the Screaming Chicken cars looked. Granted it was a few years afterward his (Donohue's) Trans Am fame but he grew up loving the same stuff. One kid in high school did have a rat. It was a 69 Nova SS with the 396/375, 4 speed and all the goodies. A really sweet car that he abused to no end.
I have always liked that picture of Jack with his hand on the open hood of his creation, head tilted just so and an evil grin on his face. It reminds me of that scene in the Shining where Jack Nicholson's character hacks a hole in the bathroom door, puts his face up to it and says "Here's Johnny!" It was a crazy creation for its time. What's really funny about our MII is that we never would have looked for one and bought it. My wife and I married in '86 and her brother bought the car that same year. He was the second owner and paid top dollar as he bought it from a Ford dealer with a rebuilt V6 and 99K on the car. He married in '87 and needed a bigger car. I was looking for a second car for work so he offered it to us for 1/2 of what he paid for it. The price was right so I jumped on it. It wasn't a bad car at all, just really underpowered for its weight. I had a steep hill I had to climb on the way home from work that was 50 MPH, which meant that I was rowing between 3rd and 4th all the way up the hill. I hated it for that. I mean I really hated it. I ended putting the 351W in when a friend bet me it wouldn't fit. I was going to do a 302 but I can't pass up a challenge that I think I can win. The financials for the engine swap worked out great. I paid $100 to a friend for a 75 Monarch with a 351W and C4. Pulled them and sold the rest to a friend for $80. Pulled the V6 and 4 speed, selling them to another friend for $600. Dropped the 351 in and collected another $50 from my friend who was convinced that it wouldn't fit. So our ending up with one was pure chance. My BIL's son is bummed that his dad sold the car to us, he absolutely loves it...lol!
The Jalopy Journal
