{"id":2696,"date":"2006-07-13T04:32:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-13T08:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2006\/07\/midsummer-nights-dream\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:02:03","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:02:03","slug":"midsummer-nights-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2006\/07\/midsummer-nights-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Midsummer Night’s Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It used to be the conventional wisdom that no one would ever collect cars from the 1970s. I have never believed this – every car will some day have its moment of collectability – but I once said I hoped I’d never see a Pinto at a car show. I ate crow for that statement a long time ago. Today there are Pinto clubs<\/a> and Pinto posses, and Ford’s little subcompact has a culture all its own.<\/p>\n

The Pinto<\/a> came on the scene in 1971, following the Falcon-replacement Maverick<\/a> and undercutting it in size and price. Once problems with fuel tanks<\/a> and broken door handles were overcome, the Pinto proved a reliable and economical little car. Performance of the first cars, with 1,600 cc British-built “Kent” engine<\/a>, was a bit underwhelming, but a 2-liter ohc<\/a> unit from Ford of Germany was soon substituted. By 1974, Pintos were being propelled by a husky 2.3-liter ohc four built in Ohio, an engine so sturdy that it found its way into third-generation Mustangs<\/a> and, with turbocharger, Thunderbirds<\/a> and the German-built Merkur XR4Ti<\/a>. A 2.8-liter V6 followed the next year.<\/p>\n

Diane Mierz has always wanted a Pinto. Two years ago she found one, a low-mileage 1973 Squire wagon<\/a>, with 2-liter engine and automatic transmission. She and her husband Steve took it to Hershey that autumn, and entered it in the car show<\/a>. Steve, webmaster for the Shoreline Antique Auto Connection<\/a>, soon set up the Connecticut Pinto Registry<\/a>, an online news and information resource for Pinto partisans.<\/p>\n

Three weeks ago Connie and Bill from Glastonbury, Connecticut, organized a Pinto stampede at the regular monthly cruise night on the green in Colchester<\/a>, held by the Good Times Motoring Club<\/a>. Seven Pintos<\/a> came to celebrate the Summer solstice<\/a>, including Connie’s own 1978 runabout<\/a>, Bill’s 1977 sedan with T-Bird turbo engine<\/a>, and Diane’s Squire wagon<\/a>. Glenn and George from New London showed up with no less than four: a mint 1972 sedan that was my first car-show-Pinto<\/a> sighting in Norwich a few years ago, a 1976 Squire runabout<\/a> with factory V6<\/a>, a Cruising Wagon and a ’77 sedan into which they have stuffed a 302 V8<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pinto’s swan song was the 1980 model. Fred Summers<\/a>, our St. Louis bureau chief, ordered a Cruising Wagon<\/a> for his wife Sharon, without the wacky graphics package<\/a> that was available. Cruising wagons had a special interior<\/a> with tachometer and rally steering wheel. When the 1981 model year came around, the Pinto had been replaced by the front-wheel drive Escort<\/a>, billed as a “world car” because the same model was made in Britain<\/a>, Germany and several other countries. The Pinto had done well, with two million sold in ten years, and its reputation intact. Its competition, the rough and rusty Chevy Vega<\/a> with an unlined aluminum engine<\/a>, a type better suited to a lawn mower<\/a>, must be green with envy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It used to be the conventional wisdom that no one would ever collect cars from the 1970s. I have never believed this – every car will some day have its moment of collectability – but I once said I hoped I’d never see a Pinto at a car show. I ate crow for that statement….<\/span>
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