values - FordPinto.com
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values - FordPinto.com
emmrnus uscle M achines 450+ MUSCLE CARS: their values Issue #19 April, 2005 THE ULTIMATE ALL-AMERICAN PERFORMANCE CAR MAGAZINE G Low-production, turbocharged Ford from the early Seventies ... with a secret Words and photography by Jeff Koch It was a dream sports car specification in the early, smog-choked Seventies. Picture : a so lid 175hp out of two overhead-cammed, Weber-carburet ed, turbocharged, water-injected liters; engin eering involvement by legendary land-speed racer Ak Miller; a curb weigh t of just 2,300 pounds due in part to an intimate 94.2-inch wheelbase; suspen sion that compel led a sports-car-l ike .80g or so thanks, in part, to rack -and-pinion steering and low-profile, 65-series tires; a needle-nose profile hovering aggressively above the road. Better still , it was built entirely in America, from styling to engi neering to Blue Ova l power, though European machinery was clearly an influ ence . It was a far cry from th e sheer brute torque of the trad itiona l V-8, but it helped introduce the onset of more balanced perfo rmance, able to measure perform ance around turns as we ll as in straight lines. Never heard of Pangra? We're not sur prised. It was a limi ted-run 2+2 whose brief li fe at the start of the emissions era proved that just because odious smog controls were coming on board, the fun behind the w heel didn't need to end. On ly a handful were built-somewhere between 20 and 200, according to those who keep up w ith such thi ngs, though exact records are lost to the mists of time-and today, just five of these rare beasts are known to survive intact. All things cons idered, it was pretty afford ab le: about $4,600 in 1973 dollars, which put Pangra in a pos ition to spank a Porsche 9145 for about a grand less, and flat embarrass a Datsun 240Z outright. Brad Fagan of San Diego, Ca li fornia, owns two Pangras: This one, wh ich may well have been the press car used for magazine tests cond ucted by Road & Track, Motor Trend and Road Test, and another, which is receiving a full hi-tech refurbishment as we speak. Brad was kind enough to let us go for a spin behind the wheel of his rare sportster to garner so me impressions. Before we did, though, he tuned us in to a couple of changes he made from 16 Hemmings MUSCLE MACHINES I April 2005 ,e Pangra's Pinto lineage is obvious, despite taut, lowered stance and radical front fender curvature stock Pangra spec. The water-injection unit for the turbo is impossib le to find, and so is absent, while compression has been bumped a full point, from 7.0:1 to 8.0:1 , because he couldn't find anyone who made 7.0:1 pistons. The wheels and tires aren 't strictly correct either: The 5.5 x 13 slot mags wrapped in Continental radials have been replaced with 15 x 7 Weld wheels and modern rubber', which doesn' t reall y detract from the Seventies style-though the taller rear tire effective ly makes a higher (numericall y lower) rear-gear ratio, which could hurt all-out acceleration. Otherwise, it's all correct and 19 73-spec. Brad also warned us that, despite how it looks in pictures, it's far from perfect: it's never been completely apart, though he's got 250+ hours in the reinstallation and refurbishment. With those caveats, we enter. The doors, relative to the length of the car, are enormous-they're not heavy, and swing with ease, but they seem to take up half the profile. SI ip inside and take stock. Man, it's dark in here. The cockpit is intimate ... maybe a little too intimate: Your tall-torsoed test driver is bumping his head on the head liner, and the tops of the gauges are blocked by the top arc of the steering wheel. (This is slightly imma terial , insofar as the speedo isn ' t working today anyway). Such is the price of a low-production specia l such as this. The rake of the windshield isn' t so steep as to be a mai I-slot (though the rearview mirror, mounted in the dead center of the windshield, is a little dis tracting), and your proximity to the re st of the glass makes for fine visibility in most directions. The rest of it is just dark, with precious little to distract you from the task at hand. No body-colored metal, no wood veneer (real or fake), no brightwork accentuating anything. All the better to see the full complement of Stewart-Warn er gauges, including a digital tach (no t operational fo r our little jaunt, alas)-hot stuff for 1973. The console lends a sport ing touch , and the black cloth Recaros bolster you in all the right places without threatening to pinch you like a corset or stab you in the shoulder blades. At your left hand is a manual handle for raising the headlamps. It is, in all respects, a proper 1970s supercar. Swivel-up head lamps are reminiscent of the Pantera ... or maybe, a Porsche 914 instead a8 Hemmings MUSCLE MACHINES I April 2005 Press in the clutch and twist the key. The little 2.0-liter SOHC four turns over immediately, and settles in at a wicked 1AOO-rpm idle, breathing deep through its Weber 5200 carbo We call it a little four; with 175 turbocharged horsepow er on hand, and onl y 2,5 00 pounds to push around (driver included), it had the potential to act li ke something far larger. Blip the throttle at idle and there's something distinctly snotty going on: It's high-pitched but not buzzy like the hordes of tuner-beasts that prowl the modern highway. On this day, our Pangra accel erated like a modern subcompact would; in a time when a new Honda Accord will out-accelerate the recent Mercury Marauder, that's far from an insult. A shorter tire would have helped in our drive, but performance-oriented 13-inch rubber is rare these days. Back in-the-day reports mentioned prodigious turbo lag, but we experienced none of this: just a linear power curve that gave the impression that it was naturall y aspi rated and of slightly larger displacement. As mentioned earlier, the water injection was missing, so its full performance potential still has yet to reveal itself. The manual rack-and-pinion steering was plenty direct but just a tad on the numb side, and the disc brake nose required a firm pedal to grind down any speed whatsoever. Shifting was a touch on the rubbery side, the result of 30 years of work; Brad admits that a slightly more direct shifter is in the cards. Cornering was a revelation: While the ride was no more harsh than other sports machinery of the era, the nose stayed flat, and cor From doors forward, Pangra is fiberglass nering was delightfully neutral, despite th e different-sized rubber front and rear, whil e in our hands. So we've dri ven it; we've met the man who knows more about Pangra s than probably anyone else out th ere tod ay. But what is it? Well, surely by now you 've scanned the rest of the pictures and figured out the Pangra's dirty little secret: It's a Pinto. Bu t without that telltale roofline (which , let's be honest, bears more than a pa ss ing resembl ance to the full-fram e 1972 Tori no GT/Montego GT fastback roofline), woul d you have known? After a couple of miles behind the wheel, we wouldn't have. If an ythin g, the Pangra full y exploits the underl y ing potenti al in the little econ obox's platform. Once upon a time, Pangra wa s the brai nch ild of Jack Stratton, general sales manager at Huntin gton Ford in Arcadia, Ca liforni a; the goa l wa s to keep th e per formance torch burning in w hatever way he co uld. If that meant turbocharging a Pinto, so be it. With the muscle ca r as it was known nea rly buried by 1973 , and th e Pinto's gas tank woes a couple of years away, perfo rmance cars were com pelled to take on new and previously unconsidered form s; the Pan gra certainly fit that bill. It was developed completely in-hou se with the exception of Ak Miller's turbo charger conversion , whi ch was commercially availabl e on its own Well-shod IS-inch wheels provide the grip Shifter sprouts from factory-only console Still looks like a Pinto inside, but for sumptuous Recaro seats, gauges and sport wheel Digital tach was super high-tech in the Seventies and had prove n its mettle. Compression was dropped fro m a stock eight-and change to an even 7: 1, and the head was O-ringed for durability. Boost was limited to ten pound s, an d more th an one maga zine surmi sed that the tu rbo not only added boost, but also distributed fu el more evenl y to all cylinders, thus acting more like fuel injection than a draw through turbo attached to a two-barre l W eber carb had a ri ght to. Back when the Pangra was contempo rary, mu ch hay was made over not only its power (a nd 1.42 horsepower per cubic inch is an exce ll ent number, even by modern standards), but its relative cleanliness: Th e turbo helped the Pangra blow ex hau st numbers to the tune of 1975 levels. This was a massive victory not least of which because it was pulled off by a mom-and-pop shop that seemed able to get ahead of the curve on such matters in a time when Detro it wa s struggling mighti ly with pellet-type catalytic con verters. Pangra pieces were available in kit Why extra gauges? This is all the instrumentation a stock Pinto got April 2005 I Hemmings MUSCLE MACHINES 89 I grew up in Temple City, California, near Huntington Ford in Arcadia. I got a taste of the Pangra in the mid-Seventies, when a few friends had V-8s wedged into Pangra-nosed cars, but I thought that a "factory" Pangra was the car to own. After a decade of looking, I now own two of the five factory cars still known to exist. As Pangras go, this is the only original running car I know of-and I enjoy its rarity. This one was in rough shape when I found it in Pomona in 2001 ; the head was off, the body was in primer, the seats were ripped, and the factory mags and the whole Ak Miller turbo conversion and water-injection system were completely missing. Those were some of the hardest parts to get hold of. I wanted to do a full restoration , as close to what you could buy off the lot as I could get it. Other than the wheels, it is just that. If anyone finds another real one out there, it'll probably be in bad shape, but there are still some front-end kits floating around, and you can do a good-looking "kit" Pangra with a little research and patience. The comments I get at shows are greatsome even ask me if this is "one of those Australian Fords." - Brad Fagan PROS + + + Very few "factory" cars made The bitchinest looking and handling Pinto ever Seamless turbo power helped the little 2.0L feel contemporary CONS Club Scene: Ford Pinto Club of America www.fordpinto.com Dues: $20/year Membership: 1,275 Good luck finding one intact Controls were all a little loosey-goosey Dress it up how you like, but it's still a Pinto form or as a complete car so ld through Huntington Ford; the Pantera-inspired nose and head lamps (which integrate a stock grille and front bumper) made up Kit 1t1 and were a popular con version nationwide; the revised interior, including dash, console and Stewart-Warner gauges, comprised Kit 1t2 ; the Spearco "Can Am " suspension kit (sway bars, Konis, and a two-inch slam with attendant Rear seat tormented cramped collegians geometry changes) was Kit 1t3, and the real whamm y was Kit 1t4, which included all of these things plus the turbocharger. Not included in any of the kits were the Recaros, the console or the custom dash; these are the hallmarks of the Pangras sold through the dealer ship as complete cars. You could buy only complete Pangras from Huntington Ford , and for this reason, most "facto ry-built" Pangras tend to be known to live around Southern Ca lifornia. Hundreds of nose kits were manufactured and sent out arou nd the country, howev "Pinto" and "action" aren't usually mentioned together er; just because it has the fiber- 90 HemmIngs MUSCLEMACHINES I April 2005 glass nose doesn't mean it's an authentic factmy-built piece. As we mentioned at the top of the story, this might be the very press car that was handed to hordes of ham-fisted jour nalists back in 1973. There are a couple of indicators: When Brad stripped the car down to bare metal to pain t it, he noticed th at it was originally black same color as the one in all the maga zines. Also, the Pangra press beater had a prototype roof-mounted win g added in the fall of 1973, supposedly fitted for some high-speed testin g conducted by Gordon Johncock at the Ontario, Califor n ia, road course; our test Pangra had two plugs th at covered holes in the exact spot where the wing appeared to be mounted. (It's just as well it's gone; the wing looked more cartoon than Can-Am. ) Also, this Pangra is a 1972 model even though Pan gras were introduced halfway through 1973; this, and the 1972-and-earlier front bumper, point to signs of it being an early development mu Ie. All ci rcumstan tial evidence, granted, but conSidering how few of these were actually built, anything's possible. Brad 's other Pangra, a black full-on custom job with 250hp, heartier internals and many more modern touches, actually was in process first and is still not quite done at this writing; still, his work on that particular car led him to this one. " My neighbor, who is a car buff, told me he knew of another one," says Brad, who traveled to Pomona to see it. Still , it was a bit of a mess. The body was intact but in primer, the interior was all there except for a set of shredded Recaros (some NOS Porsche 914 fabric took care of that), the factory 13-inch mags were gone, and (rather cruciall y) all of the Ak Miller turbo equipment had fled the scene. Luckily, Brad had to look no further than his own garage for some of the pieces. "The exhaust manifold, crossover and intake would have been the toughest pieces to find, but I had these from my '73," he explains. After a thorough block-sanding, Brad applied two coats of PPG Guards Red (a Porsche color), color-sanded each coat with 600 grade paper, then two coats of clearcoat, with a 2000-grade rub in between. Other missing pieces, like a jack, spare tire and radiator, were easily (and relativel y cheaply) acquired. He figures he spent about 250 hours getting this Pangra in the shape you see it here. What's next for Brad and his Pangra? Driving this one, finishing up its twin, and revel i ng in the glory of corneri ng the market on a little-known but significant sl ice of American performance history. . . 1972 Ford Pinto Pangra HORSEPOWER @ 5,500 RPM 220-lbs.tt. torque @ 3,600 rpm 114 mile: 15.4 seconds Prlca Base price . . ... . ..... . . Stock Pinto .. .. .. . . .. .. . Engine Type .... .. ...... .. .. .. Displacement . . ........ . 80re x Stroke . ......... . Compression ratio . ...... . Horsepower @ rpm ...... . Torque @ rpm . ......... . Camshaft . . . .......... . Main bearings . ......... Fuel system . .......... Lubrication system ...... Electrical system ....... Exhaust system ... .. ... . . . . . Transmission Type .... . .. . .. .. . .... . $4,600 $2,235 SOHC 1-4, iron block and head 122 cubic inches 3.58 inches x 3.03 inches 8.0:1 175@5,500 220-lbs.ft. @ 3,600 Erson 290AS mechanical, .532/.532 lift, 217 degrees duration at .050 lift, solid lifters 5 Single Weber two-barrel Melling M86-8 oil pump 12-volt Ak Miller cast-iron manifold and downpipe, AiResearch T4 turbocharger (15 pounds boost max), 2-1/4-inch mandrel-bent exhaust pipe, Summit Turbo muffler (2-1/4-inch inlet and outlet), 2-1/2-inch BorJa stainless tip 1972 Ford four-speed manual, aluminum bellhousing, organic clutch Ratios . .. . ..... . .... .. . 1st 3.65:1 2nd 1.97:1 3rd 1.37:1 4th 1.00:1 Reverse 3.66:1 Differential Type .. .. . . .. .. . . .. .. . . 1972 Ford 6-1/4-inch housing, open Ratio . . . . ............. . 3.55:1 Steering Type . .. .. . ... .. ...... . Rack and pinion Ratio . . . . .... . .... ... . . 22.1:1 Turns, lock-to-Iock . . ... . . 4.2 Turning circle . . . . . .. . . . . 31.5 feet Brakes Type . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Manual, hydrauliC Front . . .. . ....... . .. . . 9.3-inch disc Rear . . . .. .. . . . . .. . . .. . 9.0-inch drum Chassis & Body Construction . .. . . . . .. . . . Unit steel Body style . . .... . . .... . . Two-door hardtop coupe Layout .. .. . . ...... . .. . Front engine, rear-wheel drive @ 92 mph Independent, upper A-arms, lower lateral arms, compression struts, two-inch-drop springs, Koni adjustable tube shocks, Spearco solid .957 anti-roll bar Rear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Live axle on leaf springs, two-inch lower blocks, Koni adjustable tube shocks, Spearco solid .628 anti-roll bar Wheels & Tires Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Weld Rodlite, cast alloy Front 15 x 7 inches Rear 15 x 7 inches Tires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 15-inch steel-belted radials Front Goodyear Eagle GT+4, 185/60-15 Rear Nankang EX601, 205/65-15 Weights & Measures Wheelbase ............. 94.2 inches Overall length . . . . . . . . . . . 166.4 inches Overall width ... . ....... 69.4 inches Overall height . . . . . . . . . . . 50. 1 inches Front track . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57.0 inches Rear track. . . . . . . . . . . . .. 57.0 inches Curb weight . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,315 pounds Capacities Crankcase .. .. . . .. . .. .. 4 quarts Cooling system ... . . . . . . . 8.5 quarts Fuel tank . ... . . . . .. .. . . 11 gallons Transmission .. ... .. ... . 5 pints Calculated Data 8hp per c.i.d. . . . . .. .. .. . 1.43 Weight per bhp .. .. . .. . . . 13.22 pounds Weight per c.i.d. . .. .... . . 18.97 pounds Production Huntington Ford sold between 20 and 50 Pangras in 1973 and 1974. The exact number is unknown. Performance Acceleration: 0-60 mph ... . ... . .. .. . . 7.5 seconds 1/4 mile ET . .. . .. . ... . . . 15.4 seconds @ 92 mph Top speed . . . . . ... . . . .. . 123 mph April 2005 I Hemmings MUSCLE MACHINES 91
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