Just a few months before this June 1971 review, R&T had described the Pinto as “mediocre but cute” in a 5-car comparison against the likes of the Corolla and Datsun 510. On that occasion, the new for ’71 Pinto had arrived with its original 1.6 cyl. and drum brakes. Not the greatest hardware to impress reviewers.
Upgrades appeared soon enough, and R&T was ready to give the Pinto a new try. For the June test, the Pinto arrived with optional disc brakes and more importantly, a new 2.0L mill of European design shared with the Capri. The new setup brought much-needed pep into the Pinto and changed the car’s character. Enough to leave a much better impression the second time around.
The 2.0L is a bit lost in Pinto history, as it was only offered a scant 4 years in the US. Yet, those who tried it, have considered it the best mill the model would ever have. Indeed, as a previous CC post noted; “the 2.0L with 4-speed and 3.82 rear axle was the most potent Pinto ever produced.”
The new European sourced engine gave a nice delivery; it was smooth and quiet, provided good torque, improved performance (cutting 7 secs on the 0-60 test), and even better, delivered fuel consumption almost equal to the base engine. As testers summed up; “The 2000cc engine does for the Pinto what it does for the Capri – it makes a proper car.”
In its prior test, the Pinto’s best attributes had been its gearbox, neutral handling, and decent braking; elements that only improved with the upgrades. With the optional disc brakes, the Pinto’s numbers went from fair to very good. Along with its great-shifting gearbox and generally improved performance, reviewers found the new Pinto 2000 a far more compelling proposal.
With the upgrades being of a mechanical nature, testers had to note that some shortcomings still remained. Mainly, the Pinto’s packaging was poor. Luggage space, interior accommodations and ergonomics received generally poor marks.
Against the domestics, reviewers felt the new Pinto 2000 made a good case for itself. Adding imports into the mix changed that equation, of course. A factor that played in R&T’s final assessment; “it isn’t as much fun to drive as most of the imports or as luxurious as the Toyota, but if your motto is to Buy American the 2-liter Pinto with disc brakes begins to look awfully good.”
That seems to be damning with faint praise. But from testimony left here at CC previously, if properly optioned, the 2.0 Pinto was a decent little number against its contemporary competition.
Further reading:
Curbside Classic: 1971-72 2.0 OHC Pinto – The Fastest Pinto Ever Built
“Hotter Pinto”. Oxymoron comes to mind!
With a 0-60 time of 11.4 seconds it was quicker than a lot of V8-powered cars. When I was a lot boy at a Ford dealership in 1971, this was my favorite ride; it was a ball.
And to think that 2.0L chopped SEVEN SECONDS off the prior 0-60 time.
You’d think 100HP in a 2100lb car would scoot faster than that, but the original Miata was 116hp pushing 2200lb and not much quicker.
That’s 100 gross hp; it was 82 net, so that accounts for some of it.
L0L See my comment below! I was also a car jockey in 1971! Fun job for a teen who just got his licence to drive!
I worked for a Ford dealership in 1971, as a car jockey, so I am familiar with these Pintos. Kinda cute, and familiar name bc Ford had the Mustangs of course. I remember driving the Boss 429s, and for a 16 yr old those cars were dangerous! I used to race with another employee my age. One of us was in a 429 Mustang, the other in a 429 Torino! Just racing a few blks between dealerships about a mile apart. IIRC we only did that one time, but it was fun having all that POWER for a short time!
I remember driving the Boss 429s, and for a 16 yr old those cars were dangerous!
Nick, there were no 1971 Boss 429s, and only 499 of them were made in 1970. And I’m quite certain none were sold new in Canada. And even if one or two were, the odds of you as a 16 year old being handed the keys to one are about one in a million. I think your imagination has carried away a bit. Maybe an HO 351? That would be a lot more believable.
Did you ever figure out what state Port Orford is in?
No Boss 429 for 1971, but there was a 429 CobraJet.
It’s surprising the press car wasn’t a Runabout hatchback which was the other midyear news in the Pinto line since it appeared in early calendar 1971, a few months after the trunk coupe but early enough that it was almost certainly part of the original program.
Unlike the wagon which wasn’t launched until spring 1972 which makes me think it came from a crash development program after Ford, the self-proclaimed Wagonmaster, was caught flat-footed by the Chevy Vega Kammback’s early popularity.
This “Pinto” 2.0 L four didn’t just have “European roots”; it was built in Europe. I’m not quite sure whether the ones imported between 1971-1974 were built in Germany or GB; I think the former, but I could be wrong.
My guess would be German, though I really don’t know.
Has there ever been a CC on the 2.3 liter “LIma” four cylinder which replaced this 2.0?
Why didn’t Ford just build the 2.0 in the US as it was? It sounds like a good motor. The trans was pretty good–positive acting and precise, IMO, better than most.
I know the only four offered on the 1974 Mustang II was the base 2.3 (displacing around 2252 cc).
This 2.3 would power millions of FoMoCo vehicles from 1974 through 198x or 199x: Pinto, Mustang II, Fairmont/Zephyr, Ranger.
I think the expertise here would make for a good story.
My first car was the family Fairmont I inherited–a 2.3, four-speed. It didn’t have a tach, but above 20-25 mph in first, it got pretty raucous and rough. That’s probably around 4,000 rpm. I could feel a small surge of power, but I heard a lot more racket, in the first 3 gears, when “wound out”, and it was NOT pleasant.
Something tells me this 2.0 engine was not afflicted with this loud harshness of the 2.3 Lima engine.
2.3 Lima engine history is waiting for a CC 🙂
Tom, you may be thinking of the 1971 Ford Cortina which was originally a UK car? I didn’t know that back then bc there was no internet. The Cortina was only around in Canada a few years IIRC?
Thanks. The main text has been updated.
It was the new Cortina mill that was put in the Pinto and 2.0 Cortina’s got along ok thousands of them were bought by govt depts here to replace Holdens when gas went thru the roof, the 2.0 Cortina was the repmobile here
As I remember from poring over those car magazines of my misspent youth, the 2.0 was made in Germany. I remember riding in these gizmos. Bad in the front, awful in the back, and I am 5’8″. Very different from riding in a Datsun 510. I just checked the height of the two. On introduction of the Pinto Ford crowed about how it was faster than the VW and lower too. Well, it is 9 inches lower than a Bug and 6.4″ lower than a 510! For commuter cars of that era, the costs of being taller were far less than the benefits.
With this era Pinto, the memories of those youths who burned in low speed crashes are hard to forget. A pox on Ford for saving a few dollars at the cost of their lives.
I remember Pintos very well ~ crude and basic but long lived where there wasn’t rust issues .
-Nate
“Against the domestics,…” which is basically saying better than the Vega. But really by now you should of bought Japanese
We could also mention the AMC Gremlin.
Some also did some conversions to transform their Pintos into “Pinto Ranchero” or “Pintochero”. Imagine what if Ford had given the green light of a Pinto pick-up truck?
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2012/09/19/pinto-poni-creator-would-like-to-know-if-any-still-exist
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2019/03/19/hemmings-find-of-the-day-1980-ford-pinto-pickup-conversion
When I was in high school, two of my friends got the use of the “older” family car. Both were identical medium metallic blue Pintos. I think one was a 71 with the 1600 and the other was a 72 with the 2000, both stick shifts. Both of those guys understood what an upgrade the 2000 was. I never got to drive either, unfortunately.
The Pinto 2000 was fairly successful in all manner of 4-cylinder racing formats. As I recall, it was easily and cheaply modified to create much more power. And since a lot of 4-cylinder classes called for engines under 2 liters, it continued to be successful even after the 2300 came to be.
I think it’s been pondered here before, but it’s good to remember that part of Pinto’s success over Vega was due to GM’s arrogance and unwillingness to use an existing 4-cylinder from their European operations, and rather, reinvent the 4-cylinder, and rather poorly.
Another not insignificant factor was that the Vega cost some 10% or more than the Pinto. The Pinto was a direct competitor to the Corolla, Beetle, Datsun 1200, etc.; the Vega was really in one class higher. At this time the VW/Corolla class was the hot one, as there were a lot of young boomers looking to buy their first cars.
The comparison data table for this article says that a 110 hp/4-speed Vega was only $66 more than a Pinto 2.0/disc brake model. I seem to recall that when they actually tested the Vegas, the one with the 2 barrel carburetor was fairly loaded with options and cost hundreds more than other economy cars. The Vega so-equipped was being pitched as a competitor to sporty coupes and maybe even the 2002. I wonder if they actually made any with the sedan body, stripped interior, and 2 barrel/4 speed combination.
Reading this really makes you realise how far cars have come in the intervening years. Fixed seatbacks too upright, wheel too close to the driver, the deluxe interior coming with carpet – wow! The optional engine being more economical points to the original being underpowered. I never found the engine particularly economical in my Cortina; probably a different state of tune though. That comment about the seatbelts – I gather they weren’t using the international three-point system, but had to try and reinvent the seat belt.
Interesting that the British classic car guys refer to this as the Pinto engine!
Peter, IIRC the Pintos and Cortinas came with a 1600 CC engine, and MAY have had an option for a 2000 CC? I’m just going on memory back 52 years ago, so who knows! Just for fun I’ll Giggle it now!
Nick, I’m in Australia. ‘Our’ Ford was amazing – the things they got away with…
Down here our Mark 3 Cortinas initially came with the old pushrod 1600 as the base engine, but it was discontinued as almost everyone paid the $85 extra for the OHC 2000 – unless they went for the 200 or 250 sixes, once Ford made them fit. When I was searching the yards for parts, I think I only found one with the 1600. Likewise bench seats – a very low take rate.
I just found this online….”Engine 97.6 cu in (1.6 L) Kent I4 122.0 cu in (2.0 L) EAO I4 140.4 cu in (2.3 L) L23 I4 170.9 cu in (2.8 L) Cologne V6″. I never saw a V6 in any Pinto in Canada but it sez Cologne V6 so maybe that was just in Germany? There are 4 engines listed here but I am only familiar with the 2 smallest ones. 1600 CC and 2000 CC. Maybe in the USA they had options for the larger mills? The reason I say that is our family was driving from Vancouver to LA in 1967, in a 1965 Pontiac Parisienne,(Canada’s answer to the Catalina) and when we stopped for gas and the attendant checked the oil, he L0L bc he never saw such a small engine in a Pontiac before! It was a 283 CID. I was born in Motown, Canada, (Windsor). It was basically a Chryco town IIRC. They had a Chrysler assembly plant there, and my Gramps actually worked at Dominion Forge and Stamp for over 40 years, where they made crankshafts for vehicles. The WEIRD part is, I Googled that and I found a very OLD photo, and it looks a LOT like my Grandpa Nick in the photo with his lunch pail! The pic is some time in the 1940s! The LAST time I saw him was in 1965 when I was 12. He was at work bc he could not get time off to take us kids to the airport, plus he was crying as he tried to kiss us goodbye thru a chain link fence! Imagine working in a FURNACE in the middle of HOT Windsor summers! There was a HUGE turnover for that gruelling job! He was a very strong guy, who was a cousin of Tarzan! (Johnny Weissmuller). I still have the cyber copy of JW’s photo with Cheetah the Chimp! He signed it “To Nicky.” L0L
The V-6 became option on some U.S. Pintos in 1975. I don’t know if it was ever offered in Canada; maybe not.
I was given a 1971 Pinto as a loaner once from a Ford dealer. Fun to drive and had nice power, but it was a Pinto 🙂
Okay, forgive me if this is a dumb question, but in the “X-Ray view” of the Pinto on page 31 of the magazine, why was the transmission angled upward to meet a U-joint, and from there the driveshaft was angled downward to the differential?
If that illustration is accurate it seems as though Ford would’ve wanted to have a lower driveshaft tunnel, which appears to have been achievable by lining up the transmission’s output with the differential’s input. It also explains why my three sisters’ Pintos all had a huge intrusion into the footwells and a tall center “hump” in the interior.
Good point, and I’d love to know. It looks all kinds of wrong.
It’s not really pointing up; it’s level. The bottom of the case does angle up to the rear. but the engine and transmission are level even if the transmission case narrows to the rear. Quite a few cars have their drive train (engine and transmission) mounted sloping down at the rear, in order to minimize the tunnel intrusion. I don’t know why Ford did it this way, but one can assume (or hope) there was a good reason.
I found a few undercarriage photos of a Pinto, and this is how it was done.
I think this has to do with the design of the four-speed single-rail transmission. The tail shaft is level because the shift controls are internal — the shifter screws into the top of the tail housing rather than using external rods or cables. This probably had much to do with the excellent shift quality of that transmission, which was very highly praised in its day.
That makes sense. It was a terrific shifter, just like the best sports cars of the times.
One of the early ’70s domestic Ford designs, that never really appealed to me. Along with the Thunderbird, Maverick, and Gran Torino. Fresh designs like the Golf and Scirocco, instantly dated them. Technically, looks-wise, and in their inferior space efficiency. Styling so associated with ’70s malaise. Plus, their remarkable tendency to rust. Made them as unappealing for me, as any car at the time.
Well said Daniel ;
I rode in them and drove a few, like the Escort and my tin foil fleet model Ranger trucklet, they’re designed to do a job and they do that very well, good luck finding folks who actually _wanted_ to buy them .
-Nate
I’ve only driven one Pinto, not a bad car from my brief drive, but my understanding is the 2000 is the best engine, the 1600 next and the 2300 is the turd of the bunch in spite of being the largest. When I met my wife she had a Mustang II, a hand me down of her ex, with the 2300 and that engine was a turd. Designed I suspect for emissions given the era, and not very successfully I might add, at least IMO.
I know it’s more complicated than this, but it seems if an engine revs nicely off stop, it drives ok. If you have to mash the pedal to get across the intersection it leaves you cursing. All of that regardless of the actual performance. The Mustang II always had the gas pedal on the floor, but nobody except the driver knew it.
Now try that 2.0 with 11.0:1 compression. Believe me it is very different on the street compared to stock.
My ’75 Sedan had a 2.3L engine. I has a lot of good times in that car!
I remember reading this back in 1971, as a car crazed 13 year old.
Along with my younger sister (package deal?) I was in the hospital having my tonsils and adenoids out. They asked if they could get us something, I asked for a car magazine, they didn’t blink (they of course knew me). Other times to keep us out of their hair at my Grandparents, they’d sometimes give us money to go to a newsstand to buy a comic book (which my sisters did) or magazine (which I usually did…mostly a car magazine)….the proprietor would often look at my sister’s comic books and my car magazine and try to talk me into a comic book (back then adults often would do that, act as parents-in-absentia) but I still wanted the car magazine more than a comic book (besides I’d read my sister’s comic book when she tired of it). Didn’t subscribe so issues stood out in my mind that I did get, I reread them almost to the point of memorizing the details.
I also remember a nurse asking us if we wanted a drink. My (younger) sister went for a cola, as back then we didn’t often get soda at home. I was a bit older and wiser, I asked for water, and of course my sister couldn’t drink the soda as it hurt her throat….I shared my water with her. Of course we later got ice cream so I’m sure she forgot about the soda pretty quickly.
My Dad was a recent Ford convert, having traded his ’65 Olds F85 for a ’69 Country Squire. He took me to the dealer when he was buying it, we bought it at the same dealer my Uncle had bought his ’69 LTD 4 door hardtop a few months before. For us, it was an out-of-town dealer, as we never lived closer than about a 4 hour drive from where my Parents were from (where my Uncle lived at the time). Anyhow, I became a Ford fan at the time, especially when he later traded it on a ’73 Ranch wagon.
In the summer of ’72, my Mother decided it would be wise to have us take a typing class during the summer holiday…probably partly to get us out of her hair a few hours but also because we were entering high school, and she knew we’d likely need to know how to type for formal reports. Anyhow, it was held at at the “competing” high school to the one I was later to attend (we moved around a lot, we were to spend our Sr. year in high school at a different one than we spent the other 3 years in, only my youngest sister in my family actually finished at the same high school she started at as a freshman) so we needed to be driven as it was off a major road and quite a few miles from our home. My Mom usually drove us plus a friend of my sister, but once my sister’s friend’s older sister took us, and she had an early Pinto. That was the only time I rode in a Pinto.
Except…fast forward to summer of 1975. I was temporarily staying with my Grandparents to go for a short 1 week “get acquainted” session at a college not exactly nearby them, but I could take a bus to get there from their town. Additionally, we were moving yet again, back up to Vermont (we’d moved there originally in 1965 but my Dad had gotten transferred south and this time we were moving back so he could work in the same facility he started in 1965). I stayed with my Grandparents a week or two after I returned by bus from the college session, and they were visiting my Grandmother’s brother who had a summer cottage on a lake not far from Grandparent’s home. For some reason they wanted to buy some non-homogenized milk at a dairy barn nearbly, but I think they’d been drinking (alcohol) so they choose me (not supposed to be drinking, which was the case) to accompany their son (a couple years younger than I but who was too young to have driver’s license). I had only gotten mine the summer before (49 years ago now) but they let me drive my Grandmother’s brother’s wife’s Pinto which had an automatic. Other than driving my Parent’s cars, I think it was the first time I drove a family member’s car. Anyhow, the son gave good directions and we were able to get the milk they wanted.
The other thing I remember about the outing was that the same son had a minibike (minibikes were a pretty big deal back then) and my Grandmother (only about 2 years younger than I am now) drove the minibike too…only thing was neither of my Grandmothers ever learned to drive (never had a license).
Sorry for the long content, not much Pinto content, but that’s my only Pinto experience. I was later to have a job as a Hertz transporter, back then specialized in Ford rentals, but I never drove a Pinto the two years (1977 and 1978) I drove for them…nor a Maverick, for some reason. Lots of LTD II’s, Thunderbirds, Granadas and in ’78 Fairmonts though.
Zwep, where in Vermont? I grew up in Marshfield, in the upper Winooski Valley and attended Twinfield Union High School. I worked for a few months at MacDonalds on the Barre Montpelier Road after graduating. My first and only ride in a two speed (as I remember) automatic Vega. Awful.