A 1971 Pinto on the street has become a rare sight anywhere, but here’s one still at it in Tel Aviv. T. Minor posted it, but the credit for the shots goes to Arthur Ginsburg. Well, it least rust isn’t a problem there.
I had a lot of seat time in ’71 Pintos, in my job at Towson Ford that yer as a car jockey. The 1.6 L with the stick wasn’t too bad, if one caned it hard. These early Pintos were built very lightly (and they felt like it too), so it didn’t take a lot to move them along, and the Ford UK transmission with its stubby little shifter allowed very quick shifts. The engine and transmission were essentially straight out of the Cortina, along with some smog controls.
The optional new 2.0 SOHC four was built in Germany, and with the stick, it was a ball. This was the closest thing to a Euro-style sports coupe that Ford offered, and the rack and pinion steering made it a blast on the winding back roads in northern Baltimore County (I found excuses for my extended drives).
But the three-speed automatic sucked the life out of the 2.0; unfortunately, that was the what about half of them came with (the 1.6 and 2.0 stick each made up about 25% of the inventory).
The owner of this looks to have taken measure to improve his Pinto’s survivability, especially at the rear. Maybe all that hoopla about Pintos going up in flames when rear ended has made him extra cautious.
After the Pinto gas-tank story broke, one lady in my part of town in a tan Pinto hatchback filled that giant back window with a triangular yellow FLAMMABLE sign.
Where all was the Pinto sold, anyway?
I remember a bumper sticker people would put on them that said “Hit me easy, I’m full of gas”. Parents had a ’72 4 speed 2.0 Pinto, and it was indeed quick for the day and held up well to my 16 year old latent Andretti abuse. The light rear end required caution in the rain, though.
OMG tell me about it. Summer of ’86 I drove an old Pinto. Rainy day, slightly urgent stop, and next thing I know that rear end broke loose and I spun it.
I spun out in Mom’s new Pinto and wound up sliding backwards into a telephone pole, brakes locked, bending the rear bumper and putting a tiny dent in the corner of the 1/4 panel. Luckily I was almost stopped by that time. Of course I claimed it was hit while parked in a supermarket lot. Sorry, Mom.
This particular Pinto is well known in the Classic cars’ community in Israel. I myself have seen it and taken some photos of it:
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… according to the reg no., it’s an original import to Israel
In a meaningless coincidence, a family friend during the mid/late-1970s was a young Brazilian diplomat who owned an identical Pinto coupe while living in the US. I remember seeing the Pinto in his garage and saying to him that I would be careful around it so that it would not burst into flames, while less than 10 years old at the time. Many years later he became Brazil’s ambassador to Israel in the early years of this decade. Maybe he saw this very car on the street and wondered, “What in the world is my old Pinto doing here?”
kids are amusing when they think they know what they’re talking about.
I have laugh at how much movie star attention that old Pinto is getting. I’m ready for my closeup.
Nice to see one still going .
I thought these were pretty good for cheap cars .
-Nate
Where did the 2.3L engine from 1974 come from? That one soldiered on through the next two decades, no?
Bored and stroked version of the 2.0L made in Ohio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto_engine
The striped reflective tape on the rear of the car was not Pinto specific, when I was in Israel in 1982 almost every car had them.
Legal rule over there…
Wow, memories. I had two high school friends with these, a 71 1.6 and a 72 2.0, both sticks. And both this very same color. Those guys gave both of those cars the PN treatment too. 🙂
The problem in northern Indiana was that they started rusting quickly and severely.
Infamous movie clip (who HASN’T seen it?).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gKQ-U-rnLdo
Hahaha! Still laughing! Screeching tires on dirt, too!
This was the color of the first pinto delivered to the Ford dealership I worked in at the time they were introduced. I rather enjoyed driving them; they had more of a pony car feel and less a family sedan than one would have expected for the niche they were opening.
LOL!
Maybe someone more knowledgeable will correct me, but I believe that for many decades the reflector tape was mandatory in Israel (no longer the case), as was a rear-facing fog light (not sure if these are required today). When I was a kid, I saw many cars with a single reverse light; the second reverse bulb was replaced by the rear fog light.
You are correct but I believe the reflector stripes are no longer required.
No longer required since 1995. Commercial vehicles still need to “wear” these stripes, but those are bigger and red\yellow, not the old red\white.
This Pinto connoisseur is putting red fog lamp on the wrong side of car. ECE directives call for the lamp to be on the same side of driver’s.
Substituting one of the reverse lamps for red fog lamp is the cheapest and far more common solution for the smaller or lower priced cars in Europe.
Nice to see an early Ford Pinto in good shape, judging by the bumpers it looks more like a 1973+ Pinto than a 1971, I always liked the 1971-76 Pinto’s the best (the later Pinto’s didn’t really do much for me).
Article says it’s a ’71, & I concur. The ’73 bumper was much bulkier.
BTW, exploding gas tanks are very rare except on TV & in films. It’s no fun when there’s no Ball of Orange Flame?, we men are funny that way. I also like motorcycles diving off of cliffs.
Another myth: Sherman tanks always blew up because they were gas-powered. No, usually it was the ammo cooking off; note that all German tanks were also gas-powered. Russian tanks & USMC Shermans were Diesel-powered; there’s little evidence this made any difference in casualties.
Yes, but engine fires were more common, particularly in hotter Areas, one of the reasons the IDF converted all its Shermans to Cummins diesels.
Maybe so, but the best reason for tank Diesels is range; for example, the T-34, with its excellent, powerful Karkiv diesel, could go further than the gas Sherman despite the former’s more restricted interior volume (a long-standing characteristic of Soviet tanks).
BTW, Israeli Super Shermans showed how much that design could be upgraded. While the Sherman had the largest turret ring of all Allied tanks except the IS-2, only the Brit Firefly took full advantage of it during WW2. There was almost criminal blindness in US Army Ordnance at the time even though they had the technology (i.e., a prototype 90mm Sherman turret).
Windshield wipers? Ain’t nobody got time for that!
Or more than a celery stalk of a radio antenna. What part is next to erode – a door handle?
Rode in the back seat of one, once. The b-pillar on the right side flexed an alarming amount when the thing went over bumps.
The back seat is terrible in those. You sit real low with your knees way up. Might as well be sitting on the floor.
I didn’t notice the heart sticker on the rear until now. “Ein Herz für Kinder” is well-known and highly respected charity projects for children in Germany.
https://www.ein-herz-fuer-kinder.de/about-us
Is fog really a problem in Israel? Maybe near the seacoast?
It can be near the coast (not that often, but it does occur) but then we have sandstorms… See here: http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4721153,00.html
A girl I went to community college with had one of these, it may well have been the first Pinto sold in our hometown. As I recall it had the 1.6 four and the four speed; it did have an AM radio which was likely the only option. Riding in the front seat wasn’t too bad but the back was definitely second class accommodations. It felt quicker than your typical VW Beetle but it did not offer spirited acceleration. The Pinto came to an untimely end after a couple of years of service, someone in an Olds 88 ran a stop sign and caved in the passenger door to the gear lever. Fortunately Donna wasn’t hurt in the wreck but the Pinto did get replaced with a more substantial car.
I haven’t seen an early Pinto in YEARS. My grandfather bought a new ’71, beige with brown vinyl, AM radio and that was it. Traded it in on a purple ’74 Gremlin with black vinyl seats and a 3 speed manual on the floor that rubbed the seat and wanted to pop out of 3rd gear until the dealerr heated, and straightened the shift lever enough that it cleared the seat. High tech…
Those of you asking about fog in Israel- it’s like T.Turtle said, more dust than fog, and here’s proof:
My work took me to Ashdod port today, not far from Tel Aviv. This is Israel’s largest and most busy port, hence the amount of trucks. If you’re into trucks, you’ll find this interesting.
https://youtu.be/P6bgoGl3w3I
As for the “fog”, see how yellowish everything looks, and how the sky is murky- that’s sand\dust in the air. And look to the distance- the buildings and landscape look to be behind some kind of veil… it was actually much better today than yesterday.
Also, sometimes it rains along with this dust, so anyone with a dark car receive a dose of mud on their paint. Never buy a dark car in Israel!
Obviously, I’m talking from personal experience:
Lovely, real Israeli dustrain residue. I have not seen this pattern for years.
That’s a mean set of bumper over riders, must be custom? As well as rear end fires, on the OHC engines the fuel inlet pipe would come out of the carb and send fuel all over the place. All OHC engines ( Cortina, Escort) in Australia had a recall in the early 80’s to have a pin fitted.
KJ in Oz.
I couldn’t get insurance on mine until the RACV inspected it and verified that the recall had been done.
Surprised no one used that as a suicide bomber vehicle, yet.
Back up, full speed, done deal. ?