Ford Pinto

The Ford Pinto was a compact car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. The car's design began in 1968 under the direction of Ford executive Lee Iacocca. It was first introduced in 1971, and was built through the 1980 model year. Like many Ford cars, it had a "twin": in the Pinto's case, the Mercury Bobcat.

Related Topics:
Compact car - Ford Motor Company - 1968 - Lee Iacocca - 1971 - 1980 - Model year - Mercury Bobcat

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Body styles included a 2-door sedan, a three-door hatchback, a two-door station wagon, and the Ford Pinto Cruising Wagon, produced 1977-1980 and styled to resemble a tiny van conversion (very much the trend in the late 1970s) complete with a round "bubble window" in the sheet-metal side panels.

Related Topics:
Body styles - Sedan - Hatchback - Station wagon - Van

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The car's design was conventional, with unibody construction, a longitudinally-mounted engine in front driving the rear wheels through either a manual or automatic transmission and live axle rear end. Suspension was by unequal length A-arms with coil springs at the front and the live axle rear was suspended on leaf springs. The rack and pinion steering had optional power assist, as did the brakes.

Related Topics:
Unibody - Manual - Automatic transmission - Live axle - Rack and pinion

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Road & Track faulted the suspension and standard drum brakes, calling the latter a "serious deficiency". But they praised the 1.6 L Kent engine, especially compared to the much-larger 2300 found in archrival Chevrolet's Vega.

Related Topics:
Road & Track - Drum brake - Kent - 2300 - Chevrolet - Vega

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Original engines included a British-built 1.6 L pushrod straight-4 and a German-built 2.0 L SOHC straight-4. In 1974, the 1.6 L powerplant was dropped and a new 2.3 L engine became available; a 2.8 L V6 was available from 1975.

Related Topics:
Straight-4 - SOHC - V6

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Engines:

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• 1971-1973 - 1.6 L Kent OHV I4, 75 hp (60 kW) and 96 ft.lbf (130 Nm)
• 1971-1980 - 2.0 L EAO SOHC I4
• 1974-1980 - 2.3 L OHC SOHC I4
• 1975-1980 - 2.8 L Cologne V6
 
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