My take on the Pinto was from a different point of view. I bought a brand new "Pony MPG' model to use as a city commuter in 1976, as my 455 Skylark pro street style car was not fit for that duty. I beat that little car in and out of Chicago for a year without a hickup, all the while it sipped gas gently. When I finished that job, I realized I had a light weight chassis, with disc brakes and rack and pinion steering. The body style would accomodate oversized road race tires without a handling robbing lift kit. I was able to relocate the seat brackets 4 inches back to make a proper driving position for my 6'2" frame. Huge aftermarket front and rear anti sway bars were added as well a Koni shocks and upgraded brakes.
The real fun began when I got information about the EICO company, that made serious performance upgrades. Their top of the line modded cylinder head with big valves and a wild cam, an intake manifold that held two webers and a header that blew through a FOUR FOOT long 3 inch id glasspack was added as well as their disitributer/ignition upgrade. It was pretty quiet, but redline sounded like a motorcycle engine. After long and frustration weeks tuning the snotty little beast, it all came together and I had a engine that came to life from 3800 to 6000 rpms. It only made about 158 hp, but don't forget it was in a light, small chassis, a plain brown, chromeless Pinto with the minimal interior. Even the oversized tires were on plain black steel rims with the little factory 'dog dish" hubcaps. The next 20,000 miles I spend hunting down mustang II's and emission motor camaros in stoplight to stoplight duels. Plus, it could actually go around corners. It did not have the big end, but the weight/hp ratio was fun in urban areas. It was a truely sick joy to blast past people who would make fun of the little "POS" and with a straight face ask them why they didn't race me.
The stock bottom end could not take the continual redline rpm's (even with the upgraded oil pump) and started to come apart. I knew it was getting loose for a while before it spun a couple of main bearings. I never put it back together, and sold it to someone who wanted to put a V-8 in it, but it was really fun to drive that year. I do have to admit the mileage became pretty poor, but the arab oil embargo was over by then and I had the money to keep gas in it.