I’m new member to this group but have been a lurker/guest for maybe a year or so. I came to Pintos as an original owner of a 1980, 2.3. Auto Trans., Pinto “Woodie” Wagon. It cost me $6004 out the door and had almost every option available. The car ran flawlessly for the four years my wife drove it. Even with it fully loaded, we towed a small ski boat on weekends.  I traded it in on a (GULP) Chrysler La Baron turbo for the wife (LEMMON-but that’s for another forum). I only received $1000 trade in for the 80 Pinto and only 27K miles on the clock. Which brings me to the next Pinto chapter.

I have been racing a 1966 Lotus Cortina for several years at vintage car track events. That fun ended when I rolled it into a little ball of metal after a rear axel failure going about 60. Me and the engine drive line are the only things that survived largely un-touched. Fast forward a couple of years. My son always wanted a MK1 Cortina as a driver/racer but they are scarce in the US, parts are hard to find and are often many times the price for a similar Pinto part. Plus most suffer from terminal rust issues.

I suggested that he look at the American version of the Cortina. A car that comes with a Cortina engine, has a lower center of gravity, a much wider wheel track, weighs about the same, and has a better parts availability that cost WAY less..... A 71 PINTO!!   He soon found a largely rust free CA car, less than 50 miles from our house, with the original green fading paint,  a 1971 trunk model with a 2.0, C4, front Discs, Air, Fold Down rear seat with 22k original miles on E-Bay for $1,300 (first owner was a disabled woman hence the low miles). He drove it off and on for about a year adding another 2K miles. From the start he wanted MORE POWER!

Enter Pinto #2, an AK Miller Turbo Charged 1971 4-speed 2.0 trunk model Pinto with a tired engine again on E-Bay and in CA.. He purchased yellow #2 Pinto and I then bought his green one. In our deal he ended up with the low mile 2.0 engine out of the green Pinto to use as a base for a new turbo motor. I decided to fill the hole left under my green hood with my full race 1600cc Lotus Cortina Twin Cam engine (bored out from the original 1588cc).

After doing my homework (FORDPINTO.COM threads helped a lot during this), I planned the upgrade for the suspension with old school hydraulic adjustable Koni’s on all four corners. Cut 1977 Mustang II V8 springs for the front and out back and I'm adding a secondary single leaf to each side that were extracted from my 69 Mustang leftovers from an upgrade. I’m lowering the back 1.75 inches with aluminum lowering blocks including diff angle correction. I decided not to use my Cortina’s 4sp Quaffe straight cut Dog Box  and went instead with a  2.3 T-5 that  I pulled from a low mile 87 mustang. I will be using a full race Tilton 7 ¼  single clutch set up and light weight flywheel BUT finding the correct 3 hole mount starter with a 10/12 pitch gear that mates up with the Lotus flywheel has been my LAST missing link .

I had an Aerostar aluminum drive shaft shortened and replaced the original 71 rear end with an 8 inch rear I pulled out of a 1976 V6 Stallion Pinto along with the larger rear drum brakes (portioning valve will be used). Because the Pinto is being built for the track 1st and the street 2nd,  I put in 4.63 gears with a Detroit Locker TruTrak geared posi in an aluminum center section to cut weight. My Twin Cam was flywheel dyno’d at 181HP@7500 rpm, still pulling hard to 8500 with twin Weber 45s but I will limit it to 7300 rpm with a 6AL chip and smaller choke tubes for longevity. The Pinto will still have a top speed of over 130 mph with the T5 and 22.7 inch tires.

This project Lotus/ Pinto has been conveniently homologated as legal for vintage racing events in the under two liter Trans Am B-Sedan class and it's because of the ONE documented 1974 Lotus 1973cc Twin Cam powered 5sp HANTO Pinto prototype built by John Hansen and featured in a 1974 Autoweek article. My 71 is a HANTO-LITE tribute (less filling, but promises to be much more fun ) . I will post updates and pictures over the coming weeks and months as I finish this little beast. My goal is to have it ready for Knott’s 09.

I love the story about your car..Hope to see some pic's of all the mads and hear more about the Kid and his Pony.

Best of Luck
FrankBoss

 Greetings from the ancient sage of Pintosophy! I can really appreciate what your project has become. this is a great group...
:welcome:

 Pintosopher ( Old School does rule!)

Sounds like you've done a little to the car...

Hello 71HANTO!

Pleas start a gallery pleas! pleas! pleas!
If I can fumble my way threw the proses anyone can.

Sounds like a great project.  I knew John Hansen when he was building the prototype Hanto.  We both belonged to Cape Cod Sports Car Club and his development shop was in Hyannis, MA.

Here is a pic of the Lotus Twin Cam being transplanted into the green Pinto...

Here is a pic of the Lotus Twin Cam being transplanted into the green Pinto...

A twin cam Lotus in a green Pinto, sounds like a perfect match to me. How close is it to British racing green?

WOW! Cool! you have added a photo of the engine.
 I am some-what confused about the Lotus engine. It has 2 cams, but only 2 valves pr-cylinder???

 No Mater... IT LOOKS COOL!!!!
 GO FOR IT!!!!!!
 From Pintony

WOW! Cool! you have added a photo of the engine.
 I am some-what confused about the Lotus engine. It has 2 cams, but only 2 valves pr-cylinder???

 No Mater... IT LOOKS COOL!!!!
 GO FOR IT!!!!!!
 From Pintony

Thanks...Yes.. two valves per cylinder...But ...IT"S A HEMI :hypno:...well 1/2 of one!!
This "hemispherical combustion chamber" Cosworth designed head dates back to 1963 but if set up right, can still pull nearly 2HP per cubic inch with NO added huffers or puffers.

 i am curious about some of the details on the engine of the yellow cars motor.  the cast iron elbow/downpipe at the turbine exhaust and the metal (aluminum) piece connected to the compressor outlet and terminating at the rubber bellows over the valve cover as well as the alternator being located on the drivers side. were these mods made by the original owner or you.  those don't appear to be ak miller pieces

here is the original ad for the lotus pinto by hanto

http://blog.themustangguys.com/Hantopinto.jpg

Here are some oldies of the 1980 I bought new. They were taken around 1981-2. This is the first time out towing the boat. I was dry toasting to the boat for good luck. That boat could keep up with ANY unblown jet boat in it's day.  It was also one of the most dangerous things I have ever owned. OK... let the leg and dorky fashion comments begin.... :drunk:

i'm stuck   in the past with a lot of this stuff guys.  i hope i didn't come across wrong

 Hey SRT,
 I'm not sure what you are running for a Pinto?
 I am glad we have you around if we need to ask questions about the AK Miller Turbo items.
 Here is a photo of an AK Miller 2.0 engine that I have.
 I do not have the rail... YET!!!
 From Pintony

Hey  guys.  In 1971 or 1972 I worked at Ak Millers as a mechanic.  Two of us were in charge of putting the turbos and koni shocks and sway bars on all the (pre-body work) Pangras that came out of Huntington Ford in Arcadia. We cut the front coils and added lowering blocks to a lot of them but not all of them.

All the ones that we modified were 2.0 motors.  A couple had automatic tranmissions.  At the 'garage, we did not put together any 2.3 cars although, there was a 'kit' that was offered by Ak Miller Enterprises, (same guy-right across the alley-mostly custom work & mail order)

At that time (over 35 years ago) none of them out of our shop had chrome valve covers.  Some of them had a boost restriction device that fit into the compressor tube across the top of the valve cover.  Almost all did not.  The ones that did not have this restrictor all had a water heated casting through which the compressor tube would pass. This was to warm the intake charge prior to entering the combustion chamber.  It was suppossed to be a driveability issue.

The batteries were all relocated to the drivers side of the engine compartment using a modified stock battery tray.  They did not have any non-factory gaauges installed at our shop.

We put together 2 a day and delivered them in the afternoon and picked up 2 more to work on the next morning.

We burnt down (the motors-not the cars!) on a couple of them on the freeway 'test run' on the way back up to Huntington Ford.  Shhhh...don't tell anybody

The cars all had a 2 1/2" exhaust ( now that I think about it, it may have been 2 1/4") from the turbine outlet to the rear where we hung a Walker Turbo muffler (part # escapes me) We did the exhaust work in house.

Mine was a '71 2-door, dark green metallic, 4sp with goodyear ppolyglas tires and the 2.0 motor.  It was my 1st new car and I still think that it was one of the best cars I have ever owned. 

I put a turbo on it at the shop one afternoon after work and went cruising (street racing) that night.  The motor had an 'o'-ringed head that had been shaved .060" a Spearco adjustable cam pulley, a stock distributer with the dual diaphragm vacuum canister that was rigged to retard timing under boost.  It also had a water injector that utilized the windshield washer reservoir and a stock nozzle that was fastened to the air cleaner(later into the air horn of the carb) and the koni shocks, dropped on the ground with some special leaf spring s at the rear that were a new single leaf set-up.  Shocks at the rear were set loose, no rear bar but the front bar was a good sized 1  1/8" Interpart bar that I had made for me. Front springs were cut down out of an early chevelle.  Damn thing rode like a rock but on a smooth road up a canyon it was pure heaven and extremely tossable.

I ran into quite a few fuel distribution problems so I put on a 2bbl carb out of Ford truck and a different intake manifold and solved that problem.  I also knocke d the flywheel right off the end of the crank twice but solved that by having the crank re-drilled for SAE threads in 1/2": size AND dowel pinned the thing.

With a 3:55 rear gear, tires in the size of 185/70-13 continental radials at 35 #'s the car did a quickest in the 1/4 at Irwindale Raceway (it's a brewery now) like a 1347 at 101 mph.  Through the traps in 3rd gear at about 6000.  No boost control.  and 24 mpg to boot!

I haven't owned one since i sold the shell (with a full frame and a 9") in 1975 or 1976.
I was setting it up to take a 460 but got married instead!