Pinto Car Club of America

I was at a local car show here in So Cal and they had a whole bunch of retired 80's and 90's NASCAR vehicles there. Some were famous retirees and others were not so famous. One that caught my eye was a 2600 pound stock car that had a turbo charged Pinto engine in it. I got to talking to the owner and he is producing 800 hp with 700 ft/# of torque. WOW I had no idea that these Little four bangers could be wound so tight.

I had several pintos back in high school and college and always loved the car and the power plant but I never took it to the turbo charged level, This conversation re-ignited a fire in me that I would like to apply to a current project that I am working on.

A couple of years ago I customized a 1969 Chevy C10 and I am looking to auto cross the truck and I am looking to put a mid engine in it. When I found the amount of power generated by the pinto engine I started thinking this might be a great option. I do not think I would need 800 hp nor 700 ft/# of torque but it is nice to know that I can get there if I needed to. I am looking to couple the four banger to a torque tube and trans axle. I would also like to develop an all wheel drive system for it as well. 

I know I will have to shave a lot of weight off of the truck to get down to the mid 2000's but if I am going to cross this truck it is going to be a complete tear down and tube frame. But this truck is going to be very unique being a mid engine so there are going to be a lot of custom engineering to this build. 

Any help or advice you can lend I would appreciate.

Sounds like a real cool project, be interesting to see how it comes out. I remember back in the 80's this guy had a mid 70's Econoline and made a mid engine out of it, he used the old Olds Toronado setup and adapted a "385" series big block to it, it was a daily driver and worked real good.

I had asked the guy who owner the stock car what kind of trans axle was in the car? I did not recognize the brand or name of it. anybody know of a trans axle that would couple nicely to a pinto and handle 400 to 500 hp?

It wasn't the Charger Steve show, was it!? Ruby RedHot and I were there!  :)