[1]Photos: Tim Reed
It may not have been the prettiest gem to roll out of the Ford factories back in the 70’s, but being a small lightweight car sets the Pinto up as a pretty good budget hot rod candidate. Obviously with the stock motors just barely squeezing out 80-100 horsepower depending on what engine package you got, you’re going to need some fairly significant changes if you’ve got any hopes of going fast. Well one sure fire plan to get all the horsepower you could crave in a light package – the readily available LS engine platform.
Check out a post by Tim Reed (the owner) on Yellowbullet [2] to read more about the buildup of this evil little LSx Pinto.
As the project stands right now, the 25.5 chassis is getting finished up along with the necessary wiring, intake pipe routing and fuel system to work in conjunction with the Big Stuff 3 EFI [3]. The engine is complete for the most part however – it consist of a killer Callies [4] 408 incher with a trick set of twin billet 67mm turbos cramming it full of boost. An air-to-water intercooler will keep the boost charge fresh and cool.
Where can we expect to see this car racing its heart out? The owner intends to mount up a set of 275 drag radials and hit the local 275 events as well as competing in Hotrod’s Drag Week in the small block power adder category. It’ll take more than high horsepower to have a shot at a drag week trophy, it’ll require the car to be reliable even in the summer heat on anything from smoothly paved freeways to bumpy dirt roads. The horsepower number is undetermined at this point yet expected to be right around 1100 horsepower with the boost kept below 25 PSI. More or less, he’s just looking for a reliable car that can run a number – what better way to do it than with twin turbo LSx power?
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