The real shame was when NHRA decided they'd do away with the turbo class called "AA/MC."
There were several of those little blown Pintos around the countrry and I was lucky enough to get to see a couple of them run.
A couple of Ford factory engineers built what I believe to be the first one and I was at the Gas Coupe and Sedan Nationals at Rockford (or, Cordova, I don't recall which) in about 1978 and the turbo'd Pinto won Modified Eliminator over the vaunted Dave Hutchens-driven Corvette M-P car. That was a hoot! I think it ran low 11's.
Div. V1 racer, Butch Ball built one and got the record with it, somewhere in the tens, I believe... maybe high 9's, can't remember. "Ohio" George Montgomery buiilt one, but I never got to see it run. He never built anything slow...
Buddy Ingersoll bought what I believed to be the original Ford-enginners' car, but improved its performance dramatically, ending up in the middle 9's, I think. Car Craft had a big article on it in the early eighties. He said his biggest problem was getting the flywheel to stay attached to the crank flange; it would shake the flywheel right off the car... LOL! His final method of attachement??? "That's my business." came the reply!!!
I was always hoping that Jim Caughlin would step up from, his S/S normally-aspirated Pinto and build one, because I KNOW it would have been fast, given the outstanding performaance of his carbureted Pinto...
But, NHRA, in its infinite wisdom, took the class out of the rulebook, so, these little rockets, which pullled the wheels on EVERY gearchange, faded into history...
Too bad. Buddy Ingersoll's car ran 135 mph+ with NO water injecton and NO intercooler! Just one 4bbl, on a 2-liter German 4-banger.
Just amazing...
Sorry for the hijack...