Quote:
Originally Posted by RockyJ
I could not resist this thread: For Bill D. The Reider and Wallace "Horsesense" car did go
mid 15.00s and the secret was the rear gears and tranny. The 74 wagon only had the first ford 8.8
rear. Previous yrs only the small rear -max with 4.11 gears. Tom had 5.13s and i think
even 5.57s special made for him. These REALLY woke up that pos 2300 hyd. cam engine.
Before 1974 all Pintos and Capris were ltd to 4:11 and were 2000cc German engines with a slightly smaller carb.But would wind to 8000 rpm if you knew what you were doing.
You were not allowed to change the factory rear in those days.So when REIDER got those gears it was the end for the rest of us who had 1972 and 1973 cars.If i would have had access to those gears i could have easily gone 15s in the 72 and 73 cars.
History lesson: In 1972 at the INDY points meet, [ first yr of new rules ] I owned a 1967 chevy biscayne 283 - 2bbl stick car J/S i think. Pretty fast for the day. But to my utter amazement , there was this kid sitting next to me in his 1972 mercury Capri , in the staging lanes with his radio blasting and V/S on his window. This is crazy i thought , what is a car like this doing in the lanes? Street tires and all. Late rounds i drew the capri, thinking this should be no problem. Dumped the clutch at about 3500rpm caught him in 2nd gear ,and then a funny thing happened,the Capri began to pull away from my 283 chevy. Couple rounds later Greg Rice was the winner of the ist Div 3 race and one of the first ever 4cyl winners . I was convinced enough to sell my cheby and purchase the first of my Pintos ,on the very first day they were on sale in sept of 1972. I won many local races and set a NHRA and IHRA record with them. Finally going 15.92 in the 72 car with the 4:11 gears.
The moral of this story , if someone wants to build a 72 -73 Pinto or Capri with the 2000cc engine and an 8.8 rear [now legal] i think it will fly.
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Reider and Wallace, now there's a couple names I haven't heard in awhile. To add a little to this. My good friends Toby and Kenny Meek, whom held a couple records themselves back in those days campaigning a stock Pinto, got a wee bit of their education from the above two.
They were both Ford Engineers and I remember sitting in on a few conversations where they discussed getting paid to do R & D work that was related to their car. Yes, they were ahead of their time.
Concerning rear ends. Reider sold the Meeks a "Jeep" rear that had a set of 4:88's in it. We took that apart and adapted it to the little Pinto rear. That really woke that car up! I agree, with the lack of gears, I remember having 4:11's in my street Pinto. I thought you could get a 4:30? That's been a day or two ago and I could be wrong. Doesn't really matter now anyway.
Interesting you talk about reviving that old combination. I'm pretty sure Toby still has his old stocker sitting in a barn at his mother's house. I know he still had it as of about 5 years ago. Food for thought, I also know his middle brother had the car for a number of years, converted it back to a street car.
If a guy took one of those cars today. Did some decent front end work. Tie the subframes. Put some good leaf springs on the back with a set of Cal-tracs and an 8.8 with a good 35 spline spool and axles. If you could replace that spindly 4 speed with something more modern. One of these cars would be dam# near bulletproof. You wouldn't build enough torque to hurt it!
Really is an idea to toss around.
Robert Swartz