OK - I've got a fond Pinto story...
It was the fall of '78. I was a sophmore at UM-Dearborn and my brother a senior at Dearborn High. Dad was entitled to 2 lease cars thru his job at Ford and since mom didn't drive, my brother and I leased the second one. We got a '79 Pinto - some shade of red - and I think we paid something like $97 per month for the privilege.
My brother drove it to school. We both worked delivering pizza at a local joint and between us managed to put over 30,000 miles on that little beast the year we had it.
We learned to smoke the tire by reversing at about 20 mph, put it in 1st, drop the clutch, floor it and hang on. Whoa.
Never broke anything, well - unless you count the throwout bearing that had to be replaced - but HEY great fun.
Going to lunch one day, my brother was stopped at a light. One of his buddies came up behind, put the front bumper of his car on the rear bumper of the Pinto and started to push. Kids, sheesh. My brother stayed hard on the brakes until the light turned green, then proceeded the drop the clutch and take off. Of course, when the rear end of the Pinto dropped upon sudden(?!) acceleration, hilarity ensued!
We spilled battery acid on the front fender and all sorts of liquids in the passenger footwells. During the winter we'd take it to Mt. Brighton and for lunch we went to McDonalds - driving with ski boots on. Quite a trick in a car with a stick.
But the crowning glory for that little Pinto was the following summer. My brother and I and 2 other guys took it to a concert at Pine Knob. That was back in the days when you could carry in virtually anything to drink.
We lugged in a BIG cooler of that finest french beer - Goebel.
I think we saw J. Geils, but what we primarily saw was the bottom of the beer cans. Anyway, when we finally found the car in the parking lot after the concert, I asked 'who's got the keys?' Naturally, I drove the damn thing - I should have them, but no. 'You musta left 'em in the car, you a**hole' was my brother's response. Fair enough, but what to do? Well, three of us got up on the rear bumper and started tugging at the hatch. We pulled and pulled and what do you know - it finally opened. Bent the crap out of the latch mechanism, the sheetmetal, and cracked the glass, but we were IN and we were proud.
Only one problem - no keys inside.
WTF??
While the other guys pondered this predicament, I did some more searching and - whattya know! The keys were actually in one of my pockets after all. Don't know how I could have missed them the first go round.
So I drove that Pinto home, somehow. One of the guys laid in the far back and held the hatch down.
I don't really remember what we told dad the next day, but I think we made up some story about getting broke into. Not too much of a fib, really.
Anyway, dad had to turn that car in not long thereafter and admonished us for the mess we made of it. We apologized, but laughed our asses off afterward.
Until we got an '80 Fairmont to replace it.
