I had the first year pinto, a 71. Had the german built, 1.6 timing chain engine, not much power but couldn't be killed- and I mean that seriously. I paid $200 for it, every body panel but the passenger door was caved in, and had plywood on the driver's side floorboard to keep your feet from falling through and playing fred flintstone. Previous owner took it stump jumping and had a big one come through the floor. I caved in the oil pan myself, (twice) and the last time decided to replace the rod bearings when I had the pan off. After cranking it up, it knocked horribly and didn't have much oil pressure. I put standard bearings in it and it had come from the factory with .10 oversized. My friend's dad bought it new and the pan had never been off. I drove it like that for at least 10,000 miles, sometimes holding it on the floor in nuetral for 30 seconds just to see if it would blow up. Damn thing never did. Finally got rear-ended at like 40 MPH. Didn't explode because mine had been de-bombed by Ford. It was a little plastic cover they installed in front of the gas tank. In a bad wreck, the tank would get shoved forward and hit a bolt holding a brake line or something and puncture the tank. The plastic sheilded it from the bolt. The damn thing was dark green with black interior, no A/C, no power steering, AM radio. Probably cost $2500 new!