Posted on 03/29/2018 11:36:30 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The man who died after hitting a wall at more than 100 mph at Sonoma Raceway was identified Thursday as 75-year-old James Kenneth Rambo, authorities said.
Rambo, a Napa resident, was racing his 1976 Ford Pinto in the Wednesday Night Drags program when the crash occurred.
He crossed the finish line of the race and appeared to slam on his brakes, but the vehicle pulled to the left and forced him to hit a K-rail at more than 100 mph, said Sgt. Spencer Crum.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I’m assuming the Pinto wasn’t stock.
His probably wasn't. LOL.
As a 16 year-old fearless new driver I did get my mom's Pinto wagon to 100mph. Twice. It only took 4 miles of straight open road to do it.
My brother bought a Bobcat, the Mercury version of a Pinto. It was a pretty good vehicle, actually.
Everyone’s focusing (no pun intended, really) on the Pinto; to me the relevant point is that just past S/F at Laguna the hill crests and that’s a terrible place to “slam on the brakes.”
That’s an almost guaranteed auger in anything not equipped with tons of ABS as you will lift the tail, lock the fronts and go bass ackwards.
... or I could read the title? “Sonoma Raceway”
Sorry, S/F there is flat as a pancake, but sweeps to the left. Still no idea why anyone would slam on anything at race speeds.
LOL. Pretty much the same for me. Took a heck of a lot more than a quarter of a mile to get there. Dad bought a new set of steel belted radicals just before my 16 birthday. He thought those would wear that Pinto out. 12,000 miles later it needed some new tires. That was when dad said if I wanted to drive I had to buy my own car. I worked in the filling station then. You could get some good deals for $300. Wish I had kept some of them.
Since nobody else has asked, what book is that from? I shared that with my girl, and she dug it as much as I did.
Had a girlfriend who pulled up in a new, canary yellow Pinto...I was embarrassed to drive it or even ride in it around my friends...She owned it for 3 weeks...
Traded it in on a new 400ci. Buick GS...
“Slamming” on the brakes at 100 mph generally ain’t a good plan.
A buddy of mine put a worked 302 into a pinto. He welded the hood and fenders into one piece. Hinged it at the front so that the nose could be swung forward to access the entire engine. For a week or two he ran this thing with the pinto rear still in there...you know...till it blew. Can’t imagine how quick these things must have been.
You’re quite right except for slant six Dodges which went to 300000 and still going.
I just don’t remember.
I would have read it in about 1970 and I think the book was decades old then.
It was early 1975 and I had just bought a new Audi Fox and its second gear cluster broke and the dealership needed to get the part from Germany since it was a brand new model and few spares had made it to the USA. I used our current spare farm car, a 1974 Pinto station wagon with four banger and auto trans. The ultimate dog. A week or so later, some friends and I were bar hopping and after the third bar and fifth joint, road racing to the next town where there was a college bar. We were going through a residential neighborhood with narrow twisty asphalt road. Henry was ahead of me in his BMW Bavaria taking the 90 degree corners around 40. I was keeping up right behind with that Pinto slewing sideways through each corner. On about the fourth corner, the Bavaria’s rear lost it and the car careened about 120 degrees left across a lawn and into the corner of a guy’s brick rancher. I watched out of the corner of my eye and kept on truckin’ as did another friend right behind in a ‘69 Porsche 912. Later we debriefed at the bar. My friend driving the BMW was OK, the car was totaled and the rancher sustained structural cracks in all four corners. That’s my Pinto story.
There's a Sheriff in Florida claims he's a Lion...
Have at it...
Drives a Lamborghini
Aluminum block with a cast iron head. Bad match
I worked for a guy who collected sports cars. Couple Vettes, Jaguars, a Benz, AC Bristol. His everyday ride was a Pacer
The true amazing thing in this story is that a ‘76 Pinto still runs.
I knew a guy who got 300 K out of a Chevette. Said he paid for it about three times in repairs.
My 2006 Vibe has 280K. Biggest repair was $95
Gosh, how I loved that. It had a slant six in it, and I drove that everywhere and never once, not even once changed the oil. (That was before I became a jet mechanic in the USN, and I knew nothing about cars)
Then years later, for a winter beater while I was going to college, I had a 1968 Dodge Dart, also with the slant six in it...that car was a wonderful beater!
It had a choke problem I just never fixed, because I knew how to start the car-you simply could not give it any gas when starting it or it would flood immediately and irrevocably! But I knew that, and since the car was generally a throw away car (I only paid $250 for it) I couldn't bother myself to fix it.
Well, one day I came out of classes and went over to where I had parked on the side of a road on a hill, and I couldn't find my car. I walked up and down, thinking for sure I parked it there.
Finally, I assumed the emergency brake gave way and the car must have rolled in to the street and been towed away, but when I went to Security, they said no. I remember standing there completely puzzled, and then slowly realized...my car must have been stolen. That piece of crap car...someone stole it!
I got a call from police a few days later saying they found the car and I could go pick it up. When I got to it, I had to hot wire it to drive it away because the ignition had been ripped out.
But the thing that made me laugh was when they took me to the car in the impound lot, I looked in the back seat, and the air cleaner cover and air filter had been thrown in there. The police told me they found the car in the parking lot of a convenience store and I knew immediately and laughed aloud...
The car started just fine when cold. You could give it all the gas you wanted, but when it was hot...NO GAS! They must have stopped to get smokes or something, and when they came out, flooded it immediately. They must have put up the hood, removed the air filter to let the carburetor dry out, then suddenly realized, here they were in a busy parking lot on a busy street, with the hood up on a stolen car...they just left it there and took off!
Hehehe...it was such a beater, I just got some toggle switches and mounted them in the dash, and if you wanted to start the car, flip this switch to make power available, flip this switch to turn on the starter, etc.
LOL, one of the last things we did before that car gave up the ghost was to use a pair of dykes to carve the Boston Bruins logo with the spoked wheel on the hood of that car...may it rust in peace!!!!
That is pretty good value! LOL, a Chevy Chevette and a Vibe!
My brother had a old Geo Metro that had around 300K on it, and ithe frame on it finally just rotted and the car nearly broke in half! It had that dinky three cylinder engine in it, how my brother loved that car!
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