928 or Pinto: Which is the Better Project Car for $2500?

1979 porsche 928 for sale1976 ford pinto for sale

Which would you prefer? Ease with mediocrity or Sisyphysian toil with incredible potential? We’ve got two cars from opposite ends of the spectrum that have miraculously settled at the same price. In one corner, a V6-auto Pinto hatch. It appears to be in good shape, aside from having a pointless giant raised-cowl hood scoop installed. In the other, a treacherous 5MT 928. The seller tells us it runs great, but non-specifically hints it’s a project in need of work. In California the seller’s responsible for selling a car with a current smog certificate, so “buyer to smog” translates directly to “failed smog and the cost to fix is too high to bother with”.

I’d be curious to see if I could de-Porsche-fy the elecronics of a 928 in favor of a Megasquirt system using more standardized off-the-shelf parts. This wouldn’t make it any more likely to pass a smog check, but at least I’d be able to diagnose what part of the system’s failing.
Meanwhile, the Pinto? Well, they can be made to handle, or they can be made to handle some ridiculous motor in the engine bay. Clearly the only thing worth doing would be to combine said handling and power plant for the express purpose of embarrassing competitors at an Ultimate Street Car Challenge event.
1976 Ford Pinto for sale – SFBay Craigslist
1979 Porsche 928 for sale – SFBay Craigslist

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  1. mdharrell Avatar

    “Ease with mediocrity or Sisyphysian toil with incredible potential?”
    Pass. I’m more of a Sisyphysian-toil-with-mediocrity car shopper.

    1. Texlenin Avatar
      Texlenin

      Yeah,but the incredible potential for kinetic mediocrity is what keeps
      the two of us coming back…..

    2. Rover 1 Avatar
      Rover 1

      Sisyphean tasks are so much better than Herculean ones. They’re not completed so easily, and so are much more rewarding when the pleasure is the toil and not the completion.

  2. acarr260 Avatar
    acarr260

    How can you have a hood scoop like that and show no pictures of the motor?!

    1. mdharrell Avatar

      My guess? The hood wouldn’t open.

  3. I_Borgward Avatar
    I_Borgward

    I’ll take door number three, Monty!

  4. Texlenin Avatar
    Texlenin

    Get me both, and 2 wrecked Mustangs. I’ll have you 2 wild rides by the end of the year. 😉

    1. mad_science Avatar

      Swap the 928 drivetrain into the Pinto, then swap a Ford V8 into the 928!

      1. Texlenin Avatar
        Texlenin

        LOL There’s absolutely no challenge in that whatsoever!!!

  5. shane Avatar
    shane

    if you value your sanity and money, i’d run at full speed away from the porsche.

  6. pj134 Avatar
    pj134

    1. hwyengr Avatar
      hwyengr

      I love that movie to death, but why hadn’t WOPR been simulating all those scenarios before that critical high-tension moment? Wasn’t that it’s purpose? But seriously, “Sudan Surprise” sounds more like a spicy dinner entree than a military tactic.

      1. Texlenin Avatar
        Texlenin

        Nah, you’re thinking of the “Thai Subversion”. Now< thatsa spicey meataball!

      2. Vairship Avatar
        Vairship

        Next you’re gonna say that the Indiana Jones movie would have ended much the same if Indy hadn’t done anything at all…

  7. tonyola Avatar
    tonyola

    You might be totally embarrassed by the Pinto but it probably can do daily driver work without too much trouble. The 928 is doomed to be sexy yard art and the bane of your local homeowners association.

  8. 0A5599 Avatar
    0A5599

    The 928…with the 318/4 speed out of the Aspen.

  9. Krautwursten Avatar
    Krautwursten

    The 928 definitely has the superior number of things to wrench on and tinker with. The Pinto is the car of choice if eventually you want to move it under its own power. It all comes down to whether you’re a garage person or a driving person.

  10. JayP Avatar
    JayP

    The time and $ it would take to get the 928 a reasonable, comfortable daily, the Pinto will be a 302/T5 monster.

  11. Rust-MyEnemy Avatar

    How hard can it be to strip out 75% of the 928’s voodoo electricals, get it running on Holleys and take it somewhere it doesn’t have to take a smog test?
    I expect “Very”, but fantasies die hard.

    1. mdharrell Avatar

      I, for one, appreciate your use of the plural for carburetion but would have been more intrigued by such names as Carter, SU, or Bing.
      Correction: Carter, SU, and Bing.

      1. Rust-MyEnemy Avatar

        Doesn’t leave much space for Zenith or Stromberg…

        1. mdharrell Avatar

          They can go on the other cylinder bank.

          1. Texlenin Avatar
            Texlenin

            Or the ultimate: one brand per cylinder? Think of the plumbing!

          2. nanoop Avatar
            nanoop

            Carter, SU, Bing, Zenith, Stromberg, Weber, Solex, Mikuni – and Holley’s for the extra juice on cold idle.

      2. Cool_Cadillac_Cat Avatar
        Cool_Cadillac_Cat

        Yeah, my brain immediately went to ThermoQuad.
        My dear late Uncle Ed was a die-hard Mopar man, so I grew up with these.

  12. BigRedCaveTroll Avatar
    BigRedCaveTroll

    Whichever one you pick, the answer is to strip the car down to as light as possible and then put an LS engine and a T56 in it.

    1. Widirstky Matt Avatar
      Widirstky Matt

      They make a carb legal L’s swap kit, it’s very costly, but it’s available

  13. CruisinTime Avatar
    CruisinTime

    None of the above? That Pinto might make a nice doorstop,,and the Porsche already is one.

  14. Maymar Avatar
    Maymar

    A ’78 doesn’t need to pass Ontario emissions testing (that is to say, the real Ontario and not California’s knockoff), and it’s got the right number of pedals, so that’s my answer (it’d be an even easier answer if the seats were Pasha though). Although, a fun Pinto with a stick is tempting in its own way.

    1. Vairship Avatar
      Vairship

      Both of them need to be smogged in LA Canada.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Ca%C3%B1ada_Flintridge,_California

  15. nanoop Avatar
    nanoop

    While the cars are dirty, the titles are clean, at least something. 928 for me, because phoneys, MT, and watercooler.

  16. Darren McLellan Avatar
    Darren McLellan

    I have a spare 6 cylinder from a 63 Ford truck and the non synchro 4 speed. Put that in the 928 and just use all the extra wiring for string art

  17. hwyengr Avatar
    hwyengr

    Far fewer electrics to worry about on this 928. Being a ’79 it’s got mechanical CIS injection. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you can read a wiring diagram the electrics on a 928 aren’t all that complicated. Every wire in the car terminates at a single central electrical panel so it seems like an insurmountable challenge, but if you take a day to pull it out and dress all the connectors with Stabilant, you can practically rule out electrical problems for future diagnostic troubleshooting.