When you’ve owned more than a dozen Ford Pintos over the years and you’re a longtime fan of Pro Stock drag legend Bob Glidden, it makes sense that you’d want to build a tribute to Glidden’s famous Pinto.
For Randy Irwin of Apopka, Florida, that’s how he’s spent most of his spare time during the past four years. When not working at Real Deal Steel in Sanford making reproduction steel bodies for Tri-Five Chevys, Camaros and 1966-1967 Chevy II Novas, Randy was researching, parts hunting, and building one of the best replicas of the iconic NHRA championship car from the early to mid-1970s.
A little background is important, for Randy as well as the Glidden Pinto.
Randy’s family moved to Apopka in 1974, arriving on a Thursday. By that Sunday, Randy had purchased his first Pinto. And, of course, once you have your first Pinto you can’t help but want more.
“Once you have one, they find you,” Randy says. “For the longest time I had four. Two didn’t run at all, one was my daily driver and one was the V8 car that I flat-towed behind the daily driver.”
Other Pintos joined the collection in various ways. For example, a young woman approached Randy at the auto parts store where he worked. “I hear you like Pintos,” she said. She was from New York and had a rusty Pinto that she wanted to sell for $400.
“The fenders were rusted so badly,” Randy says. “The car was light blue, but I had a dark blue one so I put the fenders and doors on that one and then I had Manny’s Auto Body paint it.”
That’s how collections grow. How Bob Glidden came by his Pinto is a different story. NHRA Pro Stock racing appeared in 1970 as an outgrowth of the 1960s Super Stock cars. In the first years, big-block powered pony cars – Camaros, Mustangs, Challengers – dominated, particularly the Hemi-powered Mopars. For 1972, NHRA wanted to balance the playing field and allowed for small-displacement, compact cars to compete.
While Chevy drivers like Bill “Grumpy’ Jenkins ditched his Camaro for a Vega, Glidden sold his Mustang and bought a newly-built Pinto from Gapp and Roush, powered by a 351-cubic-inch Cleveland V8. The car was finished in the stars and stripes, red, white, and blue livery that Randy meticulously duplicated.
Glidden campaigned the car in the mid-’70s, winning 20 NHRA races and three Pro Stock world championships. After the Pinto served its purposes, Glidden continued to race other Ford models.
Randy started his build with a…
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