We met Ed Manges of Wylie, Texas, when Ford Performance Club Connect hosted a special event for the Pinto Stampede’s pilgrimage to Dearborn last year to celebrate the car’s 50^th anniversary. While every one of the Pintos that drove in from all parts of the country had cool owners with even cooler stories to tell, it was something Ed said to us about his superb 1973 Pinto Wagon that had us asking if we can feature him in our Ford Fan Spotlight. Read all the way to the end below to hear about Ed’s discovery:

“Hi, Ford Performance! It’s Ed Manges from Texas, and I must tell you it was a pleasure to see you again at the Pinto Stampede in Dearborn. I wanted to thank you for the Ford Performance welcome party and your help in arranging some of the events for us. Your recognition and support helps deepen our loyalty to Ford!
“I’ve been a lifelong Ford fan beginning in the late 1950’s when my father converted a 1947 Ford milk delivery truck into a concession truck that we drove around small towns in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, selling popcorn, candy apples and sno-cones to local folks. Over the years I have owned and driven a variety of vintage Fords, including a stock '35 ford 4-door Sedan, a '36 Five-window Coupe with a '48 Merc Fathead, a '55 Ranch Wagon, a black '55 Crown Victoria, and a '65 Sunbeam Tiger with a 289.

“In 1970 my brother bought a 1963-1/2 Falcon Sprint with a 260 and a four-speed in Tacoma, Washington, and drove it down to Santa Monica to spend the summer with me. He worked at the local Ford dealership for a while and found a 289 block prepped by Carroll Shelby, which he took back to Washington and swapped into the Falcon that winter. He returned to Santa Monica the next summer with the now 289-powered Falcon, complete with a 4-barrell carb and a LeMans cam. We decided to drive it the Pittsburgh area to visit relatives. So in mid-August of 1971 we set out from Santa Monica at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning and drove all the way to Pittsburgh via mostly Route 66. We arrived in PA at 9 a.m. on Monday morning.

“I bought a 1963 Falcon Sprint to match my brother’s; mine was a 260 with the auto trans. I sold it in ’72 and got a 1964 Falcon Ranchero with 260 V-8, but was looking for a NEW car to use as a basic family car daily driver. With the popular Ford Pinto subcompacts just hitting the market, I decided to buy a brand-new (green) '72 Pinto Wagon – it was $2,100 out-the-door! I used it as our family car and drove it around the Southwest until 1980. I never forgot that little car.

“When I retired and moved to Texas in 2015, I wanted a reliable, easy-to-maintain daily driver, so I searched for a Pinto and found my current car in Bakersfield, California -- a pretty much stock, Red 1973 Pinto Wagon. The car is a rust-free California desert survivor that I think was originally a Galpin car that spent its life garaged in the high desert above Victorville, California, since the 1980s until it found a new home in 2013.

“The car is essentially a base ’73 Wagon model, Red with a Black interior. It has the 2.0-liter inline four-cylinder engine, a four-speed manual transmission, and about 80,000 miles on the odometer. It can be driven daily but I’ve pretty much set it up for long-distance touring rather than speed, adding some minor modern mods to improve reliability.

“When I got the car, the previous owner had installed 14-inch American Racing ‘Outlaw’ alloy rims and 14x205 tires and had redone the interior. The factory engine ran well, but I wanted to preserve this car for my grandkids so I had a 2.0 block rebuilt to factory specs, added a Pertronix Ignition, an adjustable cam pulley (with 6 degrees cam advance to improve low-end torque), an air-fuel ratio meter, and replaced the 48-year-old radiator with an aluminum cross-flow design. Next will be to replace the factory 6.75 rear end (which began making noise after only 48 years); plans for a Ford 8-inch diff are in the works.

“I have been experimenting with several carburetor configurations, including an aftermarket weber DGV and a pair of  SU-HIF4s mounted on a custom manifold that I had fabricated. With this setup, it starts making power at about 2,500 rpm and will easily rev to 6,000 rpm with stock cam. I normally shift at 5,800 in first and second gears, and it cruises easily at 70 mph at 3,000 rpm. Around town it will cruise at 30 mph in 4th fourth gear at about 1,600 rpm. I have been pretty active on the Pinto online forums (my user name is ‘LongTimeFordMan’) and have made several posts dealing with some Pinto mods such as installing a Pertronix, updating dash lights to LED, installing an aluminum radiator as well as some maintenance tips that i have learned.

“So far I have driven my 1973 Wagon on four Pinto Stampedes -- 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2021. On the Stampedes, I’ve navigated the Blue Ridge Parkway; thru the Smoky Mountains from Nashville down to Roush/Fenway in Concord, North Carolina via route 129; plus the famed ‘Tail of The Dragon,’ down Route 119 from Uniontown, PA; to Knoxville via the Cumberland Gap; and Route 66 from Santa Monica to Dallas to Indianapolis. And to Dearborn, Michigan, of course!

“The thing that I most enjoy about owning a classic Ford Pinto is how so many people approach me everywhere I go to tell me stories about the Pintos from their past. It sure had a big following! That's the story of my history with Fords -- and I'm stickin’ to it!”

FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY ED MANGES

Here’s How YOU Can Get In The Spotlight: For more than 15 years now, one of the most popular features on FordPerformance.com and in our weekly Fast News e-newsletter continues to be "Ford Fan Spotlight," where readers can send in their own reasons why they're fans of Ford Motor Company and its vehicles. You know who they are: Ford "superfans;" grassroots Ford racers; unique Ford vehicle owners; loyal Ford enthusiasts; notable Ford club people; special Ford families; and/or any avid supporter of Ford, Ford vehicles, Ford motorsports or Ford Performance who deserves a little bit of special recognition.

All you need to do to get you, your car or candidate considered is to send in a brief description (200-500 words or less) and a few photos (in .jpeg format, preferably around 1 mb in size) with the owner’s full name and hometown, please. Just tell us about the vehicle(s) and why you think Ford Performance should feature it (them) in the "Ford Fan Spotlight" for an upcoming installment of Fast News as well as for posting on FordPerformance.com. Then email it to: ClubHub@Ford.com with your contact info. Your submission allows us the rights to use your words and images (along with any edits) for editorial purposes; we’ll choose one submission in random order to post online. We hope to see YOU and your Ford in our Spotlight soon!