My father in law pulled out the '48 Chevy pickup and took the kids and I to a local cruise in last night. There were the usual 32 based hot rods and some Chevelles and a really cool 60's Ford van/truck thing, the usual stuff. The one car that blew my mind though was the Mercury Bobcat that pulled up when I was getting the kids some food. By the time I could get to it the owner had disappeared in the sea of anonymous gray haired car guys and no amount of lurking about his car could induce him to come out of hiding. I took a couple of pictures but I'm at my in-laws with no way to upload them. It was such an unexpected car that I just had to share it with you nut jobs.
I had a Pinto many, many years ago. It's one of the cars I regret selling. Most of them have returned to dust or been turned into drag cars. I troll Craigslist on occasion looking for one.
We had a Mercury Bobcat when I was a kid, silver with wood grain and I maroon interior.
I loved it! Traded it in on a new Fairmont wagon. I miss that car too!
And you tell someone from 1980 that in 23 years we'd be nostalgic about Bobcats and Fairmonts...
Knurled wrote:
And you tell someone from 1980 that in 23 years we'd be nostalgic about Bobcats and Fairmonts...
Actually 33 years! I'm getting old!
I had a 78 Fairmont too. Another POS I wish I still had. That's it, I'm never selling another car. 
As a kid, I worked at a grain/feed store with a tiny JY next door... Guy had a mint dark blue Pinto 2.0, I stared at that car way longer and more often than any normal boy.
Here's mine the day it came home. It has the added distinction of having been re-painted by Ray Charles.
ebonyandivory wrote:
Knurled wrote:
And you tell someone from 1980 that in 23 years we'd be nostalgic about Bobcats and Fairmonts...
Actually 33 years! I'm getting old!
I was born in 1978, so... minus this, carry the one... No, pretty sure 1980 was 23 years ago 
In reply to jpaturzo:
That's the car, except the one I saw was black. Had a four speed and plaid inserts on the seats too. It's not so much that Pinto's are awesome, it's that somebody actually went out and decided that they wanted a Bobcat instead of a Pinto and then somehow loved the car enough to actually keep it in fantastic condition. The first Pinto I ever saw in my life that wasn't rusty is one that a guy rallycrosses here in Texas. As a kid in Michigan, born in '75, every Pinto ever was rusty. Hell, by the time I could drive they were nonexistent.
Knurled wrote:
ebonyandivory wrote:
Knurled wrote:
And you tell someone from 1980 that in 23 years we'd be nostalgic about Bobcats and Fairmonts...
Actually 33 years! I'm getting old!
I was born in 1978, so... minus this, carry the one... No, pretty sure 1980 was 23 years ago
Hmmm, I thought 1980 + 33 = 2013. If you were born in 1978 that makes you how old? 34? 35?
Maybe I'm misunderstanding your math but my calculator says a car built in 1980 is 33 years old.
gamby
UltimaDork
6/19/13 9:56 p.m.
The joke being that the poster would rather think of himself as 23 rather than 33.
I'd love to see a Bobcat turn up at a cruise night. That's much more interesting than the usual cliche assortment of American muscle that is de rigeur for every cruise night.
gamby wrote:
The joke being that the poster would rather think of himself as 23 rather than 33.
I don't see that. I don't see where anyone is talking about being 23 OR 33. I believe he's 34 but whatever, this is about Mercury Bobcats!
There's a Pinto/Bobcat that runs in east coast LeMons races. I've never looked close enough to see if it's a Pinto or a Bobcat with a Pinto grille. I believe it's Bobcat, because didn't the Pinto have round headlights?
Klayfish wrote:
There's a Pinto/Bobcat that runs in east coast LeMons races. I've never looked close enough to see if it's a Pinto or a Bobcat with a Pinto grille. I believe it's Bobcat, because didn't the Pinto have round headlights?
Pintos came with square headlights in later years. The car in the picture is a Pinto. You can tell because you can see the 4 letters across the hood that say Ford. A Bobcat has 7 letters across the hood saying Mercury.
I remember this ad and "Love that Bobcat"
http://mercury-bobcat.purzuit.com/video/fQeG_C1-JIA.html
Here's an actual Bobcat that runs LeMons races in the MidWest. Team Skidsteer.
I will confess to once working at a Ford/Mercury dealer back in the day and actually selling a couple of the little dears...
BTW, managed to aquire a Pantera...service manual!
I've only seen one, but you could buy a Bobcat with a 2.8 V6 towards the end of their run.
Only seen one diesel Tempo, too.
When I was five or six we had a turd brown '81 Pinto 5 speed wagon, for about six months when the transmission went out. That was probably in '83 or '84. It pretty much looked like this, but not as nice:
mndsm
PowerDork
6/20/13 5:53 p.m.
My father and his second wife had one of those lovely pinto wagons in the early 80's. I remember two things about that car. It gets FAR higher up the side of a highway embankment than it should, and it will NOT out crash a mid 70's Plymouth with cop crash bars on the front. These were actually separate incidents.
I think it's funny that no matter how big a POS a car was back in the day, 30 years later people will wax nostalgic about how wonderful they are.
I am still of relatively sound mind, and I still can recall driving one and do not have anything positive to say about the Pinto/Bobcat, other than they look kinda cute nowadays.
Maybe in another 20 years or so I'll be sufficiently demented to think that they were great cars.
Is this better or worse than the fact that i REALLY want a Maverick or a 73 Impala?
