(upbeat music)
- Jacksonville is just south of Amelia Island
and Jacksonville has always been a car town.
A lot of racers there.
Brumos Porsche is based there.
There's stock car racers there.
There's collectors there.
Hurley Haywood lives there.
It's a good town so we decided after Amelia Island,
let's go and check out some cars
in and around the Jacksonville area.
It's a slight rain right now.
I don't like to drive the woody in the rain.
So we're driving towards Jacksonville, Florida
to check out some old race cars that I know about.
(upbeat music)
Here we go.
Put on my Cunningham hat.
(door closing)
I'm gonna admit something now
that you'd never would have imagined,
but Tom Cotter used to race a Pinto.
I'm one of the people who actually liked Pintos.
I didn't get scared about all that fireball stuff
that made the press a long time ago.
When I raced the Pinto, I used to buy my parts
from a guy named Racer Walsh.
That was the decal and the logo.
Racer Walsh used to be located in New York.
Now it's located Jacksonville, Florida.
And this is one of Racer Walsh's Pintos.
This is an old IMSA RS car
and it was a class that competed
against Opels, and Vegas, Datsun 510s,
little sedans like that.
Jerry raced it for a long time.
His son Brian purchased it back again,
and he's been racing it vintage ever since.
Jerry passed away after a battle with ALS
and he was cremated last year.
Brian said to his dad,
"I'm going to take some of your ashes
"and sprinkle them in here.
"And you can go with me for a race or two."
And Jerry said,
"Why would you put me in a car for only a race or two?
"Why can't I go forever?"
They came up with a plan.
Come on over here.
There's a aluminum billet container here,
which is strapped to the roll bar.
Jerry's riding around with his son
in the race car for eternity.
What a wonderful gesture that is.
Now racing vintage series, his son, Brian Walsh,
who's up here, actually races his dad's old race car.
This is Brian Walsh.
Thank you for inviting us over here.
From this point in the episode,
we've had some audio problems with Brian's microphone.
So really you can't hear his voice.
From this point forward,
I'm going to kind of tell you
what Brian Walsh was telling me as we were touring his shop.
The orange and blue car was originally raced
by Larry Campbell.
Then he sold it to somebody who raced it a few times.
It's best finish, in the IMSA RS series,
was at Road Atlanta during the six hour race.
He finished second.
Brian found this car and bought it for 1500 bucks,
and with shipping from the Midwest,
it cost him about two grand total to own this car.
Not a bad investment for a historic race car.
The black Pinto was probably not an IMSA RS car,
but it probably ran in either SCCA GT3
or maybe even the B sedan series,
which is a little bit older, back in the seventies.
It sat in an Ohio field for about 20 years
and Brian didn't even have to buy it.
He just traded a racing seat for the car.
He probably got it for the equivalent
of a couple hundred bucks.
This was a landmark car for Ford Motor Company.
It was a simple car, small car.
It was compact, got good gas mileage.
It was inexpensive.
I bought a Pinto brand new for probably $1995 in '74.
They were underappreciated.
It really was a European type of car
that was made for the United States.
They were simple.
They were easy to repair.
Think about a Model T Ford.
They were designed for the owners to repair their own cars.
Well, Pintos were kind of the same way,
front engine, transmission, rear wheel drive, but simple.
This was before EPA required all sorts of crazy pumps
and belts and hoses.
Cars were much simpler, and this car fit the bill.
It came out at the same time as the Vega.
The Vega got a lot more attention
cause it looked really cute.
At the end of the day, the Pinto was the better car
and they lasted a lot longer.
The Vega had inherent engine problems.
They had an aluminum block with a cast iron head,
which was just a bad combination.
The Pinto had a cast iron engine throughout.
They were bulletproof.
The engines were great for racing.
They were used in these kinds of cars.
They we used in formula cars,
used in midget race cars,
just a good combination, all around.
They were cheap.
They were reliable.
Parts were readily available.
And their day came to an end.
Now they're sitting in junkyards and garages.
What Brian's trying to do is bring back the ones
that have some kind of racing history.
We wish him the best in that.
The Mercury Capri is a decidedly heavier car
than the Pintos, but it was allowed
to race with a turbocharger.
This one sat in a dirt garage for 20 years
in Northern New Jersey.
It had only been raced three times in it's life,
sometime between '82 and '83.
According to Brian, the guy spent a ton of money on it.
The roll cage was built by a fabricator
who worked for both Leitzinger Racing and Al Holbert Racing
and both, you know, premier shops.
And so the cage is really a top quality.
Brian's intention is to race this car again,
but not restore it.
He says, "Maybe I'll wash it."
I think the interesting thing about Barn Find Hunter is
how varied the collector car hobby is.
We could find Cobras and Ferraris
and be excited about those.
But we can find Pintos, Capris,
and be excited about those, too.
There's different tastes for everybody
in the automotive enthusiast world.
Here's a guy that's going out of his way
to bring back old race cars,
that a lot of people would just trash.
Thank you. - Thank you, Tom.
We barged in on his world today
because he's frantically installing
a rebuilt 2300cc racing engine
to go to Sebring this weekend.
He's leaving tomorrow-
- First thing in the morning. - Well, good luck, man.
- Thank you. - Thanks.
- Thanks for stopping by.
- Not only is Brian restoring old race cars,
he's trying to restore an old race car series.
So keep your eye on the internet.
Most of these races are held on the East Coast now,
but maybe they'll go national someday,
and you'll be able to see Pintos and Vegas and,
and Datsun 510s and Toyotas and Opels
racing around road circuits.
It's great fun.
- Hopefully, a Gremlin or two. - And a Gremlin or two.