Turbocharging the Pinto 2.3 was a good idea. Intercooling it and bolting it to the SVO Mustang was a great Idea. Now, wants to know if Volvo-izing an SVO 2.3 gives you any ideas.

1980 Canada felt your warm embrace yesterday, as the grabbed a 77% nice price win for its $29,000 asking price. Now, that's a lot of hockey tickets and Alanis Morrissette records, so today we're going to go for something newer and cheaper. And some mights say, weirder.

It's been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Today, Nice Price or Crack Pipe…

Here we have a , that refuses to stand still. For those unfamiliar with what an SVO Mustang is, here's a quick run-down: Having discovered that car buyers were finding favor in cars that were able to turn as well as go in a straight line, Ford decided to build a Mustang that used BMW as its role model. The SVO (Special Vehicles Operation) iteration emerged as the most expensive and highest performance ‘Stang in Ford's mid-eighties corral. A 175-bhp turbo'd, fuel-injected and intercooled Pinto 2.3-litre twitched nervously under under its NACA-ducted hood while underneath, a revised geometry suspension with adjustable Koni shocks and big-ass disc brakes made the fox platform be all that it could be. Inside, ‘80s plastic-fantastic Ford met Lear Siegler bolstered seats and a short-throw shifter for what was the best the Blue Oval could offer at the time, demonstrating that most of the money went into what was under the hood rather than under the roof.

That was all well and good for 1984, but the world has moved on, and even a secretary's ‘Stang today puts out over 200 ponies. Not only that, but bi-plane spoilers are like parachute pants, having had their day and are now out of fashion. But that doesn't mean you have to have an SVO that's stuck in the era of Bret Easton Ellis, and you can take it from Less Than Zero to American Psycho with some rockin' mods.

That's the case with this $6,950 SVO that's seen some underhood tweaking which included a Swedish massage for its head. Overall, the car doesn't look all that special, and in fact the top plane of the spoiler has been removed, lending the car even greater anonymity. Inside it's a little rough, but the basics are there- there are chairs to keep your ass off the carpet and an aftermarket wheel for you to saw with when the boost knocks the back end out on you.


There's a reason you'll want to hang onto that Grant wheel for dear life, because what's living under the hood is a Pinto motor that's been to the island of Dr Moreau, and has come back with a second frontal lobe and a Swedish accent. You see, Ford had been developing the 2.3-litre turbo for years, and had screwed it into the engine sockets of the T-Bird, ‘Stang, and Merkur XR4Ti for most of the '80s. But, at the same time the pocket-protected and horn-rimmed glasses-wearing engineers were beefing up the 4-banger, down the hall were a bunch of guys in white tee-shirts with packs of cigarettes rolled up in the sleeves, and they were working on the cheaper, and eventually, higher-reaching 302 HO. The 302 gave the SVO turbo a wedgie, and development ceased on the Pinto four, just before a twin-cam head was set to debut as an aftermarket part through Ford Motorsports. As all the cool kids have twin-cams these days, this seller adapted a Volvo B23F head to the Pinto bottom end, and obviously, hilarity ensued.

Now you might think that's something akin to grafting Megan Fox's head onto Janet Reno, but it looks like it's working, and he says the oil leakage is only minor. The seller also makes the supposition that, based on a different car, this SVO should be pumping out between 240 and 250 bhp. Maybe. Helping get those hypothetical ponies to the pavement is the bolt-in IRS and vented discs from a Cobra, as well as Cobra spindles and brakes up front, meaning that stopping will result in skid marks on the street, not in your tighty whities.

His list of updated and add-on parts reads like the back pages of 5.0 magazine, and you can bet that the $6,950 asking is less than he's got in it, unless he's some sort of Mustang parts Robin Hood who forgot the part about giving to the poor.

So, would you like to part with $6,950 for an ‘80s SVO whose engine is now Danish Modern? Or, does that price make you say its just o ery ld?

You decide!

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