a longtime fan of Bob Glidden built a street legal tribute to Glidden’s famous Pinto (thanks Mike!)

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 Glidden Pinto

the original Glidden Pinto that was sold at the January 2020 Mecum Auction in Kissimmee. The car was on display in Kissimmee for several days before it crossed the auction block, giving Randy and a friend time to crawl around the car, taking photos and making measurements.

In addition to measuring the exact placement of all the sponsor decals, finding those original decals, or reproductions of them, proved difficult or impossible. A friend with a vinyl graphics business duplicated the missing stickers, Randy says.

The 351 Cleveland V8 in Randy’s car isn’t quite as strong as Glidden’s original engine, but it still produces 500 horsepower and 500 foot-pounds of torque. Visually, the powerplant looks like the original, complete with the correct tunnel-ram intake, twin 700cfm Holley four-barrel carbs, MSD ignition components, and chrome Moroso valve covers.

Glidden was in the low 8s, Irwin is in the low 11s with the tribute, but it's street legal

https://www.fordmuscle.com/features/car-features/a-fans-street-legal-tribute-to-the-most-famous-pro-stock-pinto

How some cheated... and got NOS routed to the carbs/intake so expertly that tech inspectors never found out

One was hidden in the battery box

Another was hidden in the brake booster, and routed to the carb/intake through the vacuum line

Another, and this is very complex, was that the NOS was stored in the weight bar at the rear of the car “The nitrous line started there,” Super Stock reported in the fall of 1995, “went over the rear axle housing right up to the front. It ended at the motor plate, which was rifle-drilled. One of the supports holding the hood scoop was also rifle-drilled. This tall slender rod delivered the nitrous to the top of the hood scoop via a small stainless steel line that terminated with two jets centered over the carburetors. With those two 0.029in jets we made 120lb ft more torque at 7,000rpm and averaged 90 more horsepower.”  

Bob Glidden later declared the nitrous oxide system in Rusty's car was detection-proof.

To prevent a tech inspector from activating it by switching on the ignition and opening the throttle, a combination of events were required. “The shock switch had to be on, the computer switch on, the engine running and the throttle fully open. Trust me, this isn’t fiction,” Glidden concluded.

http://mooregoodink.com/biggest-con-jobs/


"They will tell you it's totally impossible to run nitrous and not get caught'' Glidden said " but thats wrong, thats flat wrong. A Ford with nitrous bumped me outta the field at Topeka last year. A Ford out of my own trailer. So nobody can tell me it can't be done. I know it can be done."

Bob Glidden told a incredible story of how his kids had bugged him for 18 months, convinced that some Pro cars were running nitrous and that he was missing the boat by not running it too.

 "I told them if i had to cheat to race i'd quit" he said "My kids know that: " if you think other people are doing it then go ahead, prove to me you can do it. But keep in mind that if you get caught you're going have to deal with the consequences; So they did and never got caught"

Then came the bombshell--- an admission at Indy by Rusty Glidden. With his confession came a detailed description of how the nitrous system was secreted in his car.

 According to Bob Glidden , the nitrous system was detection proof. "you had to have a combination of things to activate it so a tech guy couldn't walk up , turn on the ignition and open the throttle. The shock switch had to be on, the computer switch on, the engine running and the throttle wide open. Trust me" Glidden concluded " Thats not fiction""

Bob Glidden's '78 Fairmont, the best

"never lost a round from debut until the end of the year. It won every national event it raced in. It won every divisional it raced in. It won every match race that it competed in. If Glidden could have gotten it into a church basement it would have won the weekly Bingo game and pissed off the old ladies."

from http://bangshift.com/blog/the-top-11-most-dominant-race-cars-of-all-time.html

Bob Glidden

Pinto built by Gapp and Roush

images via http://voiture-jaune.tumblr.com/

Bill Stephens in the Jan 2001 Drag Racer magazine said the following "Bob Gidden's greatest racing accomplishment, besides winning all those races and all those championships, was his ability to make a winning race car out of a Pinto, and a Fairmont, and to really show off, a Plymouth Arrow."

Love that quote.

http://www.nhra.com/50th/top50/B_Glidden04.html has his bio, placing him number 4 of the all time greatest top 50 drag racers. Placing at nubers 1-3 respectively are Garlits, Force and Prudhomme

"Glidden, who amassed a record 16,035 points and lowered the national record to 8.59, fielded two winning cars that year: The first was his tried-and-true Ford Pinto that carried him to victories at the season-opening Winternationals and Cajun Nationals, and the second was his famed Ford Fairmont, with which he won the Summernationals and finished the season undefeated in national event competition. When all was said and done, Glidden had tied Don Prudhomme for most national event wins in a season with seven, including five straight, and had broken the Pro Stock single-season record of six set by Jenkins in 1972.
In recalling his Summernationals triumph, which he attained by defeating the Lombardo-driven Jenkins Monza in the final (8.55 to 8.71), Glidden said, "That was by far the biggest spread that I ever had over the guys in any race that I've ever ran. We didn't clinch the points title mathematically until just before [Indianapolis], but mentally, we felt that we had won the title right there in Englishtown."
Glidden retired his undefeated Fairmont in favor of a Plymouth Arrow in 1979 and lost only three times all year. After finishing the 1978 season with seven straight victories, Glidden opened the 1979 season with a victory at the Winternationals and didn't lose a round until June, when a foul start in the second round of the Mile-High Nationals snapped his streak at 14 races and 50 rounds. That season, Glidden won seven national events, went undefeated in divisional competition, and earned the maximum number of points available at four national events by qualifying No. 1, setting low e.t. and top speed, and winning the race. He did the same thing at all four of his divisional races. "