When Ford brought out that lovely car that they called the Pinto in 1972, the engines offered were the 1600 crossflow and the now well known Pinto 2.0 Liter engine, it was available with the German built 4 speed or a 3 Speed automatic. The box was the C4 that they used with the 6 and small 8 cylinder engine of that period. A small torque converter (10 inch I believe) and a custom bell housing that mated up with the 2 liter 4 cylinder. It will also bolt up to the twin cam and has been done by Mike Ostrov for one of his modified Elites that used a stretched Elan chassis along with a 1700 cc Stromberg Twin Cam. I have driven it and being the cripple that I am I quite enjoyed it. It was a bit on the heavy side but went well. I found a couple of these boxes and decided to see how much work it was and I had the short block bolted up to the automatic and installed in a spare chassis. There were some interference issues that would have needed to be dealt with but nothing major. I also remember that the crankshaft needed a spacer installed between it and the torque converter.
a Link to a post by Mike
Elite/Elan MK II Automaticelan-archive-f16/elite-elan-automatic-t7173.html"Elite/Elan MK II Automatic
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Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2003 10:34 am
Lotus Elan Posts: 26
Location: Richmond, CA
Hi, Bill.
A few seasons ago, I placed an Elite (Type l4) body onto a stretched
(4.125 inch) Elan chassis with suitable re enforcements per AVO with two
additional changes: the upper two inch wide engine bay flange has a one
inch box tube welded under it and the excess removed and the lower
flange has a l/8 by one inch angle iron from front to rear. This
allowed the removal of the upper and lower cross bracing. Total chassis
weight at 98.5 lbs. and sand blasted and POR l5 sprayed.
Heim joints on the outboard rear arms and a sway bar from an Elan +2
(.75 inch) suitably altered with modified +2 front and rear springs and
externally adjustable SPAX shocks at all four corners with adjustable
ride height coils, help keep the balance.
The powerplant is a l725 cc Twin Cam (Stromberg head, high European
balance tubes, l0.3l to I static compression ratio, using a standard
Lotus block which was sonic tested for a minimum of .090 at the bottom
and .125 top cylinder wall thickness, new Ford SVO l600 crank, standard
TC 125 rods, pistons from Bean at 84 mm), Pertronix ignition, oil
cooler and many other mods.
All this, so I could mate up a vacuum controlled C-4 automatic gearbox
from a l98l Pinto Estate Wagon.
3.55 Elan diff with my standard l5 inch wire wheels provides 3400 rpm
cruising at 72 mph.
Runs all day at 75/80 C and 48 psi oil pressure at speed and 35 psi
at idle.
Not a rapid level of acceleration, as the tare weight was l925
lbs, but most comfortable on the motorway.
If you are out in the San Francisco Bay Area, I am 6 miles from
Berkeley and all the cars (Standard Elites, Sevens and another
Elite/Elan MK I with Coventry Climax and 280zx 5 speed) have full petrol
tanks for your driving enjoyment.
Just ring me on (5l0) 232-7764 when in the neighborhood.
Cheers. Mike."
Here are some pictures of the box by itself, I didn't take any pictures when it was in the chassis back in 1999.
If you think about it, there is not much that is discussed today that has not been visited in the past.
Gary
The burgundy elite with the bonnet up is the automatic version