Plastic automotive engine
Version one was based on Ford's 2.3-liter Pinto engine and weighed (vs. for its cast iron counterpart). It was designed to produce at 9200 rpm. It was composed of metal cylinder sleeves, metal combustion chamber tops, metal piston crowns, bearings, valves and seats, and a stock 2.3L Pinto crankshaft. Nearly everything else in the engine, including the block, rods and piston skirts, were made of glass reinforced Polyamide-imide thermoplastic resins manufactured at the time by Amoco Chemicals Co. The engine was never installed in a vehicle.
Ford Pinto engine
In Europe, the Pinto OHC was introduced in 1970 to replace the Essex V4 used in the Corsair as that range was subsumed into the Mk3 Cortina and Taunus V4 for the German Fords range (mainly the new Taunus TC). It was the first Ford engine to feature a belt-driven overhead camshaft (thus the name).