For a time there were several v-8 Vegas and Pintos and even a 401 Gremlin.

The Gremlin you speak of was my friend's. It's pictured in the Hemming's article and for awhile had the top end off his friend's S/S AMX. John was apparently friends with Vinnie Vitar ( a local race trans shop for you non-NYers) and seemed to have unlimited access to his shop. Last I heard John bought & still has his friend's S/S AMX--don't know about the Gremlin. The nice thing for him was, he lived real close to 150th street, so running there was literally just turning the corner & setting up a race. One of the Pinto you mention could very well have been mine as my M.O. was to take my girlfriend out on a date, come home then spend the rest of the night prowling around like an idiot, just looking for trouble. . I avoided Nassau County as much as possible as the cops there had a reputation for not cutting anyone any slack.
And as for the "Detroit vs. N.Y" debate, the hard-core really didn't care where they raced, so long as the money was good enough.