All, watch for a great article about the Pantera experience in Bullrun coming soon. Until then enjoy these great pictures provided by our good friends at Speed TV, and visit the below link for behind the scenes videos and pictures. Enjoy!
Since I am installing new 180 degree exhaust system, I had to do something with the old exhaust exits on the back of the car. I opted to fill them in permanently. I have a body man, Greg, working on it for me and he made up panels to cover the exhaust exits as well as the center AC condenser grill.
Stealing some ideas from another Pantera I saw at Precision Proformance, I also had him move the license plate "relief" up such that the license plate will not hang out below the body lines. Additionally I had the rear wheel opening moved out to completely cover the rear wheel widths that we run these days. It basically puts the rear quarter panel wheel arch symmetric on front and back of the arch.
Bad explanation but look at the photos.
Ever since I've owned the car I always thought why would DeTomaso put one big 21gallon fuel tank behind the drivers seat? Most of the time if your driving alone the weight on that side of the car will be more then the other, and at 8lbs per gallon 20gallons of gas is like having another driver on your lap.
I developed a leak in my stock gas tank and needed to remove it. I also need to put a proper fuel cell in the car if I am to go faster at the open road races. So this time I set out by finding what size of "box" I can fit in the car. It turns out you can put a 18"x20"x12" fuel cell into either side of the Pantera just behind the firewall and still not take anymore room then the stock fuel tank.
Fuel Safe makes a tank that is close to these dimensions, 20.125"x17.125"x12.75". This cell is FIA certified and comes in several materials including aluminum. Rollover vent, filler nozel and AN pickup fittings all installed in steel for around $200. I will end up putting one cell on each side for a total of 34 gallons of gas. Each cell is 17 gallons. Eat your heart out baby!
I recently developed a leak in my gas tank and due to the fine Italian engineering you must pull the motor to get the tank out. Since the motor was out I decided to open it up and refresh things. We've put 4 open road races ( including one at 5800 for 35 minutes ), 6 track events, and many road miles.
I opened up the manifold to find that two of my Comp Cams roller lifters had worn badly on the roller due to bearing failure or over tightning. Also the two cam lobes were also worn. Additionally I found one coil spring which lost a coil and broke.
After all my bragging about how this motor has held up despite the roller lifter setup, she finally had it. I do have to give some props to Comp Cams, after I called them with my situation they give me a big discount on replacement parts.
All, rumors of my involvement in a reality TV show are true! I recently participated in the second season of Bullrun which is set to air on Speed TV Feb 19th at 10pm EST.
"The show, based on the international rally of the same name, follows 12 teams of diverse personalities, driving everything from Corvettes to Ferraris to a VW microbus across 3,500 miles of the southwestern United States in search of fame and fortune. They don't just drive from point A to point B - without benefit of GPS navigation or cell phones. The teams also must survive challenges, conflicts and car problems to try to win $200,000 in cash and prizes."
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/popular-bullrun-moves-to-speed-for-2009
Each episode a "rally" leg is driven and a "challenge" is held with the two last place teams and a third team selected by the first place team. The team with the lowest combined time is sent home. It was an amazing experience being on the show but I cannot contest to the "reality" of the show, as the producers have many ways to "script" the reality into their vision. My participation was an experience of a lifetime.
Current commercial featuring the "smoking" Pantera is on YouTube;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JZrkBjbRIg
After the show airs I will be able to discuss in more details what happened.
Now back to your regularly scheduled program.
Just got back from the most dramatic race we ever had out in Ely. This time we left the family at home, it was my brother-in-law Nick, our fellow pantera owner Ritch, and myself. We left on Thursday night late and got into Ely about 8am in the morning. After registering, eating, and getting quick nap we cleaned up the car and participated in the Ely parade. All the locals come out for the event and line up the streets. Unfortunately there is no burnouts allowed despite the crowd begging for us to do so. Afterwards we had a lot of fun at the Big 4 partying it up with all the guys.
Saturday was the car show and we sailed through tech inspection. Mad Dawg and Chuck showed up with their Pantera and Corvette respectively and we watched the high noon shootout which is a 1/2 mile or 1 mile high speed run where fastest speed wins. We performed some more car maintenance and got ready for the next morning's event.
This time since we had Ritch with us, he signed up as a course worker at mile 63. The plan was to camp out on the race course that night and then drive the car back to Lane's truck stop where the race starts, early in the morning. The only problem was that the drivers meeting went so late we didn't get to leave until after dark and had a real a problem finding the spot. Luckily we found a nearby spot with plenty of parking for the 35 foot RV plus the 20 foot trailer. It was midnight after we parked and cooked up our steaks for dinner.
We got up at 5:30 to have enough time to make it back to the start line about 60 miles away, which was no problem. We were around number 20 on the grid and after a short delay the event was started. Mad Dawg went first ( as always ) and then several other cars left the line. After a few minutes we were ready to leave for the start line but were told to shut down because there was a problem on the course.
What followed was a series of rumors including that Mad Dog was on fire on the track. Now Mad Dog's claim to fame is his event of 98 where the car caught on fire as he was crossing the finish line where it proceeded to burn to the ground after the firemen used water on the overheated magnesium wheels. I was in disbelief as how the same firey end could happen to the same guy twice in one lifetime. As it turns out the K & N Dodge Viper had went off course after his engine blew up and dump oil on the road. This caused him to spin out at speed, go up an embankment, flip the car on it's roof and catch fire. The driver of the car was not hurt.
After this event the NDOT folks had a long conversation with the event organizers and over the course of three hours come to an agreement to continue with the event but had to stop at 4pm even though we were all 3 hours behind schedule. Finally the event was restarted.
We left the start line strong and the car felt good up until about 150 where i was "chasing" it all over the road trying to keep it on the pavement. I don't know if the wind was causing the issue or the tires were not up to temperature but it was not feeling good so I could only drive around 140 for the first 12 to 15 miles or so. This put us about one minute behind. After that the car felt much better and I was able to run at 150 or 155 and did so for a good 30 miles. During this time we passed Mad Dog who was waving to us from the side of the road and the Viper.
We passed the radar trap and even though the car was getting hot managed to pass the trap at 163mph ( results still pending ). This is the fastest we have ever been in any vehicle and was one of the main goals of the event.
Somewhere around mile 50 on a straight section of road we heard one bang and the car stepped to the right several inches all of a sudden. Both Nick and I thought we would be in the ditch for sure as I tried to correct the car from it's slide. We went right, left, and right again as the swerving decreased and then I applied the power ever so gently to bring us out of it. We were the luckiest men on the planet at this point and new it.
After that incident the car was getting hotter and hotter and the temperature gauge was pegged past 270. The car also sounded very funny, which we would find out later why, and there was a burning smell of pastic or some other non-engine smell. The car was still holding up and we kept it at 160mph. Before we entered the narrows the car started sputtering, we were not sure why at the time but the car would run fine and miss a bit then kick in again. This made it very difficult to keep speed but still we could manage 150.
We went in the narrows and through them around 110 and decided that the car would probably not make it to the end. She was overheated, loosing power, strange electrical smells, and moving all over the road, but still we kept pushing it. I had written off the engine at this point and thought if we could just finish the race it would be a miracle. We pushed it back up to 160 and hoped for the best in the last 11 miles, and managed to cross the finish line 1 minute and 30 seconds to slow.
We were the luckiest men on the planet and celebrated as we looked over the poor Pantera. It was overheated and coolant was overflowing from the tank. We lost one muffler on the passenger side and after closer inspection, it was apparent the muffler somehow caught on the tire and went over the tire and dented the fender well as it did so. This explains the car pitching sideways during the middle of the course and the very strange noises.
Additionally the broken exhaust was now hitting the rear of engine bay directly and melted the rear wiring harness, paint, and undercoating which explained the strange smell. The overheating caused the coolant to escape from the overflow and spewed onto the fuel pump which shut the fuel pump down and explains why the car was loosing power, as there was no fuel pressure. The motor was fine but we also lost the starter since the engine bay temperatures were very high. The car was superficially damaged but she made it and kept us alive during the event. We push started the car and headed back to the RV to load up.
This event was the most dramatic event we've ever had. From excitement of the start, frustration of the delay, disappointment of the first 10 miles, fear of crashing in the middle of the course, and elation when we actually finished. We lived a lifetime in 37 minutes, and we will do it again!
Thanks for reading see you on the road.
Electromotive Ignition System
I sent in the background and pictures of #2245 to Electromotive and they tastefully used the Pantera on the main web page banner! Very cool, you have to wait for the banner to change when you view the www page.
We just got back from another exciting Pantera convention. We took the whole family this year plus my brother-in-law's family and the dog! All eight of us in the RV while towing the Pantera.
We had a great time and the car ran very well around the track. We measured some of our times at 2 minutes flat which was about 2 or 3 seconds off the fastest Pantera. We had a clogged fuel filter that was causing a lean condition but that was fixed quickly trackside.
We are now looking forward to the Nevada Open Road Race in two weeks.
Back in 2006 I was approached by a friend who was asked to submit a interview tape for a new reality show on Spike Tv. The show is called Bullrun and the first season aired in early 2007. I took up the call and we submitted a tape to RocketScienceLaboratories which is the production company paid to create the show. What followed was a roller coaster next few months through October.
The show is a rally but the producers obviously make it interesting by setting up time bonuses which you can collect off route, and by having "battles" where two teams battle it out in some sort of "obstacle" course for the cars and teams.
The proposed ride for Marco and myself was the Pantera. The production company loved the car and liked us. We made the first couple of cuts and along with 20 other teams were sent to LA for a weekend, treated like rock stars, and put through some paces. Part of the time we had to fill out lots of paperwork and do an on screen interviewing session. Then we had a "test" which is really another type of interview where your interacting with another team. Then then we had a physical taken and more interviews. Overall it was an fun weekend expenses paid.
Everything looked promising as more and more teams were eliminated. The produces kept in touch and let me know that we were in the top 18, 16, etc. At the same time a transport truck was being sent out to my house to pick up the Pantera, and the production company was making arrangements to fly Marco and myself up to Canada for the first shooting. The day before we were to leave I was informed that we were team number 13 but only 12 teams were selected. Essentially this meant we were the back up team only and didn't make the cut!
Marco and I were pretty bummed but still had a nice weekend in LA for free. I am writing this article now because I just found the interview video which has been posted on You Tube by the production company. I thought you would enjoy it.
Ok so if you want to go faster then 140mph at Silver State what do you do? First you get your self one of them their "oil to water" heat exchangers. I bought off of Ebay a Laminova unit repackaged and sold by Ford for the 95-00 series Crown Victoria police cars. The unit cost me only $30 used. I cleaned up and its as good as new. With the Laminova units they come complete apart and you can clean them thoroughly.
I also found a oil sandwich adapter that is "high flow" with dash 12 input and outputs which match nicely with the oil cooler. So far I have plumbed the cooler into the return line that comes from the radiator. Now I need to bolt on the sandwich adapter and plumb the unit up.
The real test will be at the track in Vegas and Nevada Open Road Race in May!
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