[DeTomaso] Keeping It Real - The New Pantera Engine Test Drive

[Mad Dog Antenucci]

Yo My Peeps,
   
  I picked up the Pantera at Dick Drenske's shop around 6pm in Huntington Beach. This was going to be her maiden voyage with the new stroker engine. A week earlier we had done the mandatory break-in at Dicks shop and all she needed was a run on the road. Check out the web site for details on new engine www.teampanteraracing.com  and the latest mods to ItBWild. 
   
  The Pantera started right up with a serious growl...I let it sit and idle for half a minute or s just enjoying listening to her idle....With a wink from Dick and a warning about keeping it real on the road I was off.....By 7PM traffic on the I-405 through Huntington Beach was fairly light so I drove south of the freeway and then headed west down to the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) on the H-55 to PCH and the 55 was packed with evening commuters still heading home. 
   
  I kept the R's  well under 5 grand...I wasn't in any hurry.....just crusing along with the windows open enjoying perfect weather...After 20 minutes I started to relax and enjoy the ride and un-glued one eye off the oil and water gauges. Even in standing traffic on the H55 for about 20 minutes the water temp never exceeded 185-190F....I have one big 15" sucker fan on the backside of the NASCAR radiator as backup but I never even had to turn it on. 
   
  Dick's wired all the gauges so I have multiple senders and gauges.... one set of VDO gauges sits in the stock counsel and another set of 3 Auto Meter race gauges (water temp, oil temp & oil pressure) where they are stacked on the roll cage along the A-pillar. May seem like overkill having redundent gauges until you have had to race your Pantera at speed and look down at stock gauges. 
   
  As I headed north on PCH as the sun set I couldn't have asked for a better road trip....You don't have to be a motor head or a racer to appreciate how good a a built 500HP motor crusing next to you SOUNDS but I really enjoyed the reaction of folks on the road who speeded up next to me or rolled down their  windows next to me to HEAR and look at and hear the BEAST cruise by...the sounds of the new stroker and the 180's and the roller Comp Cam was definately worth waiting for.
   
  As I continued driving north past Huntington Beach and the Bolsa Chica wetlands through Sunset Beach and then Seal Beach and then I cut over past the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station....drove by half a dozen servicemen in Seal Beach who immediately started yelling and waving as I cruised by shifting from 2nd gear to 3rd gear. 
   
  I passed several car loads of kids who also went crazy as they saw and heard the Pantera drive up next to them....I just had this continuous ear to ear grin on my face as I drove on through light traffic on the PCH.  There's 'always' allot of exotic cars on PCH just about year around in SoCal and I probably passed or was passed by a dozen or more exotics tonight to include a couple Ferrari 355's , 2 NSX's, 1 Lambo Gallardo (?), half a dozen Porsche's and at least twice that many NEW C5's or Z06's....but most of the drivers with a couple exceptions acted like they had a stick up their tailpipe and didn't look like they were having much fun.
   
  It really was the young kids who mostly did not know what the Pantera was and the older gray hairs in Crown Vic's or Toyota's who did remember what a Pantera was who didn't try to pretend to hide their affection for the Pantera that really made my day tonight.... after more then 20 years of driving the Pantera on roads all over the country I NEVER tire of seeing the postive reaction the Pantera captures on the road. 
   
  You don't ever need to speed to impress anyone in a Pantera. Just the sound of the engine and exhuasts and that timeless  styling does it all. And the slower you go the more they enjoy everything most of us love about the Pantera.
   
  I got home around 9:30pm....set several of the neighbor's car alarms off (oh-oh) as I drove into the neighborhood.....sorry about that...not intentional I assure you....the Dawg is back! ;-]
   
  Sweeeeeeeeeeeet! 


Mad Dawg Antenucci 
Team Pantera Racing 
  The 1st & still the only vintage race team in open road racing 
www.teampanteraracing.com