DOG spelled backwards is.....Re: [DeTomaso] Corvette project.

Sat Jan 6 23:06:41 EST 2007

Hey Goran,

  I definately agree the technology and fabricators are out there...so are the co$ts! ;-]>
  And the demand for Pantera aftermarket parts can be counted on all your toes and fingers!

  Still we're talking apples and oranges comparing a vintage Pantera with a new to late model Corvette, Viper, Porsche or any other production automobile right? Although now I see the Dodge Viper in 2008 will deliver a 600HP outta the box production car but it will never look or sound as good as our Pantera's. As JB says, anyone can write a check, right? Or can they?  Or will they for a 35 year old hybrid? Yea, they will if they love the car. 

  My original goal with the Pantera in '99 was to re-built it for a 'single' purpose which was to run ORR and enduro events. Then a few people reminded me that single purpose race cars don't get driven to the mountains or the beach.   So the original goal got dumbed down to average ORR speeds of 140-150 mph, easily achievable for a modified old dog with readily available and affordable mods to cooling. 

  I'd still like to see just 'one' person in a Race Pantera compete in the Unlimited ORR Division (over 180 MPH) and hit an average 180+ mph....36 ORR's and 10 years later I stopped looking for that person. Every year Pantera owners get older and our Pantera's get older and I become less confident that anyone will enter a Pantera and run it in Unlimited. But I know eventually its gotta happen, right?!

  Its been 10 years since Junior retired in '97.  I was at my first ORR in '97 and Junior was at his last!   I think his best speed average was 177 MPH.in like '93 or '94 winning the Unlimited Division a couple years in a row..he raced his ever changing Pantera 2-3 ORR's a year for 8 years but he broke engines or blew tires more often then he finished....but as Big Bob Benson says thats how you make it better.

  Even with Junior's OWN machine shop Junior still spent huge amounts of his OWN cash every year racing with little or no sponors....I think he was averaging $50K a year in development costs for engines and when he was all done his Pantera started looking more like a IMSA Porsche then it did a Pantera with a big block making depending on who you talk to upwards of 800+ HP.  Still Junior's record still is a record no one else in a Pantera has come close to achieving. 

  While some have argued against turning the originally styled De Tomaso Pantera into as someone once described Junior's last Pantera as a, "a Frankenstein beast" .... just as many others see it as artistic license. I personally think stock, modified or full race its ALL good. 

  I know just like the SWEDES blew out the Pantera land speed record at Bonneville I know that somewhere sometime there is a young buck  (probably from Sweden or a transplanted Swede in North Dakata) getting ready to come out to Silver State to blow out Junior's old ORR record. Because after all no matter what anyone tells you ALL records are meant to be broken.  

  When it happens I will be there....I can't imagine the Pantera being an investment for anyone except maybe our buds Kirby and JB ("I love to hate you") since most of us  can only afford ONE toy! ;-]>  

  Still, if I had about $250,000 USD....here's what I could do..._______(fill in blanks) ;-]>

  Mad Dawg Antenucci
  Team Pantera Racing - Gruppo Rompiculi Corsa
  "If it was easy you'd do it" 
  www.teampanteraracing.com

  hemipanter at hemipanter.se wrote:
  Even if not a Pantera it might be of interest to follow what happen with
the Nordic Supercar Cup project. To bad there is no people interested in
doing the same thing with a Pantera, or should I say a Pantera man with 
interest and money enough to realize such project. Not to many images yet
but there is more to come. Really hope the team is not running out of
money... there is a lot people involved in fabricating all things. So fare
3 month of drawing is finished. The upprights on the picture are designed
for Corvette C-6 bearing-spindle, which is a nice thing. The car is to
become the lowest Corvette on the track, 39-40".
http://www.hemipanter.se/
klick "News".
Regards
Goran Malmberg
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Mad Dawg Antenucci 
Team Pantera Racing 
  The 1st & still the only vintage race team in open road racing 
www.teampanteraracing.com