[DeTomaso] Who is going to be at WOT long enough toneedFancySchmantzy Race Oil? 6- PANTERA OIL

Thu Oct 4 15:41:35 EDT 2007

Hi Ken,

The value in the articles in the knowledge in people’s heads and much of the
effort is just getting that knowledge down on paper.  If you can get your
text and pictures to Jack or Mike, they can do the layout and formatting.
Given the constraints of the printed page and the need for a common look
across the articles, they have to do that anyway. 

If we go with the media-on-web-site supplement approach, you could provide
photos, video, and engineering diagrams in whatever style, size, and format
works well.

Mark

________________________________________
From: Ken Green [mailto:kenn_green at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 12:03 PM
To: Mark McWhinney; doug at silicondesigns.com
Cc: 'DeTomaso Forum'
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Who is going to be at WOT long enough
toneedFancySchmantzy Race Oil? 6- PANTERA OIL

Mark,

    It's my observation that there is tremendous talent in the Pantera
community and there are a lot of people doing really cool stuff.  I also
doubt any of us could build our own "Super Pantera" without relying on a lot
of the work others have done and are doing.  For example, it would be
foolish to try to get into open road racing without taking a long look at
what Dennis is doing.  

    Dan's engine project is a great example of what could be done, but I
don't expect to see similar projects on cooling, brakes, suspension,
aerodynamics, etc.  At best, when people try things, it would help to know
what they did, and how well it worked.  Then at least we wouldn't make the
same mistakes.

    Of course, this is all directed to engineer types who want to improve
their cars themselves.  I realize many Pantera owners just want to enjoy a
really cool car, and that's fine.  I may be expecting too much because there
may only be a handful of people who want their cars to be as fast as they
look.  In addition to that, we all seem to be good at avoiding documenting
our work.  

    I guess this leads to the question of what tools are available for
desktop publishing.  Is there some reasonably priced software which would
allow us to prepare an article with text and figures and submit it in a
nearly ready to publish condition?  If it's easy enough, maybe we'd get off
our butts and do it.

Ken

Mark McWhinney <msm at portata.com> wrote:
I spoke with Mike Drew about this very subject this summer. The net of it
was that given the discussions of the Profiles & Newsletter changes last
year, that nobody wants to rock the boat again. (Keep in mind that all of
this is all done with volunteer efforts and that we very fortunate to have
such dedicated people!)

Mike is also the publisher of the PCNC's monthly newsletter. Although it is
printed in B&W, it is created as a full color PDF with large format,
high-resolution photos. These newsletters are publicly available on the
PCNC web site. 

http://www.panteraclubnorcal.com/articles.htm

This two-prong approach allows use to get information out to the PCNC folks
who still prefer paper-based communications with affordable B&W issues and
get good quality detailed photos and text out to those who like the Web for
free. I have floated the ideal of going web-only with the PCNC folks to
reduce expenses, but there are too many people that like the old school
paper.

There have been discussions in the past of putting the POCA Profiles and/or
Newsletter on-line. The problem with that it is that it takes away one of
the greatest incentives to join the club. We could publish them in a
members-only section of the POCA web site, but that brings up other issues.

Another approach which I would like to push is a simple, no-cost solution
that is easy to implement. We would continue publishing the Profiles and
Newsletters as we have been, but we would make the photos, diagrams, and
other media available on the POCA web site. This would give people
incentive to join POCA for the articles and give them access to high quality
media.

Imagine this example -- Ken writes an article about "CR, Detonation, and
water injection". The article includes photos of Ken's new injection
system, a diagram showing CR tradeoffs, and a dyno graph. Jack publishes
the article as he normally would. Ken or Jack e-mails the original
large-format, high-res photos, diagram, and dyno output files to the POCA
web master who pops them into a "photo album" archive on the POCA site which
is open to the public. Ken also sends a nifty Excel spreadsheet that
estimates HP and a video clip of his new setup with plenty of vooom, vooom
sounds. The POCA members get Jack's article plus the high quality media
plus the extra goodies at no extra cost. Everyone on the DeTomaso forums
talks about Ken's cool new setup. Matt sees the forum postings, sees the
pictures and video, and is so impressed he drives a POCA membership
application and check for $75 right over to Judy's house.

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of Ken Green
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 9:45 AM
To: doug at silicondesigns.com
Cc: DeTomaso Forum
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Who is going to be at WOT long enough
toneedFancySchmantzy Race Oil? 6- PANTERA OIL

I'm not quite sure where you are coming from, although I'm pretty sure
you're from the third planet. When did I criticize Jack? I guess I need to
read my post again? 

My complaint is that the tech material is relegated to a nearly throw
away publication with fairly low resolution graphics (pictures help), and
that there is some POCA rule that tech material will not be provided in the
higher quality Profiles. At least one potential contributor told me that he
would no longer contribute tech material to POCA because of this policy, and
I can only guess how many others feel the same way.

Can you explain why that amounts to criticizing Jack or Mike? I guess
you know something that I'm not aware of?

Ken

Doug Braun wrote:
Ken,

What planet are you on? Jack DeRyke (and others) have blessed us with
serious technical articles in each and every issue of the newsletter. So
what if it's not in glossy color; it's the content that counts. You're
welcome to freeload information off this forum and are entitled to answers
to any reasonable questions you put forth here but please don't belittle the
efforts of those who are trying to run a genuine Pantera club. It's clubs
like POCA that give us a greater sense of camaraderie and help to give our
cars (yours included) a greater perceived value. I cherish each and every
issue of both the Profiles and the Newsletter as one common publication and
I'm grateful there are men like Mike and Jack who donate incredible amounts
of time to both these publications and this forum.

Doug Braun
blue 73L #5505

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com
[mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com]On Behalf Of Ken Green
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 10:05 PM
To: MikeLDrew at aol.com; teampantera at yahoo.com; ramosel at pacbell.net;
RCBSONS1 at aol.com; detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Who is going to be at WOT long enough to
needFancySchmantzy Race Oil? 6- PANTERA OIL

If POCA had a high quality publication with serious tech info, I'd be a
member : )

MikeLDrew at aol.com wrote:
In a message dated 10/3/07 7:45:48 PM, kenn_green at yahoo.com writes:

> How about filling in the blanks for those of us who don't know anything
> about GT1 or the car they are racing.
>

If you were a POCA member you would have read all about it in the last
issue.
:>)

Mike

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