[DeTomaso] Success at Le Mans!

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/15/08 5 13 40, charlesmccall at gmail.com writes:


> Mike is apparently catching up on his sleep, since he didn't do it at Le
> Mans... 
> 
>>>Nonsense--a quick catnap when I got home was all that's necessary.   Now 
there's work to be done (wading through photos!)


> I didn't get to say goodbye to him - he was last seen at 4am heading
> back to the track like a junkie looking for another fix...
> 
>>>Indeed.   I had returned to the campsite with the idea of perhaps taking a 
nap, and I went so far as to enter the tent before the thought occurred that 
there are at least 362 other days of the year in which sleep can be had.   
Thus the decision was soon made to capitalize upon the fact that racing was 
ongoing, and I quickly departed the tent and headed back to the track! :>)
> 
> More when I get a second, but it is one of the best events I've attended
> ever. More cool cars in the campground than any year I've been, and the
> noises were wonderful. No diesels here!
> 
>>>Except my beleagured VW Polo rental car, which returned about 40 mpg under 
relentless hammering while keeping up with the Panteras driving 
cross-country, and something closer to 50 mpg on the cruise back to Paris afterwards.
> 
> Pat had three races of one hour each, as did all the cars that finished. The
> other Panteras dropped like flies. But one of them had chunks of clutch
> falling out during qualifying - Mike predicted a short run and I think they
> got two laps in total :-(
> 
>>>Now, be fair--they got in about six or eight laps total. (DOH!)

Considering the entry fee to participate in the race was quite high (I know 
in 2006 it was more than 8000 Euros), that works out to something better than 
1000 Euros a lap.

By the way, the owner of that car was a VERY nice guy, rather youngish, named 
Fabrice.   He was blown away by the support and good wishes he received from 
the worldwide Pantera contingent while in Le Mans.   Prior to this weekend, 
he'd never met another Pantera owner, didn't know anything about the various 
vendors (he had managed to find one USA vendor and had spent upwards of $10000 in 
the past few months), and knew absolutely nothing whatsoever about the 
Pantera itself.   He was literally throwing the car together in the weeks prior to 
the race; the paint on the car was two days old when we arrived at the track on 
Friday morning.   There were quite a few bits left off the car in haste, just 
because he didn't have time to reassemble it fully.

The car itself is a European L-model, identical to US-market L-models except 
that it had two-piece bumperettes in the front (he removed the one-piece rear 
bumper for aesthetic reasons).   The low-compression engine looked 
bog-standard right down to the air cleaner, other than the obligatory Holley 
carb/Edelbrock Performer intake upgrade.   Clearly, he has a *long* way to go before this 
is a proper race car.

Simple ignorance caused him to mis-adjust his own clutch, which caused it to 
slip, which in turn caused it to overheat and jam up.   I've never seen clutch 
lining material spraying out of the inspection hole in the bellhousing 
before. :<(

He also had a broken spring in his distributor which caused his spark advance 
to go to full advance right away.   I would imagine he detonated the hell out 
of the engine, and that may have been responsible for killing the car.   I 
don't know what happened--he managed to do one pace lap and one very, very slow r
ace lap during the last race, and then disappeared, hopefully under his own 
power into the paddock?   He was gone by the time I got there after the racing 
ended.

But anyway, all of us there promised to support him in the future, and he 
will soon be joining this forum and asking a LOT of questions.   It's important 
that he improves his laps-per-Euro ratio very soon. :>)

Mike



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