[DeTomaso] Cobra / Shelby Club Race at Willow Springs / Rear DeckLid Needed

Mad Dog Antenucci teampantera at yahoo.com
Wed May 14 23:05:46 EDT 2008


I've done 41 open road races and  never had a problem with securing either the steel decklid or the Wilkinson CF/Kevlar overlay decklid or hood on the Pantera.

And Garth you are correct no one else has either.  Unintentionally at one time or another my hood or 1 or 2 others hoods or decklids came loose and 'floated' 4-6" in the air between 140-170+ mph but none ever came off.

The only person I know who ever had a problem was Junior when he ended up driving backwards at 200+ mph with his rear view mirror and in that case the 'floating' decklid immediately slammed up and over the roof but it never came off! ;-]>. 




Garth Rodericks <garth_rodericks at yahoo.com> wrote: What poor performance???  My point is that no one else is experiencing this problem, so 
  not likely that it's a "compromised design," unless of course you're referring to the 
  design/lay-up quality of the CF decklid.

John Taphorn  wrote:
          Garth
   
  I appreciate your passion, but bigger straps doesn't interest me.  It is obvious that it needs to be tied down better.  It is clever to improve the airflow such that it would stay in place without any tie-downs.  Bigger hammer, larger clamps, more horsepower, can overcome a lot of compromised designs and mediocre driving skills.  I'd rather address the cause of poor performance.
   
  JT
   
   
    ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Garth Rodericks 
  To: dfcex at pacbell.net ; detomaso at realbig.com ; John Taphorn ; Mike Drew ; kenn_green at yahoo.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 6:05 PM
  Subject: Cobra / Shelby Club Race at Willow Springs / Rear DeckLid Needed
  

  Uh, aren't we all missing the point here?  The rear decklid should NOT come off, 
  regardless of whether or not there's a front spoiler or airdam, or the trunk tub is in place or 
  not. MD and others consistently run at Silver State at super-illegal speeds without losing 
  their rear decklids. And I've never heard of anyone else losing their rear decklid on the track. 
  And there's also the guy who holds a land speed record at 209+ mph in his stock bodied 71 
  Pantera with no wings or spoilers, and he's never had the rear decklid come off.
   
  Is this a case of the carbon fiber just not being stout enough at the hinge mount points? 
  Surely if it cracked at one of the hinge points, that would be enough for the lid to lift into the 
  airstream enough to be grabbed like a parachute and ripped right off. Perhaps it's time to 
  bond some steel into/across that mounting point so it doesn't separate from the hinges or 
  flex enough to allow the wind grab it.
   
  I also recall one of the silver state guys running with the rear decklid unlatched; it 
  supposedly raised up a few inches in the back and stabilized there. I don't recommend this 
  though, especially on a track and if you're racing through twisties as that will put a lot of 
  lateral force on the decklid (probably not allowed for safety reasons too), and one spin at 
  speed would surely remove it again.
   
  I think you have to figure out why it's coming off in the first place before you bother making 
  expensive aero mods to depressurize the engine compartment/trunk area. Just my 2-cents.
   
  Cheers!
  Garth
  


       
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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



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