[DeTomaso] Straight up.....

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

Hi guys,

On Saturday, I drove my Pantera up to Yuba City (which is hardly a city at 
all), where a friend of mine owns a muffler shop.   I went up there to gut my 
Euro GTS mufflers and free up all the horsepower they are robbing.   More on 
that later, but I just wanted to talk about my drive home.

There are really no direct roads from my house to Yuba City, and the only 
options are going a very roundabout route on freeways, or a somewhat more direct 
routing on two-lane roads.   It shouldn't take much of guess to know which way 
I chose.

These were not mountain roads, but rather extremely flat roads through 
farmland, sometimes gently curving as they followed the path of a river, but mostly 
going straight in between fields.   I was coming home in the middle of the 
night (approaching midnight), on totally empty two-lane roads that were mostly 
straight and flat, with nary a soul around.   I wasn't paying too much attention 
to the gauges; instead I was enjoying the exhaust sound (hardly changed at 
all inside the car) and the view.   Eventually I looked down and saw that both 
needles were pointed straight up.   4000+ rpm, about 105 mph, in a 55 mph zone.

That is really where a Pantera comes into its own.

I drove that way for quite a few miles, really enjoying the car, and the 
drive.   I did note that the windows were fogging up because I still haven't 
installed the heater hoses, and eventually I had to slow down and wipe the inside 
of the glass a bit.   Just about then I got to the freeway, and had an 
uneventful drive home the rest of the way, moving just faster than the flow of traffic 
around me.

Now, days later, I'm still smiling at the thought of those few minutes spent 
flying across the central valley, needles pointing skyward...:>)

Mike


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