[DeTomaso] 427 Pantera follow up

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

.... only three were built is wrong. Besides Dennis' CO conversions, there 
were at least a few others- for instance Don Welch and his buddy (now 
deceased) did one in So-Cal in the early '80s. His buddy told him, 'its easy. Only 
three little things need to be changed....' leading me to believe that it 
had been done before in So-Cal. Don said that after 10 months of work, the 
last of the '3 little things' were completed on his car- 'and he's not my 
buddy any more!' 
Don's car was the first 'Targa' Pantera ever built- a decade before Gary 
Hall's Purple Passion, and upon Don dumping the clutch the first time, engine 
torque twisted the monococque enough that both doors popped open. So lots of 
extra time and effort went into stiffening up the underfloor area after the 
fact. Trail-blazing is never easy. That 427-targa '73 is now in Hawaii. 
FWIW- J Deryke