[DeTomaso] Pandora's next 15 minutes of fame...

[Christopher Kimball]

Today my sons excitedly announced that the video game, "Forza 
Motorstport 3" had finally released a download-able content package 
which contains my Pantera!  I couldn't wait to see it (and drive it), 
especially since if one wrecks a car in a video game, the car instantly 
gets repaired to "good as new" condition.  The cars chosen for the game 
came from a survey of subscribers to an on-line car magazine called 
Jalopnik; they chose the "most voted for" cars on their site, and 
apparently had some kind of affiliation with Microsoft.

We got 
the car ready to race, and I was interested to see if it really was my 
car.  There were certain things that were incorrect, for example, it is 
listed as a 1971 DeTomaso Pantera while mine is actually a 1972 model.  
Also, they don't offer dark metallic green as one of the available 
colors the player can choose for the car (although my sons assure me 
that green should be available soon).  On the dash, the bottom "dummy" 
switch that I had replaced with a cruise control switch was shown as a 
courtesy light switch.   Finally, the wheels depicted in the game 
version of the car are the original Campagnolo wheels and not the 
after-market ones I use.

What made me most doubt that it was actually a depiction of my Pantera is that..........in the game the Pantera always starts!

So I was beginning to wonder if it really was my car after all.  

On
 closer inspection, however, I noticed that the radio is the same one 
that is in my car.  "Well," I thought, "there must have been other 
Panteras from the that era that used the same radio as the one I have." 
 Then I noticed on the rear deck lid that the edging around the opening 
was chrome instead of the stock black (interestingly, it appears the 
game makers put a window there, which is, of course, not correct).  Some
 time ago I replaced my black surround with chrome.  Still, maybe 
someone else had done that, too.  Looking closer I saw what looked like 
two rectangular speaker grills on what should be the engine cover.  In a
 real Pantera putting speakers there couldn't work, of course, but what could
 work is to have, say, a couple of fans mounted to vent hot air out of 
the engine compartment--exactly what I added--and the fan grills I use 
are black and rectangular!

But what finally made me realize it 
really is Pandora, is that on the dash just above the light switch is a 
row of three LEDs.  These are found on no other Pantera, since I 
installed them to monitor my three radiator fans.  I wanted to be sure I
 knew when power was getting to each one, so that if there were an 
electrical problem and the fans weren't working, I would know to stop 
driving.  Or continue driving over 100 miles per hour to keep the engine
 cool...

Anyway, it's pretty cool to know that a bunch of crazy 
kids will be driving my Pantera into walls, other cars, spectators, 
etc.  No, wait--that's a nightmare!!!

Sincerely,

Chris Kimball
President, Panteras Northwest