[DeTomaso] A True Story

[cengles at cox.net]

Dear Forum,

My buddy owns two Lambo Diablos. He used to own one of my Panteras. We were going to shoot from Oklahoma City to Ft. Worth via the back roads one recent weekend. His yellow one doesn't like to run in summer heat. It runs warm and sometimes it runs hot (does that sound familiar to Pantera owners?), so he doesn't like to drive it in the heat (he once commented to me that he was amazed that I was able to buzz around the city in the 450hp Pantera without it overheating!). That leaves the blue one. He drove about ten miles to rendezvous at my place for departure. He was late. He was overheated. His Diablo had become infected with electronic gremlins and its mighty V12 had limped along as a six cylinder with a computer controlled shut down of one bank. The Diablo's computer wasn't happy and Ray wasn't happy. He had to abort and limp back home. He is not intimidated by working on his cars and has done so in the past.

I spoke with him last night and reviewed the run to Ft. Worth. He told me that he was going to have his car hauled two hundred miles to DFW to the Lambo dealer for an electronic exorcism. He told me that he was frustrated that he couldn't fix it. He confided that he was very frustrated with the Diablo forums (and club???). He told me that a few years ago there was wonderful on-line help, discussion, etc. Nowadays, he says that the forum board seems devoid of activity. In his opinion the economy has caused a number of the owners to sell and has caused a number of Lambo independent shops (do they exist??) to cease the no-pay on line assistance offered in the past. He had received no reply to emails from past stalwart Diablo posters.

I told him that I knew of an Italian sports car that could be had in any configuration from stone ax simple to fully computerized and turbo charged. I told him that the club and forum were active in supporting owners. I reminded him that sports car was a Pantera. He sold his Pantera to me nineteen years ago before the Forum was running. After his tale of woe, I was grateful to own a Pantera and have membership in the Club and Forum. Thanks gang. I hope that he will seriously consider purchasing a Pantera. I am working on him.

Warmest regards, Chuck Engles

Raising Pantera Consiousness in Oklahoma!