[DeTomaso] Pantera sighting in Thun, Switzerland

[mikeldrew at aol.com]

Hi guys,

I just finished up a 10-day motorcycle ride in the Swiss Alps and 
Italian Dolomite mountains (Claude Dubois and a Swiss POCA member, 
Thierry Monney rode with me for the first few days).  A block from 
turning in the rental motorcycles, in the town of Thun, near 
Interlaken, I was shocked to see an auto repair workshop with the words 
GARAGE MARCEL ANDRE, and a depiction of a yellow Gr4 Pantera on the 
side of the building!

I slammed on the brakes and dove in to their forecourt.  It turns out 
the owner wasn't there, but  his Pantera was!  I was able to view the 
car for a few minutes.  It's a really nice yellow Gr4 car with Corbeau 
seats.  Because nobody was around, I didn't get to poke around too much 
to get the VIN, but it appears to be a Euro GTS, converted with Gr4 
flares, but its possible that it is a later car built that way from the 
factory.

Photos of the car can be found here:

http://www.panteracars.com/dk2000.html

Note that the owner is incorrectly identified as Andre Marcel, his name 
is actually Marcel Andre.  Apparently the car was featured in PI 
sometime prior to 2000, so perhaps somebody could do a bit of digging 
and come up with detailed info on the car.

He also had a Lamborghini Jalpa, an Alfa, and a Renault Gordini in his 
garage, but clearly the Pantera is the car he really loves, as he has a 
beautiful stained glass depiction of the car hanging in the window 
(which I stupidly forgot to photograph!)

I was sad that the owner had left already, as I would have liked to 
have met him.  Yes of course I was wearing a Pantera T-shirt!

I will send photos to Chuck for posting in the registry, assuming 
somebody can come up with the VIN?

Mike

P.S.  Top Gear says the road from Davos, Switzerland to and through the 
Stelvio Pass in Italy is the best road in the world:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZm8VFCKNj4

After negotiating something like 50-75 different Alpine passes this 
week, I would have to agree that this particular stretch is among the 
best, but I got to ride on a whole lot of different roads that were 
more or less like this--pure motoring heaven.  (A Danish guy in a 
Porsche 911 RSR said to me today, "it's like the best track day in the 
world, but with a death penalty attached" and it is so true!  The roads 
here are without a doubt the most dangerous I have ever seen, one false 
move and you simply tumble over the side, falling hundreds if not 
thousands of feet, straight down.)

   What they fail to mention is that the road in the video passes 
through a wonderful medieval village, right on the border, which is 
completely surrounded by a wall, and whose streets are entirely 
cobblestone, a very cool place indeed.

If you ever get an opportunity to visit this part of the world, by all 
means do whatever it takes to ride or drive on that road!