[DeTomaso] Mike Drew has an announcement to make....

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/19/11 20 33 10, asajay at asajay.com writes:


> So Mike....
> 
> Something you'd like to tell us?
> 

Oh, you must have heard!   After almost seven years, my long-dormant Shelby 
GT350 clone is about to return to the living!   A few months ago, Kirk 
Evans was kind enough to pick up my partially-completed engine from Gary Roys' 
house and deliver it to the hands of his pet engine builder, located in the 
very southern part of Michigan.   He took it apart to inspect it, and 
discovered that the previous engine builder (a crook who stole thousands of dollars 
from numerous people, including me, and eventually drank himself to death) 
had wrecked my rare and desirable Mexican 302 block by boring it .033-.35 
over, making my .030 over pistons a rattling loose fit. :<(

So, I bit the bullet and bought a new Ford Motorsports Boss 302 block, an 
awesome piece of kit, much beefier and heavier than the original 1960s Boss 
blocks were.   He then transferred the guts over, ran it on the dyno, and 
found some problems with the ignition.   Even at that, it still made 400 hp, 
but with a proper ignition system on it, it should do a fair bit better.

I flew to Detroit, picked it up with Gary and we brought it back to his 
house and installed it in the car, along with a new MSD ready-to-run 
distributor (replacing a worn-out stock Ford distributor with a Petronix).   
Unfortunately, my old headers, which had a really strange routing, absolutely would 
not clear my new Quicktime bellhousing, so progress was halted prematurely 
and I didn't get to drive the car that weekend.

I wound up ordering three sets of headers from Summit, and the other day 
Gary managed to get one set to fit properly; the exhaust flanges don't line up 
of course (my exhaust has an H-pipe), but that will be a simple matter for 
a muffler shop to rectify.

Photos here:

http://s692.photobucket.com/albums/vv288/576103/GT350%20Headers%20installed/


So it's all downhill from here; the car should be more-or-less complete, 
and ready to roll onto a trailer by the end of the month to be shipped home.   
I'll have to finish some very minor details, like installing new trunk 
weatherstripping, new hinges for the pass-through door etc.   If time allows I 
might be able to fly back to Detroit after Thanksgiving to spend a day or two 
cleaning up these minor details, but otherwise I'll sort them out here.

But in any case, I haven't driven this car since October 2005, and soon 
I'll be back behind the wheel again, so that's very exciting!

Although, perhaps the news that Asa Jay is referring to is the fact that as 
of 11:11 p.m. on 11/11/11, Lori Albino (a.k.a. Lori Pantera, to distinguish 
her from the Lori Ferrari that you all know) and I are engaged to be 
married. :>)

(11 is Lori's lucky number...)

Photo here, of Lori with her '71 Pantera #1765:

http://tinyurl.com/LoriPantera

Rich Boschert postulated that a major motivator behind my decision to ask 
her to marry me was so that I could be guaranteed of having a functional 
Pantera in the house at all times!   While that will probably be the case, I 
assure you that was only a minor consideration! :>)

No date/location yet; those details will be worked out next year 
sometime....

Cheers!

Mike