[DeTomaso] "Memories"

Bill Lewis lotus0005 at hotmail.com
Wed Oct 3 10:36:28 EDT 2012


Great stories!  After I got out of the "Cowboys & Indians" stage of my life at about age 12 (way back in 1953ish), I have had a "heart" for the American Indian and their demise at the hands of mostly christian Europeans.  Dastardly deeds were done.  They were truly screwed to the wall.       I notice a certain thread running through most of the stories of Panteras being driven, perhaps recklessly is correct - as below, "About twenty years ago...." and "...back when I was young and foolish...."  It appears that Darwin's theory has not affected too many drivers, but "Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust," may get us all.  If more younger folks are not drawn into the hobby, our cars will end up in museums, as we all become sooner or later demised.  But, alas, that is the problem facing most all automotive/vehicular clubs: getting young people involved.   ---Bill

> From: cengles at cox.net
> To: kirby.schrader at gmail.com; arkoch at earthlink.net
> Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2012 21:36:03 -0500
> CC: detomaso at realbig.com
> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] "Memories"
> 
> Dear Kirby,
> 
> 
>            If you don't drive them, then nothing happens.
> 
>            About twenty years ago a fellow Pantera owner and I were in
> eastern Oklahoma for some reason.  My wife was with me.  We were supposed to
> go see a special WWII submarine on display in Muskogee.  Somehow we got
> separated.  For some reason, I figured that if I drove about one hundred
> miles an hour on a sparsely trafficked turnpike, then I could catch up with
> Richard.   
> 
>            All was well until I was spotted by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
> As the Pantera slowed to a stop on the shoulder with the party lights
> playing in my rear view mirror, I turned off the Pantera and sighed.  My
> dear wife turned to me and said dryly, "I'm glad  *you're*  driving."  
> 
>                  I am still driving,  Chuck Engles
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
> Behalf Of Kirby Schrader
> Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2012 7:21 PM
> To: arkoch at earthlink.net
> Cc: detomaso at realbig.com
> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] "Memories"
> 
> Some of you have seen this before.. but here's a real oldie of a Pantera
> memory.
> Back when the speed limit was still 55 and I was young and foolish.
> Well, not young, but maybe still foolish..
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 'Traveling to Great Bend'
> 
> I was still overseas at the time, back in the US on vacation and had arrived
> back from a wedding (drove the Pantera from Pantera Performance (in Aurora
> back then) to New Jersey and back to Kansas. I had it up to 140mph through
> Ohio on the way out which impressed a couple of folks so much they followed
> me until I stopped for gas. just had to know what it was.
> 
> I had a house in Kansas at the time and it was a typical drive of three
> hours to my brother's house. Kids and the 79 turbocharged Bronco were there.
> 
> I called my brother at 4:00pm and told him we were at the house and leaving
> as soon as I hung up.'OK,' he said. 'We'll see you in about three hours
> then.'
> 
> I told him I was going to set a new 'family speed record' from my house to
> his and he replied, 'OK, if you say so!' Wife heard the conversation and
> started complaining about speeding, etc. etc. etc.
> 
> I got on I-70 and headed west and as we went along, I increased my speed
> gradually while the wife was reading her book. Through Junction City and
> Salina, I was averaging around 115-120mph. No cops... Not a single complaint
> out of the radar detector. Everything fine. She didn't even notice! Either
> the Pantera is real stable or that was one good book!!!!
> 
> I exited onto a two lane road heading for my brother's house. Western
> Kansas, no other cars in sight, clear summer day.... let's go a little
> faster. I was doing 135 for about 17 miles and came over the top of a hill.
> At the bottom were five cars. One right behind the other...
> Strange.... Should know.... Why?
> 
> Zoomed past them all and found out.... Unmarked under-sheriff's car at the
> front doing the regulation 55mph at the time. Damn! Wife asks what's the
> problem. Just went by an unmarked cop car at 135!
> 
> 'What are you going to do now?' she asked.
> 
> Pondering and looking back in the mirror and seeing an arm come out of the
> window of the undersheriff's car pointing at me as I disappeared over the
> next hill.... Guess he plans on nailing me....
> 
> One, we stop and he gives me hell and whatever else.... Not an option
> really... Two, we keep going and hope he forgets the whole thing... not
> likely. Three, keep going and hope.....
> 
> I took option three, put the foot down a little further and we got about
> another 24 miles when my radar detector went nuts. Pulled in behind an old
> farmer doing about 50 in his
> '66 Ford pickup and a couple of Kansas HiPos went by flying low....
> 
> Well, the under-sheriff behind us obviously called ahead... Sigh....
> 
> I got about another 6 miles behind the truck when all three of them came up
> behind me. The first car was so close, all I saw was the grill in the rear
> view mirror....
> 
> When I finally turned off on a side road to go to my brother's, the lights
> finally came on and I pulled over. The first patrolman got out and came up
> to the door and said, 'Shut it off. Get your driver's license, insurance and
> title and get out of the car.'
> 
> Title? That's not required by law!
> 
> Get out of the car....
> 
> OK. I got out and he said, 'This doesn't look like a Pontiac! What is it?'
> 
> Pontiac? Pontiac! Of course! The title had said a 1971 Pontiac on it after I
> got the title in my name. The girl filling it out obviously didn't know what
> a Pantera was, so I had filled in a correction and sent it back in to the
> state. Explained all to the cop and he headed back for his car to check. I
> started to follow him until he pulled his gun out and said stay where I
> was.... Ulp! What the hell is the problem?
> 
> After awhile, he came back and said, 'OK, so it isn't a stolen car...
> (Aha! Duh. Tags point at a '71 Pontiac and it sure doesn't look like one!)
> 
> 'Now, what's your hurry?'
> 
> Hurry? No sir! I will admit it's kinda hard to drive this car at 55....
> So I might have been doing... oh.... maybe 63 or so...
> 
> He pulled down his sunglasses a little, peered over them and said, 'Yeah,
> right... The old boy back there in the under-sheriff's car thinks you were
> doing a little more than that!'
> 
> I don't think so I said.... All this time, the other patrolman was keeping
> the sheriff in check. Seems he _really_ wanted to talk to me.
> Almost needed a cage around him...
> 
> About then, five more local police from Great Bend drove up. Man! 8 police
> cars, lights flashing, rubber neckers gawking... I started laughing.
> Couldn't help it! It was something out of a movie!
> 
> The patrolman was not amused, but since the under-sheriff didn't have radar
> and couldn't clock me and the other two didn't get me thanks to the help of
> my radar detector and the old farmer, he ended up letting me go. No ticket,
> no warning... Just a stiff finger in my chest saying if I wanted to drive
> fast in this here car I'd better find a race track in future. Yes, sir! No
> problem, sir!
> 
> Drove into my brother's driveway at 6:15. He was impressed! And even more so
> when I told him that I'd just spent 15 minutes outside of town with 8 cop
> cars!
> 
> We all had a good laugh when I told the story.
> 
> Next year, I came back to see him and he had his own story. Seems every time
> someone would get onto driving fast stories in a conversation in a bar or
> restaurant locally, they'd start talking about this silver Ferrari/silver
> Lamborghini/'name your favorite sports car here' doing 120mph outside of
> town and getting stopped by a varying number of police.
> 
> My brother said he loved turning around, interrupting and telling them it
> was his brother, it was a silver '71 Pantera, and it was 135 instead of
> 120.... and there were 8 police cars.
> 
> I can come up with a few others.. 
> Going to Pocono with John Taphorn and meeting Mike Trusty for the first time
> driving down the interstate. Coming back from Pocono in a downpour in
> Louisiana.
> Driving the Longchamp back from South Carolina.
> And others.
> 
> FWIW,
> Kirby
> 
> 
> On Oct 2, 2012, at 1:29 PM, Dick Koch <arkoch at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> > My Pantera has been the catalyst for many fond memories developed 
> > during my 38 years of ownership of 6831, some more unique than others.
> > Yesterday I posted on my Facebook page a unique event that came to 
> > mind when reading an article in the Atlanta paper about Susan Ford Bales.
> > 
> > The purchase of my Pantera was the catalyst for this unique event that 
> > happened the week I bought my Pantera in 1974.  If interested, one can 
> > read the post at:
> > https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=473204112719593&l=6556aba2b8
> > 
> > My point in bring this up, is to spur other folks to post their "unique" 
> > experiences that resulted primarily due to their ownership of their 
> > Pantera, unique experiences outside of car shows, tech sessions, and 
> > such.  I believe there are many very interesting tales that others 
> > have experienced that would be of interest to folks who post or lurk 
> > on the forum.
> > 
> > Dick Koch - Atlanta
> > 
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