[DeTomaso] Chris Kimball 2013 POCA Fun Rally Journal day 6

[Christopher Kimball]

April 26, 2013

 

I’m a bad influence on
Brian.  When my alarm went off at 8:00 AM
I groggily looked across the room and was shocked to see Brian still
asleep.  I may have awakened him when I
gasped at this sacrilege.  I immediately
absolved myself from blame, however, because I remembered him telling me the
night before about his late-night gambling intentions.  I noticed a couple of unusual things about
Brian this morning, undoubtedly related to his midnight frolicking.  His wallet seemed a lot thinner, he had an
odd smell of cheap perfume, and lipstick marks were all over his disheveled
shirt, which he was still wearing.  

 

NOT REALLY!  He claims he didn’t lose much in his Texas
Hold ‘em game, and was the perfect gentleman the entire evening-- even if he
did stay up past his normal bedtime.  I’m
hoping this is the beginning of a trend so he can learn to enjoy being a night
person, but he assures me this was simply a one-time lapse in judgment.

 

For breakfast I again
consumed teriyaki beef bites, full of juicy deliciousness (“and,” Brian wants
me to add, “sodium chloride and preservatives”) along with another Kern’s
nectar.  OK, so the Kern’s is only 30%
juice—at least it doesn’t have any sodium chloride in it.  What? 
It does?  Well, isn’t chloride
what made the toothpaste Crest so great back in the ‘70’s?

 

Brian was off to the track
to meet with Adam Quella (son of Dennis’ of Pantera Performance fame).  He was hoping to receive some guidance
concerning his clutch questions.  In the
end, Brian was a very happy camper, since it turned out the problem was only a
slave adjustment.  This type of thing has
rarely been seen since the emancipation proclamation.  The best thing is that unlike the civil war, it
was fixed at no cost.  Of course, if you
know Panteras, then you know when I say slave, I’m referring to the slave
cylinder which affects the clutch

 

I plotted the address to Back
to Basics Auto Repair into my GPS (the reliable one) and headed to nearby
Phoenix.  “By the time I get there,” I
thought to myself, “she’ll be wakin.’…” 
The owner, Dave, seemed glad to see me. 
It’s funny how anyone who makes his or her living fixing cars is always
glad to see a Pantera drive up.  Even one
of his mechanics remembered Pandora, and upon seeing me arrive began singing “She’s
real great, my 408” which is a line from a song I recorded about my Pantera.  I must have played it for him last year when
I was getting my A/C fixed.

 

All the folks at Back to
Basics are really nice people.  Dave and
I chatted as his mechanic looked at my car’s steering rack, tire pressure and
A/C.  Even though the air conditioning
has been working fine, I thought it might benefit from a slight recharge.

 

After a couple of hours I
heard the report.  The good news was the
steering rack is just fine (huge sigh of relief).  The interesting news was the wheels were all
out of balance (inexpensive-to-fix sigh of relief).  The weird news was the tires were inflated
far higher than I thought (curious sigh of relief).  

 

It looks as if my tires
hadn’t lost any air at all.  In Fact,
they had too much pressure.  The culprit
seems to be my digital tire-pressure gauge. 
How could it be wrong?  It went to
zero before I used it as it’s supposed to, it beeped letting me know when to
take it off the valve stem to check the pressure, and its little LCD readout
was clear and unmistakable.  

 

I risk totally alienating
my two computer-savvy sons by saying this, but I think it failed because the
unit contains a small computer chip. 
Ever since Bill Gates became a household name, I have complained about
computers.  The scary thing is; they know
it and are out to get me.  This tire-pressure-gauge
conspiracy is only the latest example.

 

Brian, the responsible
one, says he uses an analogue gauge.

 

The A/C was only a little
bit down, but just the small additional recharge of R-12 made a huge
difference.  You may find this hard to believe,
but driving from Phoenix back to Chandler at noon, I was actually getting
chilly and thought about turning the air conditioner down a notch or two.  Amazing! 
Equally amazing was the total bill for the work:  $87.00. 
Anyone who knows about Pantera repair bills knows that $87.00 barely
counts as a repair bill.  Heck, it costs
more than that for some people to fill their car’s tanks with gas!  I’m really glad I have some money left to buy
raffle tickets.

 

I saw Brian again as I
returned to the hotel parking lot.  He
was just returning from the track, where many owners take the chance of
injuring their cars by beating on them in a competitive environment.  Since 1500 miles back to University Place is
a pretty stout walk, I don’t take my car on the track.  

 

Just as we were about to
go to lunch at—you guessed it—Café 24, a large, flatbed truck arrived.  On its large flatbed was a really cool, black
Pantera.  I had met the owner when I
arrived in Chandler and we had some good discussions about Panteras and
such.  The conversation now revolved
around damaged cams and such.  The number
“1” on his car’s doors indicated he had been on the track when something broke.  I was sorry for his plight, but I think I
heard him say he had a trailer, so with any luck he can get it home to its
stable without a problem.

 

Brian and I proceeded to
the Café and had a great lunch at a really reasonable price.  I, for example, had the soup and sandwich
combo consisting of ½ an egg-salad sandwich and a cup of clam chowder.  I also had a chocolate malt, followed by a vanilla
malt for dessert, all for only $20.00—and that included a $4.15 tip.  Brian had the soup/salad combo, too, but
enjoyed a full sandwich, and lemonade instead of two malts.  What’s up with that?  Lemonade instead of malts?  You’d think he works in the health and
medical field or something.

 

After lunch Brian headed
off to the tech session while I stayed in the hotel room and typed what you
just read.  I’m going to take a short nap
now, and finish this journal following the big dinner shindig tonight.  The schedule indicates the big Karaoke
shindig is tomorrow night.  

 

 

I just got back from the
shindig, and it turned out there was a Karaoke shindig tonight after all.  But, I’m getting ahead of myself…

 

Dinner was delicious.  There were various meats, vegetables and
other good but boring food, but things became more interesting when I found three
different dessert choices.  For the
benefit of my reading audience, I was compelled to sample each:  Rich, chocolate layer cake, pecan pie, and
coconut cream pie.  Coconut cream pie is
normally not my first choice of desserts, but I found if I added a forkful of
that with an equal amount of the salmon, the combination was quite delicious.  I really should be a chef.  I would come up with all sorts of great food
combinations no one else would dare to try.

 

While standing in line,
Mike drew, Steve and Linda Liebenow, Brian and I discussed broken push rods and
compressed valve springs.  Linda and I
mostly listened.

 

Brian and I sat at a table
filled with pleasant people.  The
gentleman to my left turned out to be none other than Larry Stock of Pantera
parts connection.  I told him I had
admired his workmanship for years via the pictures of some of his Pantera
creations found in various Pantera-related publications and websites. 

 

During the dinner, several
awards were bestowed upon worthy recipients, although when it came to who drove
the furthest to attend the Fun Rally, Brian and I were in third and fourth
place, respectively, so we didn’t get any kind of trophy or plaque.  After driving so far, I’ll suggest to Brian we
not brush out teeth until we get back to Tacoma—that way at least will have
some plaque.  The winner had driven about
2000 miles to get there.  Next year, I
think I’ll circle the block around my house 800 times before I get on the
freeway so I can win the award for traveling the farthest.  

 

The couple that traveled
the greatest distance overall was from Sweden, which, for those of you who don’t
know geography, is farther away from Phoenix than University place. 

 

The keynote speaker was Al
Axelrod, who started his auto repair shop in the 1960’s and had the opportunity
to work on cars for a variety of famous people, including Mama Cass
Elliott.  He didn’t mention any specific
modifications for her car, but I suspect he might have had to add a couple of
extra leaf springs.  His relaxed style
and humor made his talk seem very short, and I think everyone in attendance
would have enjoyed an additional hour of his insights and anecdotes.

 

This year, there was a Don
Peak Memorial Award recipient.  The Don
Peak Memorial Award is given to individuals who have contributed to POCA above
and beyond the call of duty.  Previous
award winners include Harvey Patroder, who, during one of his chapter’s scenic
drives, amputated his left arm by the side of the road to access a bone of
sufficient length to replace one his fellow Pantera owner’s broken steering
rack.  This year’s award recipient was Bill
Honhorst, the same gentleman I met while dining on Dolly (that sounds a bit cannibalistic,
doesn’t it?)  The story is that in the
early days of POCA, Bill would chisel the POCA newsletters into individual
slabs of stone and transport by wooly mammoth one to every member.  Or something like that.

 

After dinner I milled
about for a while in the huge dining hall and chatted with several interesting
individuals, including Dennis Quella, his son and his assistant, Becky.  I’ve spoken to Becky countless times over the
phone, ordering parts and getting advice. 
It was fun to put a face to a name.

 

Later, in the hospitality
suite I met Tom Shinrock and Dena Baethke. 
Dena is Tom’s fiancée, and it is her first time attending a Fun
Rally.  I told Tom if Dena is willing to
drive for three days in a Pantera to get to a conference about Panteras, hear for
five days about nothing other than Panteras, and then ride another three days
in a Pantera back to home, she shouldn’t be his fiancée; she should be his
wife!  And soon--before she discovers how
much it costs to keep a Pantera happy, and changes her mind.

 

Next, it was out to the
pool to participate in a fun activity that got its name from the ancient tradition
of transporting an individual who is from Muskogee.  Of course, I’m talking about Karaoke.

 

The crowd was mellow, and
not much happening at the microphones until a young woman with a beautiful
voice sang “The Rose,” a song originally performed by Bette Midler.  This was all it took to inspire me to do a
rousing rendition of “Hip to be Square,” a Huey Lewis favorite of mine.  Plus, I’m sure the lyrics comforted most of
the Pantera owners there, who are now reassured they are hip.  I received moral support, if not a lot of
background vocal support, from John Taphorn, who told me he really can’t sing
and wished he could play an instrument. 
What he didn’t realize is that the sound of his 351 Cleveland is music
to many people’s ears.  

 

I found Lori and Mike Drew
in the hospitality suite and told Lori that since I promised her last year we
could do a Karaoke song together, we should do so now.  She agreed, and I had the pleasure of singing
the Monkees hit “I’m a Believer” with the new Mrs. Drew.  She did great!

 

Although I would have
loved to stay longer at poolside, the powers that be moved the Presidents’
meeting tomorrow morning to the ungodly hour of 8:00 AM.  For those of you keeping track, that means I have
to get up at 7:00 AM, or just 6 hours from now. 
That is way too early to have to rise when on vacation.  If I were king, I would remove the numbers
four through nine from every clock in the Country, thereby making it impossible
to get up any earlier than 10 AM.

 

I think before I go to bed
I will drink one more can of Kern’s nectar. 
What could it hurt?