[DeTomaso] Have We Destroyed the Detomaso Pantera?

Will Kooiman will.kooiman at gmail.com
Fri Jan 17 08:25:07 EST 2014


Most of the people on the list know that I agree with these sentiments.

I don't like driving a car that people think is a turd.  I've met people
that thought that way about the Pantera.  They remember the issues way back
in the early 1970's.  But that's very rare.  Nearly everyone is stoked about
the car.

The value is that it makes me happy.  It doesn't make me any happier if I
could sell it for $100,000.  It probably makes me sad, because it becomes a
theft target.

And I agree with driving it too.  I've had my Viper for about 2 years now,
and I've put about 36,000 miles on it.  It had 2,965 miles on it when I
bought it, and it was 10 years old.  I could understand if the guy had
several nice cars, but he had 3.  His car, his wife's car, and the Viper.
Let's seeŠ  What am I going to drive todayŠ

I would be driving my Pantera, but the restoration isn't quite finished.
Before the Viper, my Pantera was an every day car, averaging about 25,000
miles per year.  It will probably become a weekend car once I'm done with
it.  I can't see driving it every day in Miami traffic.  Or maybe I can.
We'll see.
--
Will

From:  <audionut at hushmail.com>
Date:  Thursday, January 16, 2014 3:52 PM
To:  Detomaso List <detomaso at poca.com>
Subject:  Re: [DeTomaso] Have We Destroyed the Detomaso Pantera?

Here we go again!  (I always bum out when somebody laments that the Pantera
is unfairly undervalued)  = ]  Let me break out the violin....

The difference between mass perception/hearsay (reputation) and reality
(actual experience) appears to be a perennial human failing spanning the
entire existence of mankind.  The nutcases "in charge" of things throughout
history know this well and exploit this to their advantage. Reality is no
match for perception in most people's minds, so, whatever is "officially"
stated by so-called "learned men" and is commonly accepted becomes "The
Truth" about any given subject.

Not that I'm conventionally religious or anything, but the story of Jesus
comes to mind.  The folks who knew the guy and hung out with him, liked him.
The people "in charge" felt threatened by him and smeared his reputation.
The masses bought the lies and you know the rest.

We have not destroyed the reputation of the Pantera by becoming intimately
acquainted with it's weak spots and working out their solutions together.
"Learned Men" have done this and the weak-minded, fearful folk out there
believe them.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your
perspective), weak-minded, fearful folk are greater in number than folks who
are brave enough to experience things first hand and then decide for
themselves.

What I love about Pantera owners is that we own one because we really love
it, because it is a badass car that looks like a prowling cat on it's
haunches ready to leap at prey, growls like one and can change direction
like one.  It's nice if it increases in value over the years but, who cares
if it doesn't?

This is a driver's car and it's a hell of a lot of fun.  To me, life is
about the joy of living, not about cold acquisition and impeccable
maintenance of assets. Folks who buy cars and park them in
humidity-controlled environments for investment purposes can fk off the
Pantera.  And I'm glad they do.  Nothing against them, but this car was not
built for these people.  It was built for folks who aren't afraid to jump
onto the wild beast of life and ride the mthrfkr.
Certainly Allejandro was such a person himself.

Unhappy with the resale value of your Pantera?  Stop whining and sell it.
Let some crazy bastard buy it, modify it to their taste and drive the
goddamned wheels off it.

................

I saw a guy with a rusty, dented up old pushbutton at a Pantera show a few
years back.  (Some of you must know the car I'm talking about.)  It was his
daily
driver and it looked like a beaten dog but I thought, "That's the spirit!"

Clearly, we are a different breed.  You are never going to see a vintage
Ferrari pimped-out metal-flake purple with a gold-plated engine, am I right?





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On January 16, 2014 at 10:04 AM, "LS" <lashdeep at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>  A few long time Detomaso owners stated have this *exact* phenomenon as part
> of what eventually became the reputation and image of Detomaso cars in North
> America.
> 
> http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355/426232-have-we-destroyed-355-a.html
> 
> We don't need to waste anyone's time on a F355 discussion specifically but the
> parallel to the Detomaso situation is interesting.
> 
> LS
> 
> 
> 
> central 
> wines-spirits   est 1934
> 
> 625 e street nw
> washington, dc 20004
> 
> centralwines.com <http://centralwines.com/>
> 
> facebook.com/CentralLiquors <http://facebook.com/CentralLiquors>
> 
> 202-737-2800
> 
> 
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