[DeTomaso] Fun Rally Chronicles, Day 9
Christopher Kimball
chrisvkimball at msn.com
Sun Jun 1 03:31:18 EDT 2014
Day
Nine, March 31st: It can’t be over yet—it just started!
It’s almost impossible to believe the Fun Rally is over. The time passed so quickly; I guess that’s
what happens when you pack a ton of fun into just 4 ½ days. Of course, for me there are another five days
to go before I reach home, and that’s assuming all goes as planned (plans which
have already been altered, as I’ll describe later).
This morning I had to get up at 7:30.
It’s almost as if I were going into the office! I rose that early because of a meeting, but
it was the POCA Presidents’ meeting. These
meetings are top-secret. Before the
meeting starts, each attendee pricks his or her finger, and the blood from each
is combined in a silver chalice. We then
simultaneously chant the POCA vow of confidentiality, engage in the secret
Pantera Handshake, and confirm that if anyone divulges any of the information
about to be discussed he or she must subsequently pour the contents of the
chalice into his or her Pantera’s cooling system, and be banned from all future
car-related activities for eternity.
No wait; due to the early hour of our President’s breakfast meeting I
must have drifted off to sleep at the table and dreamed all that…
Seriously, I’m not sure how much of what was discussed at the meeting I’m
free to divulge, so I’ll just mention a few items which aren't secret. If you would like a full transcript of the
meeting, simply log on to www.NSA.gov and you should find everything recorded
there. I’m just kidding. Don’t really go to that website, it may lead
you to an unseemly cat-juggling forum.
One of the issues we discussed, which should be of concern to all POCA
members, is that of our aging membership.
I suggested we simply discover a youth serum so we could live forever at
whatever age we wanted.
I couldn't get a second on that motion, so we discussed other options,
such as talking to everyone we meet about the excitement of owning a Pantera
and the fun of interacting with such a great group of people as POCA club
members.
If you have ideas on how to inspire young people to keep the POCA fire
alive (and I don’t mean the one which occurred in my engine compartment a few
years ago--twice), please let those of us on the board know about it. Take any opportunities you can to talk about
our favorite cars to members of the media, or people you meet at car shows. It’s in all our best interest to support each
other, the Pantera vendors, and POCA.
During the meeting, the POCA leadership talked about additional items,
all top-secret, except for the other motion I made which also wasn't seconded. I thought it was a great idea to raise the
annual dues to $400 per year and give the extra $325 from each member to me so
I can make my car look as cool as some of the ones I've seen this year. Unfortunately, no one else could see the
brilliance of that plan.
Speaking of cool cars (and why wouldn't we?), after the Presidents’
meeting, we drove about 6 miles from the hotel to join the rest of the members
and their cars at San Diego’s Embarcadero Marina Park for an exclusive Pantera
car show. We were treated as royalty; we
even got to drive our cars along the winding sidewalk to the grassy knoll
overlooking the water. Fortunately,
there wasn't any sinister plot concerning the grassy knoll, in fact, the Park
is located on the East side of San Diego Bay and is adjacent to Seaport Village—a
decidedly non-sinister place. It is truly
a postcard come to life. The water was
as blue as grabber (Ford people get that joke), there were boats and ships passing
by, the stores and shops along the water were picturesque, and there were
probably close to 70 Panteras lined up on the grass.
The weather was perfect (again), and if one began to feel a little too
warm, shelter was offered courtesy of some covered areas. The pictures simply can’t do the experience
justice. Walking among the gorgeous
DeTomasos was almost ethereal. If only I didn't have these pesky financial obligations, such as food, clothing, shelter,
and private college for my sons, maybe my car could look as spectacular as some
of the examples at the show this afternoon.
Not only were there over-the-top, rolling works of art, but also a few
Panteras in virtually stock condition.
As we all know, these are getting harder to find.
The same drone I saw yesterday was again hovering around the cars. I think it may be following us.
While at the village I felt something calling me—what could it be? I followed the inner voice which led me
to…surprise! A Ben and Jerry’s ice cream
stand. I enjoyed a coffee-ice-cream
malt. It cost the same as the one room
service brought me last night. This doesn't necessarily mean I overpaid this afternoon. What it might mean is the
room-service-provided malt wasn't such a bad deal after all. Thank you sir, may I have another? You bet!
As I drove back to the hotel, I noticed my car groaning. Since I hadn't told it a joke, I didn't know
why that would be happening. It was most
evident as I turned corners, and seemed to have something to do with the steering
rack. I’m no mechanic, but I think it’s
generally not a good idea to have a steering rack fall off while traveling at
70 miles per hour. Since safety is any
Pantera owner’s first concern (well, OK, maybe second, after speed), I wanted
to have someone smarter than I check it out.
I asked a couple of members what they thought, and within minutes
several had gathered around Pandora, we had her up on a jack; the front wheels
being wiggled. It turns out not only is
it a good idea to wiggle wires when diagnosing a problem, but wiggling anything
can be helpful.
One of the people suggested I talk with Don Byars. Don has a business card with a Picture of a
Pantera on it, and his company is called “Full-Throttle Panteras.” This indicated to me he just might be a good
person to know, especially with a 1460-mile journey ahead of me.
Not only did he come out to the parking garage to check things out, he
is actually going to take a look at the steering mechanism tomorrow in his
shop. Mike Drew and Don both agreed
about what they think might be the problem, and a visit to Don’s shop may
rectify things for me.
Two things struck me—first, Don’s shop isn't open on Sundays, so this again
reflects the generosity of those who make up the Pantera community.
Secondly, Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest. Basically I would be causing Don to work on
the Sabbath. This is a perfect example
of why it’s really good to study the Bible; I remembered the story of Jesus
being accused by the Pharisees of working on the Sabbath, and how the question
was resolved.
What Jesus had done on the Sabbath that was supposedly so bad was heal
a man. His response to the accusers was
to ask them if they thought it was right to do good on the Sabbath. Of course that was rhetorical; it’s always a
good thing to heal someone who’s sick.
I think you know where I’m going with this.
Clearly Pandora needs to be restored to health. Therefore, Don is demonstrating a Biblical
example. By fixing my Pantera, Don is
simply doing the Lord’s work…
I really do appreciate Don’s generosity, and look forward to seeing his
shop tomorrow—it’s only 10 minutes from the hotel.
Later, I took a quick shower and put on slacks (something I haven’t had
to think about for a while), and went downstairs to the ballroom for the
capstone of the weekend; the banquet and raffle.
The big disappointment was I didn't win the M&M-guessing
contest. I guessed there were 2600 in
the container which had been sitting in the hospitality suite during the Fun
Rally. Someone named Renee guessed about
40 more than I did, and she won. I’m
sure she’ll enjoy them, but I hope she remembers to floss.
That wasn't really the biggest disappointment. That happened when they announced the raffle
numbers for the new taillight lenses. I
put every raffle ticket I had in that one, single box. But alas, even though two sets were awarded,
I was not one of the lucky winners. D’oh!
Never mind, I was in for a nice surprise anyway, which I’ll get to in a
moment.
The room was set up beautifully, and the picture I took shows one of
the two buffet lines, just before it was devastated by a bunch of hungry
Pantera owners. The room was full of
people—attendance was good.
I was busy selling all the raffle tickets I was given at the President’s
breakfast, so I was late getting a seat.
It turned out fine, though, since I was fortunate to be seated at a
table full of nice folks. Seated from
left to right: Matt Lipski, owner of a
1971 push-button; David Briggs, owner of a ’65 Mustang R-code clone and a 1966
GT40; Dave and Susan McCartney, who own a Group 4 replica; and John and Beth
Drago, owners of a 1973 L.
We had a good time during the evening, although despite his intense
desire to do so, Matt didn't end up winning any raffle prizes (but he did win
an award for his car).
I’ll give you a short version of the evening’s events (I know; you’re
thinking, “Short version? From
Chris? This will be a first”). Forgive me if I leave a few things out—things
moved along at a pretty fast clip.
John Buckman, our fearless President, addressed the enthusiastic
crowd. I hope he could feel the
admiration and appreciation we all have for him and his efforts. Indeed, applause spontaneously erupted about
every 3 minutes during the entire evening!
He introduced the keynote speaker—Tim Foraker—who had worked for Ford
during the early years of Pantera development and production. His talk was titled “Pantera Growing Pains
1970-72.”
His delivery was energetic and humorous. He told of how he worked for Shelby American
in the late ‘60s, then moved to Michigan even though his opinion of Michigan wasn't particularly high. He explained
how Ford got involved with the whole Pantera thing mainly because they wanted
to buy Ghia. The fact the Pantera project
was part of the deal was secondary.
Of the first six Panteras brought into the Country, each of the five,
high-level executives and Mr. Foraker got to take one home for the weekend to
try out. Although he returned his to
Ford unscathed, one of the executives was not so lucky. While braking to avoid a dog in the road, he
slid his Pantera into a ditch, but then blamed his 16-year-old-son for the
mishap! Executives—what can you say?
After one of Ford’s test drivers gave a Pantera a spin, and used some
colorful expletives to describe the experience to some of Ford’s top brass,
Ford’s legal department started asking questions. “Who owns the Pantera?” “Who designed the Pantera?”
When it was revealed the Italians were responsible for the design of
the car, the lawyers went nuts, and demanded the car be reviewed by Ford’s
engineering department. That turned out
to be a wise decision (see—some attorneys do make wise decisions). There were literally hundreds of changes needed
to make the car viable. The first 500 or
so Panteras were already produced by then, so three companies in the US had to
retrofit them to get them up to spec.
The next thousand needed only minor adjustments, and cars produced after
those were fine from the factory.
Sometimes keynote speakers can drag on and on. This is annoying for people who want to hurry
up and get to the good part of the evening—finding out if they've won
anything. In this case, though, the talk
was the perfect length. In fact, I found
myself wishing he would have shared even more stories. All in all, it was a great presentation.
Did I mention the food was delicious?
I had a little of everything, and two desserts. Before I took two desserts I checked with the
maître d to be sure they had more in the kitchen. I would never want to deny anyone dessert. He assured me there was plenty.
Mike Becker announced a slew of awards sponsored by vendors. Winners included Bob Richards, Phil Camp, Ed
Nagel, Matt Lipski, Teri Lambert, Marcus and Irene Smith, Ron and Bobbie
Demaderios, George Walker, and Clarke and Wilma Hamm.
The Don Peak Memorial Award went to the Late Gary and Bev Hall. Since Bev was unable to attend tonight, her
granddaughter, Tara, accepted the award while expressing her appreciation to
the club.
The Gary Powley Presidential award went to Tony and Carmen Ortiz, and
the Stanley Cooper award for most original Pantera went to Clarke and Wilma
Hamm. For those of you counting at home,
that means the Hamms got two awards!
They deserve them both.
The People’s Choice award went to Ed Mendez for his incredibly
beautiful (and fast) red rocket ship.
Don Byars helped create that masterpiece. I’m hoping that after I leave his shop
tomorrow my car will look just like Ed’s…J
Mike Drew announced the winners of the “Farthest Traveled Award.” Reid and Tanya Vaught traveled over 1700
miles from Arkansas in their Pantera to be here, so they were the clear
winners. But wait! There were two awards—and yours truly received
the other, for my 1460-mile drive from Washington State. It’s really cool to have received the award,
and I appreciate it very much.
Kevin and Ann Smith traveled the farthest distance using non-Pantera
transportation. They came from New
Jersey.
Finally, there were people who received special recognition for their
contributions to the event. They were
Bret Gann, Cathy Buckman, and Sharon (whose last name I didn't hear—sorry!)
I’m pretty sure I misspelled a name or two, and may have even entirely missed
a few winners and/or presenters.
Remember, however, I was trying to keep track of all this after some
pretty heavy drinking: two cups of tea
with cream, and 7 sugar packs per cup.
Tomorrow everyone heads home. As
I mentioned earlier, it’s hard to believe the 2014 Fun Rally is already
over. Soon I hope we’ll know where next
year’s event will be held. The Town and
Country is changing ownership next week, so it remains to be seen if it will
still be a viable location.
I still have at least five more days to go before my trip is over, so
don’t expect these daily journals to stop just yet! With any luck, I’ll be writing to you
tomorrow night from Santa Barbara. Keep
your fingers crossed.
-------------- next part --------------
Day Nine, March 31st: It cant be over yetit just started!
Its almost impossible to believe the Fun Rally is over. The time
passed so quickly; I guess thats what happens when you pack a ton of
fun into just 4 1/2 days. Of course, for me there are another five
days to go before I reach home, and thats assuming all goes as planned
(plans which have already been altered, as Ill describe later).
This morning I had to get up at 7:30. Its almost as if I were going
into the office! I rose that early because of a meeting, but it was
the POCA Presidents meeting. These meetings are top-secret. Before
the meeting starts, each attendee pricks his or her finger, and the
blood from each is combined in a silver chalice. We then
simultaneously chant the POCA vow of confidentiality, engage in the
secret Pantera Handshake, and confirm that if anyone divulges any of
the information about to be discussed he or she must subsequently pour
the contents of the chalice into his or her Panteras cooling system,
and be banned from all future car-related activities for eternity.
No wait; due to the early hour of our Presidents breakfast meeting I
must have drifted off to sleep at the table and dreamed all that
Seriously, Im not sure how much of what was discussed at the meeting Im
free to divulge, so Ill just mention a few items which aren't secret.
If you would like a full transcript of the meeting, simply log on to
[1]www.NSA.gov and you should find everything recorded there. Im just
kidding. Dont really go to that website, it may lead you to an
unseemly cat-juggling forum.
One of the issues we discussed, which should be of concern to all POCA
members, is that of our aging membership. I suggested we simply
discover a youth serum so we could live forever at whatever age we
wanted.
I couldn't get a second on that motion, so we discussed other options,
such as talking to everyone we meet about the excitement of owning a
Pantera and the fun of interacting with such a great group of people as
POCA club members.
If you have ideas on how to inspire young people to keep the POCA fire
alive (and I dont mean the one which occurred in my engine compartment
a few years ago--twice), please let those of us on the board know about
it. Take any opportunities you can to talk about our favorite cars to
members of the media, or people you meet at car shows. Its in all our
best interest to support each other, the Pantera vendors, and POCA.
During the meeting, the POCA leadership talked about additional items,
all top-secret, except for the other motion I made which
also wasn't seconded. I thought it was a great idea to raise the
annual dues to $400 per year and give the extra $325 from each member
to me so I can make my car look as cool as some of the ones I've seen
this year. Unfortunately, no one else could see the brilliance of that
plan.
Speaking of cool cars (and why wouldn't we?), after the Presidents
meeting, we drove about 6 miles from the hotel to join the rest of the
members and their cars at San Diegos Embarcadero Marina Park for an
exclusive Pantera car show. We were treated as royalty; we even got to
drive our cars along the winding sidewalk to the grassy knoll
overlooking the water. Fortunately, there wasn't any sinister plot
concerning the grassy knoll, in fact, the Park is located on the East
side of San Diego Bay and is adjacent to Seaport Villagea decidedly
non-sinister place. It is truly a postcard come to life. The water
was as blue as grabber (Ford people get that joke), there were boats
and ships passing by, the stores and shops along the water were
picturesque, and there were probably close to 70 Panteras lined up on
the grass.
The weather was perfect (again), and if one began to feel a little too
warm, shelter was offered courtesy of some covered areas. The pictures
simply cant do the experience justice. Walking among the gorgeous
DeTomasos was almost ethereal. If only I didn't have these pesky
financial obligations, such as food, clothing, shelter, and private
college for my sons, maybe my car could look as spectacular as some of
the examples at the show this afternoon.
Not only were there over-the-top, rolling works of art, but also a few
Panteras in virtually stock condition. As we all know, these are
getting harder to find.
The same drone I saw yesterday was again hovering around the cars. I
think it may be following us.
While at the village I felt something calling mewhat could it be? I
followed the inner voice which led me tosurprise! A Ben and Jerrys ice
cream stand. I enjoyed a coffee-ice-cream malt. It cost the same as
the one room service brought me last night. This doesn't necessarily
mean I overpaid this afternoon. What it might mean is the
room-service-provided malt wasn't such a bad deal after all. Thank you
sir, may I have another? You bet!
As I drove back to the hotel, I noticed my car groaning. Since
I hadn't told it a joke, I didn't know why that would be happening. It
was most evident as I turned corners, and seemed to have something to
do with the steering rack. Im no mechanic, but I think its generally
not a good idea to have a steering rack fall off while traveling at 70
miles per hour. Since safety is any Pantera owners first concern
(well, OK, maybe second, after speed), I wanted to have someone smarter
than I check it out.
I asked a couple of members what they thought, and within minutes
several had gathered around Pandora, we had her up on a jack; the front
wheels being wiggled. It turns out not only is it a good idea to
wiggle wires when diagnosing a problem, but wiggling anything can be
helpful.
One of the people suggested I talk with Don Byars. Don has a business
card with a Picture of a Pantera on it, and his company is called
Full-Throttle Panteras. This indicated to me he just might be a good
person to know, especially with a 1460-mile journey ahead of me.
Not only did he come out to the parking garage to check things out, he
is actually going to take a look at the steering mechanism tomorrow in
his shop. Mike Drew and Don both agreed about what they think might be
the problem, and a visit to Dons shop may rectify things for me.
Two things struck mefirst, Dons shop isn't open on Sundays, so this
again reflects the generosity of those who make up the Pantera
community.
Secondly, Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest. Basically I would be
causing Don to work on the Sabbath. This is a perfect example of why
its really good to study the Bible; I remembered the story of Jesus
being accused by the Pharisees of working on the Sabbath, and how the
question was resolved.
What Jesus had done on the Sabbath that was supposedly so bad was heal
a man. His response to the accusers was to ask them if they thought it
was right to do good on the Sabbath. Of course that was rhetorical;
its always a good thing to heal someone whos sick.
I think you know where Im going with this.
Clearly Pandora needs to be restored to health. Therefore, Don is
demonstrating a Biblical example. By fixing my Pantera, Don is simply
doing the Lords work
I really do appreciate Dons generosity, and look forward to seeing his
shop tomorrowits only 10 minutes from the hotel.
Later, I took a quick shower and put on slacks (something I havent had
to think about for a while), and went downstairs to the ballroom for
the capstone of the weekend; the banquet and raffle.
The big disappointment was I didn't win the M&M-guessing contest. I
guessed there were 2600 in the container which had been sitting in the
hospitality suite during the Fun Rally. Someone named Renee guessed
about 40 more than I did, and she won. Im sure shell enjoy them, but I
hope she remembers to floss.
That wasn't really the biggest disappointment. That happened when they
announced the raffle numbers for the new taillight lenses. I put every
raffle ticket I had in that one, single box. But alas, even though two
sets were awarded, I was not one of the lucky winners. Doh!
Never mind, I was in for a nice surprise anyway, which Ill get to in a
moment.
The room was set up beautifully, and the picture I took shows one of
the two buffet lines, just before it was devastated by a bunch of
hungry Pantera owners. The room was full of peopleattendance was
good.
I was busy selling all the raffle tickets I was given at the Presidents
breakfast, so I was late getting a seat. It turned out fine, though,
since I was fortunate to be seated at a table full of nice folks.
Seated from left to right: Matt Lipski, owner of a 1971 push-button;
David Briggs, owner of a 65 Mustang R-code clone and a 1966 GT40; Dave
and Susan McCartney, who own a Group 4 replica; and John and Beth
Drago, owners of a 1973 L.
We had a good time during the evening, although despite his intense
desire to do so, Matt didn't end up winning any raffle prizes (but he
did win an award for his car).
Ill give you a short version of the evenings events (I know; youre
thinking, Short version? From Chris? This will be a first). Forgive
me if I leave a few things outthings moved along at a pretty fast clip.
John Buckman, our fearless President, addressed the enthusiastic
crowd. I hope he could feel the admiration and appreciation we all
have for him and his efforts. Indeed, applause spontaneously erupted
about every 3 minutes during the entire evening!
He introduced the keynote speakerTim Forakerwho had worked for Ford
during the early years of Pantera development and production. His talk
was titled Pantera Growing Pains 1970-72.
His delivery was energetic and humorous. He told of how he worked for
Shelby American in the late 60s, then moved to Michigan even though his
opinion of Michigan wasn't particularly high. He explained how Ford
got involved with the whole Pantera thing mainly because they wanted to
buy Ghia. The fact the Pantera project was part of the deal was
secondary.
Of the first six Panteras brought into the Country, each of the five,
high-level executives and Mr. Foraker got to take one home for the
weekend to try out. Although he returned his to Ford unscathed, one of
the executives was not so lucky. While braking to avoid a dog in the
road, he slid his Pantera into a ditch, but then blamed his
16-year-old-son for the mishap! Executiveswhat can you say?
After one of Fords test drivers gave a Pantera a spin, and used some
colorful expletives to describe the experience to some of Fords top
brass, Fords legal department started asking questions. Who owns the
Pantera? Who designed the Pantera?
When it was revealed the Italians were responsible for the design of
the car, the lawyers went nuts, and demanded the car be reviewed by
Fords engineering department. That turned out to be a wise decision
(seesome attorneys do make wise decisions). There were literally
hundreds of changes needed to make the car viable. The first 500 or so
Panteras were already produced by then, so three companies in the US
had to retrofit them to get them up to spec. The next thousand needed
only minor adjustments, and cars produced after those were fine from
the factory.
Sometimes keynote speakers can drag on and on. This is annoying for
people who want to hurry up and get to the good part of the
eveningfinding out if they've won anything. In this case, though, the
talk was the perfect length. In fact, I found myself wishing he would
have shared even more stories. All in all, it was a great
presentation.
Did I mention the food was delicious? I had a little of everything,
and two desserts. Before I took two desserts I checked with the maitre
d to be sure they had more in the kitchen. I would never want to deny
anyone dessert. He assured me there was plenty.
Mike Becker announced a slew of awards sponsored by vendors. Winners
included Bob Richards, Phil Camp, Ed Nagel, Matt Lipski, Teri Lambert,
Marcus and Irene Smith, Ron and Bobbie Demaderios, George Walker, and
Clarke and Wilma Hamm.
The Don Peak Memorial Award went to the Late Gary and Bev Hall. Since
Bev was unable to attend tonight, her granddaughter, Tara, accepted the
award while expressing her appreciation to the club.
The Gary Powley Presidential award went to Tony and Carmen Ortiz, and
the Stanley Cooper award for most original Pantera went to Clarke and
Wilma Hamm. For those of you counting at home, that means the Hamms
got two awards! They deserve them both.
The Peoples Choice award went to Ed Mendez for his incredibly beautiful
(and fast) red rocket ship. Don Byars helped create that masterpiece.
Im hoping that after I leave his shop tomorrow my car will look just
like EdsJ
Mike Drew announced the winners of the Farthest Traveled Award. Reid
and Tanya Vaught traveled over 1700 miles from Arkansas in their
Pantera to be here, so they were the clear winners. But wait! There
were two awardsand yours truly received the other, for my 1460-mile
drive from Washington State. Its really cool to have received the
award, and I appreciate it very much.
Kevin and Ann Smith traveled the farthest distance using non-Pantera
transportation. They came from New Jersey.
Finally, there were people who received special recognition for their
contributions to the event. They were Bret Gann, Cathy Buckman, and
Sharon (whose last name I didn't hearsorry!)
Im pretty sure I misspelled a name or two, and may have even entirely
missed a few winners and/or presenters. Remember, however, I was
trying to keep track of all this after some pretty heavy drinking: two
cups of tea with cream, and 7 sugar packs per cup.
Tomorrow everyone heads home. As I mentioned earlier, its hard to
believe the 2014 Fun Rally is already over. Soon I hope well know
where next years event will be held. The Town and Country is changing
ownership next week, so it remains to be seen if it will still be a
viable location.
I still have at least five more days to go before my trip is over, so
dont expect these daily journals to stop just yet! With any luck, Ill
be writing to you tomorrow night from Santa Barbara. Keep your fingers
crossed.
References
1. http://www.nsa.gov/
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