[DeTomaso] The 2014 Fun Rally Chronicles Pantera Content???

[Christopher Kimball]

The fun
Rally Chronicles 2014
Every year I try to encapsulate my journey to and from the POCA Fun Rally (the first couple of years my sons actually took care of it), and this year is no exception.  If you don't have a lot of free time, I suggest you simply delete these emails before you even open them.  Otherwise, feel free to enjoy the view from the window of a '72 pre-L, and through the eyes of a 54-year-old Pantera owner/enthusiast.


My ramblings concerning this year’s Pantera Owners’ Club of
America Fun Rally will differ slightly from those in years past, because I am
incorporating my family’s summer vacation with the Fun Rally in San Diego.  Rather than chronicle the non-Pantera activities
my vacation will entail, I’ll relate the drive from home to California, skip
the days between the completion of the drive to California and the first day of
the Fun Rally, pick it up again at that point and continue until I return
safely back home to University Place, WA (assuming I actually make it safely
back to University Place—it’s over 2600 miles, round-trip).


The idea of combining a family vacation with the Fun Rally
came about when I told Vicki of this year’s Fun Rally location.  Vicki spent the first 8 years of her life in
California, and very much enjoys visiting. 
San Diego is a favorite spot so I thought it would be fun to somehow
incorporate two great activities into one giant fun-fest.


The first obstacle was, of course, Pandora has only two
seats.  Our family consists of four,
rather tall individuals.  That fact didn’t
dissuade me, however, from having both of Pandora’s Recaros recovered in
leather.  They look fantastic! 


By the way, for those of you new to my overly-wordy
diatribes, I’ll simply tell you Pandora is the nickname given to my 1972
DeTomaso Pantera—a car as temperamental as she is beautiful.  The origins of the name Pandora are fully
described in previous historical documents written by this very author, and
evoke simultaneously from those who read them, both hilarity and empathy.


At any rate, I was not about to let the mere shortage of two
seats deter my plans.  I decided the
perfect solution was to drive to San Diego in the Pantera a couple of weeks
before the Fun Rally with my younger son, Donald, have Vicki and my older son,
David, fly down to meet us once we arrived, have Vicki and Donald fly back at
the end of the Rally, and drive back to University Place with David.  This would give me five days of quality
drive-time in the Pantera with each son, and a week-and-a-half of vacation for
the four of us in San Diego, including some fun at the aptly-named Fun Rally.


It was agreed this was an acceptable arrangement, so I set
about purchasing airline tickets and contacting AAA for hotels to and from WA
to CA.

To save money, I was able to redeem some of the
frequent-flyer miles Vicki and I had accumulated.  This meant, after many hours of trying to get
one round-trip ticket for Vicki and two, one-way tickets for my sons on the
ridiculous “Thank-You Points” website (I feel like telling them “Thank You for
making the point redemption so complicated!”), the tickets ended up costing us
very little.  This was good, considering
what happened next.


A couple of weeks before the trip, David was contacted by one
of Microsoft’s subcontracted companies.  
They asked if he would like to fly around the U.S. training people about
Microsoft’s new operating system.  He was
thrilled to be asked, and I was thrilled when he told me they were going to pay
him.  For a University student, this
seemed to be a tremendous opportunity, but, alas, the timing couldn't have been
worse.  


The dates for which he was needed were the exact dates of
our family vacation and the Fun Rally.


Vicki and I always knew the time would come when arranging family
vacations would become more difficult, and, sadly, those days have
arrived.  Still, it turns out the
Microsoft people will allow David to fly into San Diego during one of the
weekends, so at least we’ll have a few days together in the sun.


I mentioned the cheap ticket prices?  I called the airlines as soon as I realized
David wouldn't be needing his ticket, and was told that to change the $110
ticket would cost $125.  The irony of
that seemed lost on the customer service rep.


In a seemingly-not-related-but-it-really-is-and-you’ll-soon
see-why issue; the very same son who is Microsoft-savvy convinced me to get a
really cool, new phone.  It has the
ability to hold something like a million gigs of music.  This is important to me, since while driving
I like to listen to music.  Do you see
where this is going?  If I could load
enough music on my phone, which can hook up to Pandora’s stereo system, to play
6 weeks of continuous music, that would mean if I careened into a ditch on the
way to the Fun Rally I could survive for at least 45 days prior to rescue.  
The best part is the phone is only slightly
larger than a telephone book.


I learned that to fit the maximum amount of music on my phone, I would need to figure out how to
convert it all.  I thought it puzzling my Christian Rock
albums needed to be converted, but then I remembered all those fundamentalist
preachers telling me in high school that kind of
music was “of the Devil...”  Maybe they were right after all!  

I worked for hours and hours and hours getting all sorts of
music moved onto a micro SD card.  For
those of you who aren't as much of a techie as I am, a “micro SD card” is a
really small SD card.


While I was working on music, my favorite Pantera mechanic,
Larry (actually, Larry has been my only Pantera mechanic ever since he first
looked at Pandora and discovered the frame-shaped rust held together with
undercoating which he subsequently fixed), was busy checking out Pandora to
ensure she was ready for the grueling 2600-mile round-trip.


I figured by the time he got done with his part of the trip
preparation, I’d be done with mine, and things would work out swimmingly.  It turns out “swimmingly” more aptly
describes the first 900 miles of our trip through torrential rain, including
raindrops the size of Studebakers; but more about that later.


Among other things, Larry discovered the brake line which
was new in ’72 was, in ’14, quite pitted with rust. 
He was concerned.  Larry isn't particularly emotive, and I
sometimes have a hard time reading whether or not he thinks a particular
problem is serious.  
Therefore, I asked
him a definitive question.  “Larry,” I
asked, “would you drive to California with a brake line in this condition?”


It took about a second for him to respond, “NO!”


It was therefore decided he should replace a 40” piece of
brake line.  This apparently is only a
little less difficult than playing Clarke’s “Trumpet Voluntary” on a bassoon without
inhaling.


While Larry was performing another one of his mechanical
miracles, I discovered  something had
gone wrong with my conversion.  


I don’t mean to say my
conversion; being a bit of a Calvinist I’m hoping my place in Heaven is secure.  

No, what I’m referring to is the music.  It
certainly went to Hell!  


Something was wrong with the software and NONE of the music
I spent hours preparing worked—it all came out as nothing more than white noise
(that’s the techie equivalent of the mechanic who says, “Your carb must have
been running too lean and we’ll need to replace your engine…”) 


All those hours of working on preparing my music were a
total waste of time.


Undeterred, I set about moving unconverted music onto the micro-SD card.  This would result in less
music stored in the phone, but the music I would be storing would sound better,
meaning I could only survive in a ditch for a couple of weeks, but I’d enjoy
superior fidelity before I was eaten by a mountain lion.  So determined was I to get it right that I
stayed up way past bedtime on several nights, sitting in front of our computer.


Meanwhile, Larry had Pandora ready to go, but the recovering
of the passenger seat wasn't quite finished. 
The only things more certain than death, taxes, and flight cancellations are
delays in car-related projects which need to be finished on a tight timeline. 


Luckily, the car was done with days to spare—about two,
actually.


The car was ready, the musical phone was ready, what could
go wrong?


Stay tuned for the first day’s installment.  I don’t want to give away what happened, but
let’s just say the first leg of our journey was shorter than Captain Hook’s after
his encounter with the alligator… 		 	   		   		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
   The fun Rally Chronicles 2014

   Every year I try to encapsulate my journey to and from the POCA Fun
   Rally (the first couple of years my sons actually took care of it), and
   this year is no exception.  If you don't have a lot of free time, I
   suggest you simply delete these emails before you even open them.
   Otherwise, feel free to enjoy the view from the window of a '72 pre-L,
   and through the eyes of a 54-year-old Pantera owner/enthusiast.

   My ramblings concerning this years Pantera Owners Club of America Fun
   Rally will differ slightly from those in years past, because I am
   incorporating my familys summer vacation with the Fun Rally in San
   Diego.  Rather than chronicle the non-Pantera activities my vacation
   will entail, Ill relate the drive from home to California, skip the
   days between the completion of the drive to California and the first
   day of the Fun Rally, pick it up again at that point and continue until
   I return safely back home to University Place, WA (assuming I actually
   make it safely back to University Placeits over 2600 miles,
   round-trip).

   The idea of combining a family vacation with the Fun Rally came about
   when I told Vicki of this years Fun Rally location.  Vicki spent the
   first 8 years of her life in California, and very much enjoys
   visiting.  San Diego is a favorite spot so I thought it would be fun to
   somehow incorporate two great activities into one giant fun-fest.

   The first obstacle was, of course, Pandora has only two seats.  Our
   family consists of four, rather tall individuals.  That fact didnt
   dissuade me, however, from having both of Pandoras Recaros recovered in
   leather.  They look fantastic!

   By the way, for those of you new to my overly-wordy diatribes, Ill
   simply tell you Pandora is the nickname given to my 1972 DeTomaso
   Panteraa car as temperamental as she is beautiful.  The origins of the
   name Pandora are fully described in previous historical documents
   written by this very author, and evoke simultaneously from those who
   read them, both hilarity and empathy.

   At any rate, I was not about to let the mere shortage of two seats
   deter my plans.  I decided the perfect solution was to drive to San
   Diego in the Pantera a couple of weeks before the Fun Rally with my
   younger son, Donald, have Vicki and my older son, David, fly down to
   meet us once we arrived, have Vicki and Donald fly back at the end of
   the Rally, and drive back to University Place with David.  This would
   give me five days of quality drive-time in the Pantera with each son,
   and a week-and-a-half of vacation for the four of us in San Diego,
   including some fun at the aptly-named Fun Rally.

   It was agreed this was an acceptable arrangement, so I set about
   purchasing airline tickets and contacting AAA for hotels to and from WA
   to CA.

   To save money, I was able to redeem some of the frequent-flyer miles
   Vicki and I had accumulated.  This meant, after many hours of trying to
   get one round-trip ticket for Vicki and two, one-way tickets for my
   sons on the ridiculous Thank-You Points website (I feel like telling
   them Thank You for making the point redemption so complicated!), the
   tickets ended up costing us very little.  This was good, considering
   what happened next.

   A couple of weeks before the trip, David was contacted by one of
   Microsofts subcontracted companies.   They asked if he would like to
   fly around the U.S. training people about Microsofts new operating
   system.  He was thrilled to be asked, and I was thrilled when he told
   me they were going to pay him.  For a University student, this seemed
   to be a tremendous opportunity, but, alas, the timing couldn't have
   been worse.

   The dates for which he was needed were the exact dates of our family
   vacation and the Fun Rally.

   Vicki and I always knew the time would come when arranging family
   vacations would become more difficult, and, sadly, those days have
   arrived.  Still, it turns out the Microsoft people will allow David to
   fly into San Diego during one of the weekends, so at least well have a
   few days together in the sun.

   I mentioned the cheap ticket prices?  I called the airlines as soon as
   I realized David wouldn't be needing his ticket, and was told that to
   change the $110 ticket would cost $125.  The irony of that seemed lost
   on the customer service rep.

   In a seemingly-not-related-but-it-really-is-and-youll-soon see-why
   issue; the very same son who is Microsoft-savvy convinced me to get a
   really cool, new phone.  It has the ability to hold something like a
   million gigs of music.  This is important to me, since while driving I
   like to listen to music.  Do you see where this is going?  If I could
   load enough music on my phone, which can hook up to Pandoras stereo
   system, to play 6 weeks of continuous music, that would mean if I
   careened into a ditch on the way to the Fun Rally I could survive for
   at least 45 days prior to rescue.

   The best part is the phone is only slightly larger than a telephone
   book.

   I learned that to fit the maximum amount of music on my phone, I would
   need to figure out how to convert it all.  I thought it puzzling my
   Christian Rock albums needed to be converted, but then I remembered all
   those fundamentalist preachers telling me in high school that kind of
   music was of the Devil...  Maybe they were right after all!


   I worked for hours and hours and hours getting all sorts of music moved
   onto a micro SD card.  For those of you who aren't as much of a techie
   as I am, a micro SD card is a really small SD card.

   While I was working on music, my favorite Pantera mechanic, Larry
   (actually, Larry has been my only Pantera mechanic ever since he first
   looked at Pandora and discovered the frame-shaped rust held together
   with undercoating which he subsequently fixed), was busy checking out
   Pandora to ensure she was ready for the grueling 2600-mile round-trip.

   I figured by the time he got done with his part of the trip
   preparation, Id be done with mine, and things would work out
   swimmingly.  It turns out swimmingly more aptly describes the first 900
   miles of our trip through torrential rain, including raindrops the size
   of Studebakers; but more about that later.

   Among other things, Larry discovered the brake line which was new in 72
   was, in 14, quite pitted with rust.

   He was concerned.  Larry isn't particularly emotive, and I sometimes
   have a hard time reading whether or not he thinks a particular problem
   is serious.

   Therefore, I asked him a definitive question.  Larry, I asked, would
   you drive to California with a brake line in this condition?

   It took about a second for him to respond, NO!

   It was therefore decided he should replace a 40 piece of brake line.
   This apparently is only a little less difficult than playing Clarkes
   Trumpet Voluntary on a bassoon without inhaling.

   While Larry was performing another one of his mechanical miracles, I
   discovered  something had gone wrong with my conversion.

   I dont mean to say my conversion; being a bit of a Calvinist Im hoping
   my place in Heaven is secure.


   No, what Im referring to is the music.  It certainly went to Hell!

   Something was wrong with the software and NONE of the music I spent
   hours preparing workedit all came out as nothing more than white noise
   (thats the techie equivalent of the mechanic who says, Your carb must
   have been running too lean and well need to replace your engine)

   All those hours of working on preparing my music were a total waste of
   time.

   Undeterred, I set about moving unconverted music onto the micro-SD
   card.  This would result in less music stored in the phone, but the
   music I would be storing would sound better, meaning I could only
   survive in a ditch for a couple of weeks, but Id enjoy superior
   fidelity before I was eaten by a mountain lion.  So determined was I to
   get it right that I stayed up way past bedtime on several nights,
   sitting in front of our computer.

   Meanwhile, Larry had Pandora ready to go, but the recovering of the
   passenger seat wasn't quite finished.  The only things more certain
   than death, taxes, and flight cancellations are delays in car-related
   projects which need to be finished on a tight timeline.

   Luckily, the car was done with days to spareabout two, actually.

   The car was ready, the musical phone was ready, what could go wrong?

   Stay tuned for the first days installment.  I dont want to give away
   what happened, but lets just say the first leg of our journey was
   shorter than Captain Hooks after his encounter with the alligator