[DeTomaso] Bullfrog Blues

[John Taphorn]

My son and I took the Bullfrog , my green Pantera, for a drive to Texas 
World Speedway today.  Rob Pink was running his 240z at the track and we 
thought we would spectate.  About 1 mile from the track, the highway 
narrows and I thought it unlikely the local gendarmes would be on this 
section as the shoulders are narrow with no safe place to pull over or 
park with a radar gun.

The speed limit is 75 so I hammered the throttle. I not absolutely 
certain of the velocity, and it may be foolish to disclose on a public 
forum, however, it was well into triple digits and fast enough to blow 
off my drivers side Vitaloni mirror.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw 
it twist. I quickly released the throttle, yet too late as it separated 
from the Pantera.  Fortunately, it did not smack up against the car.

I assumed that I had carelessly allowed the set screw to loosen that 
holds the assembly to the bracket attached to the car.  Those personal 
errors make me upset.  When we arrived at the track I had an opportunity 
to better inspect the problem. To my surprise, the mounting pieces were 
all still in place and tight.  Rather, the aluminum casting surrendered 
to the air onslaught.  This is rather bazaar.  See the attached pics to 
compare with the passenger side mirror.

I did not recover the actual mirror.  I could not pull over for over a 
.5 mile down the road and it was not a safe section of highway to walk.  
I can't imagine that there was much left of the mirror tumbling down the 
pavement at that speed.  I had a lot of time spent prepping that piece 
for paint - oh well.  Perhaps, I had the bad draw of a poor casting.  
Has anyone else suffered this fate with the Vitaloni.

Now, I need to find another matching mirror and convince myself that I 
had a bad aluminum casting.  Maybe I just need to slow down.  I was 
channeling Art Stephens.

Dave Hall, what mirror do you have on Limezotica? Those were awesome.

JT


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