[DeTomaso] Bullfrog Blues

[Julian Kift]

John,
I think you have to take solace in the fact you were indeed lucky the mirror didn't bounce along the side of the car.
A shame you couldn't recover the mirror for a postmortem, is there any likelihood it could have impacted with something by way of a large Texas bug providing a sudden impact stress?
You mention a lot of time in prep for paint; I don't know if you started with the black plastic mirrors and prepped them, but many of the Vitaloni's are available colored and much simpler to prep for repaint I have found.
Julian
From: jtaphorn at kingwoodcable.com
To: DeTomaso at poca.com
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2015 18:02:54 -0500
Subject: [DeTomaso] Bullfrog Blues

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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-------------- next part --------------
   John,
   I think you have to take solace in the fact you were indeed lucky the
   mirror didn't bounce along the side of the car.
   A shame you couldn't recover the mirror for a postmortem, is there any
   likelihood it could have impacted with something by way of a large
   Texas bug providing a sudden impact stress?
   You mention a lot of time in prep for paint; I don't know if you
   started with the black plastic mirrors and prepped them, but many of
   the Vitaloni's are available colored and much simpler to prep for
   repaint I have found.
   Julian
   From: jtaphorn at kingwoodcable.com
   To: DeTomaso at poca.com
   Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2015 18:02:54 -0500
   Subject: [DeTomaso] Bullfrog Blues
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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