[DeTomaso] Supercar event in Northern Spain (and luckiest breakdown I've ever had)

Charles McCall charlesmccall at gmail.com
Mon Jun 8 13:39:52 EDT 2015


Dear Pantera Diary

 

Had a fantastic time this weekend attending a Supercar event in northern
Spain. Some pretty impressive hardware in attendance. Lots of late model
Ferrari,  Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Porsche, etc. A 1965 Ferrari 330 GTC,
an Aston Martin DB6, and of course a white DeTomaso Pantera GT5-S.

 

Santander is a 3.5 hour drive from home, and as I parked the car and shut
the engine off, I was greeted by an enormous cloud of steam from the engine
bay and my car piddled a huge amount of coolant on the ground. Well sh*t,
this isn't good, I thought. But how strange - what on earth could the
problem be? 

 

The first thing I thought was that my fans had failed and the car had
overheated without me noticing - but turning the key back on I could hear
the fans running. Looking at my temp gauge again, I saw that my temperature
was quite reasonable. Weird. 

 

I got out, stepped in the huge puddle of coolant and looked back up the
road. Had I split a hose or something, then I should have been trailing
coolant all the way, especially as I had to maneuver quite a bit to park.
But it was stone dry where I had been maneuvering. What on earth could the
cause be?

 

I slept rather poorly while mulling over the situation. My car spewed
coolant over the ground. According to the temp gauge, which has the sensor
mounted in the block, the engine isn't excessively hot. Why would a car boil
over without overheating? Maybe I didn't put the coolant tank cap on
tightly, and it just overflowed when the temp went up a few degrees from
driving through traffic and parking? No, I couldn't believe it. 

 

The next morning I went down to the parking lot and refilled the system with
water just to see what would happen. As I filled the tank, I could hear it
running straight out and pouring on the ground. I nearly jumped with joy
thinking about what possibility this meant. Getting on my knees and looking
under the car confirmed it - I drove 3.5 hours through the middle of
nowhere, through traffic, with no problems at all, and then a coolant hose
split literally as I shut the car off at my destination. All things
considered, I've never been so happy to see a split hose. I made some phone
calls, found a shop open about 4 minutes away, and drove away. Watching the
temp gauge the whole way, it was just starting to warm up, thermostat
opened, and it was just starting to get hotter as I pulled into the shop.
Perfect. 

 

They dropped what they were doing, put the car in the air and went to work.
Strangely, I bought a complete hose kit from a US vendor about 3 years ago,
and all the hoses had been changed EXCEPT for the one hose that burst. I
farmed out the work - they neglected to mention that they didn't change a
hose. Not sure what the story was there. 

 

The shop was really interesting - they had a bunch of Citroen Traction Avant
(6 or 7) in completely immaculate condition that they rent out for weddings,
and a Peugeot 205 rally car with 2 engines - one up front and one in the
back - that was fascinating! We talked quite a bit about the challenges of
synchronizing that, and they said that they had it pretty well sorted out. 

 

I missed the planned events for the first day, but taking all things into
consideration my problem could have happened at a worse moment so I didn't
complain. Nearly 200 cars in attendance this year, including 10 from the UK.
James McAlpine attended and was planning on bringing his blue GT5-S.. he
didn't have the courage to tell me that he left it home until we were about
to meet up. He brought an amazing McLaren MP4-12C with 1000 miles on it
instead, so he was forgiven. J This event is pretty special in that we have
local and national police escorts accompanying us for most of the tour. This
sounds, bad it is really a very, very good thing! The regional government is
quite happy to see this event stay in this area, and they have given clear
and explicit directions to, um, leave their pencils home. Last year it was
pretty psychedelic - cruising at 210 k/hr with two motorcycle cops next to
me, gesturing for me to pick up the pace because I was holding up traffic!
True story, with witnesses, and this year the Brits were totally blown away
by that. "Never gone chasing a motorcycle cop before - that was
interesting!"

 

This was the shakedown run before heading to Sweden in 6 weeks to make sure
everything is up to snuff. Car ran quite well and we had a fantastic
weekend, with adventure and all. If anyone is in northern Spain next year,
stop by  - it is worth it!

-------------- next part --------------
   Dear Pantera Diary


   Had a fantastic time this weekend attending a Supercar event in
   northern Spain. Some pretty impressive hardware in attendance. Lots of
   late model Ferrari,  Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Porsche, etc. A 1965
   Ferrari 330 GTC, an Aston Martin DB6, and of course a white DeTomaso
   Pantera GT5-S...


   Santander is a 3.5 hour drive from home, and as I parked the car and
   shut the engine off, I was greeted by an enormous cloud of steam from
   the engine bay and my car piddled a huge amount of coolant on the
   ground. Well sh*t, this isn't good, I thought. But how strange - what
   on earth could the problem be?


   The first thing I thought was that my fans had failed and the car had
   overheated without me noticing - but turning the key back on I could
   hear the fans running. Looking at my temp gauge again, I saw that my
   temperature was quite reasonable. Weird.


   I got out, stepped in the huge puddle of coolant and looked back up the
   road. Had I split a hose or something, then I should have been trailing
   coolant all the way, especially as I had to maneuver quite a bit to
   park. But it was stone dry where I had been maneuvering. What on earth
   could the cause be?


   I slept rather poorly while mulling over the situation. My car spewed
   coolant over the ground. According to the temp gauge, which has the
   sensor mounted in the block, the engine isn't excessively hot. Why
   would a car boil over without overheating? Maybe I didn't put the
   coolant tank cap on tightly, and it just overflowed when the temp went
   up a few degrees from driving through traffic and parking? No, I
   couldn't believe it.


   The next morning I went down to the parking lot and refilled the system
   with water just to see what would happen. As I filled the tank, I could
   hear it running straight out and pouring on the ground. I nearly jumped
   with joy thinking about what possibility this meant. Getting on my
   knees and looking under the car confirmed it - I drove 3.5 hours
   through the middle of nowhere, through traffic, with no problems at
   all, and then a coolant hose split literally as I shut the car off at
   my destination. All things considered, I've never been so happy to see
   a split hose. I made some phone calls, found a shop open about 4
   minutes away, and drove away. Watching the temp gauge the whole way, it
   was just starting to warm up, thermostat opened, and it was just
   starting to get hotter as I pulled into the shop. Perfect.


   They dropped what they were doing, put the car in the air and went to
   work. Strangely, I bought a complete hose kit from a US vendor about 3
   years ago, and all the hoses had been changed EXCEPT for the one hose
   that burst. I farmed out the work - they neglected to mention that they
   didn't change a hose. Not sure what the story was there.


   The shop was really interesting - they had a bunch of Citroen Traction
   Avant (6 or 7) in completely immaculate condition that they rent out
   for weddings, and a Peugeot 205 rally car with 2 engines - one up front
   and one in the back - that was fascinating! We talked quite a bit about
   the challenges of synchronizing that, and they said that they had it
   pretty well sorted out.


   I missed the planned events for the first day, but taking all things
   into consideration my problem could have happened at a worse moment so
   I didn't complain. Nearly 200 cars in attendance this year, including
   10 from the UK. James McAlpine attended and was planning on bringing
   his blue GT5-S.... he didn't have the courage to tell me that he left
   it home until we were about to meet up. He brought an amazing McLaren
   MP4-12C with 1000 miles on it instead, so he was forgiven. J This event
   is pretty special in that we have local and national police escorts
   accompanying us for most of the tour. This sounds, bad it is really a
   very, very good thing! The regional government is quite happy to see
   this event stay in this area, and they have given clear and explicit
   directions to, um, leave their pencils home. Last year it was pretty
   psychedelic - cruising at 210 k/hr with two motorcycle cops next to me,
   gesturing for me to pick up the pace because I was holding up traffic!
   True story, with witnesses, and this year the Brits were totally blown
   away by that. "Never gone chasing a motorcycle cop before - that was
   interesting!"


   This was the shakedown run before heading to Sweden in 6 weeks to make
   sure everything is up to snuff. Car ran quite well and we had a
   fantastic weekend, with adventure and all. If anyone is in northern
   Spain next year, stop by  - it is worth it!
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