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

Mike Drew MikeLDrew at aol.com
Mon Jun 8 15:06:58 EDT 2015


Charlie,

FWIW, the vendor-supplied kits I've seen replace that 90-degree rubber hose with a 90 degree stainless pipe and two short straight hoses. So if you only replaced hoses and not pipes, they probably didn't include that one hose. 

Which begs the question--why didn't the shop doing the work take care of it?

Also, I wouldn't presume this shop properly bled the system. I urge you to get after it yourself and try to get more air out. Parking nose-down on your crazy steep driveway with parking brake set and wheel chocks installed (I would chock all four wheels to be safe) should elevate the rear sufficiently. 

Glad you had fun!!!!

Mike

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 8, 2015, at 10:39, Charles McCall <charlesmccall at gmail.com> wrote:

>   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!
> <WP_20150605_014.jpg>
> <WP_20150605_013.jpg>
> <WP_20150605_001.jpg>
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