DeTomaso Mailing List: February 98, Message #48
     



From: 	MikeLDrew@aol.com

Subject: Re:  POCA Photos Flame...

Date: 	Mon, 2 Feb 1998 00:20:27 +0000



Capt Mike Drew

136 Lighthouse Way

Vacaville, CA  95688



Home/FAX:  (707) 452-9284



E-mail:  MikeLDrew@aol.com



An apparently slightly agitated (!) Mike Coffel wrote:



[snip]



>I have several problems with this letter. 



>>>Hmm.  I've been home for the past three weeks.  I included my address,

phone number and e-mail address on the personal letter I mailed to you, yet I

never heard of these 'problems' until seeing my reputation smeared on the

internet.  How very curious! :>)



>First, let's review the time

line of events.



>>>Yes, lets!



>Approximately 3 and 1/2 years ago (2 years prior to my restoration), I

responded to a request from

Mike to get a profile out of me for the club...



>>>we're talking PCNC here, not POCA...since I wasn't involved with POCA at

the time...and I never made any such request; I never publish that sort of

stuff.



>as I was a relatively new

member. I had also recently married

and the Nor Cal chapter was there in force with 10 Panteras and a Mangusta

at the event. 



>>>It really was a very nice wedding, and a terrific event.  I wanted a

simple story on the event; what I got was two pages of Mike Coffel's life

story.  



>Both were

worthy of print according to Mike and I should 'get right on it'! Since

Panteras were a part of my wedding 

I was fortunate enough to get some very nice professional shots of my car

courtesy of our photographer

at the wedding. These I of course removed from our wedding album to provide

POCA and Mike Drew 

with exclusive photos of our car. 



>>>I got them something like 15 months after the wedding, remember, just as I

was moving to Korea?



>These were sent to you Mr. Drew with the

promise of an article and/or

photo spread. I have to admit I was excited because I was a new member and I

thought it would be

cool to appear in the newsletter. 2 years go by. 



>>>Most of which I spent waiting for the aforementioned photos! :>)



>Our car was not what I

considered all that reliable at the

time so we did mostly social events with the club leaving our car behind but

I always took the time to ask

Mike if and when he was going to use the photos and or profile I had written

for him. He assured me he 

would. 



>>>Right.  The time for a story on your wedding had come and gone long ago.

 By this time you were starting to restore your car, and I told you I would

fold everything together once the restoration was complete.  And thus I

waited some more.



>Never did. My wife finally got tired of explaining where the missing

photos from our wedding album

were and we began asking for the photos back as they are/were virtually

irreplaceable with out forking

out big bucks to the guy that took them. We still didn't get our photos back

but we were patient. Eventually

we restored our car (1996).  It still had never appeared in any publication

by any club. 



>>>Right, your car, and the story, was a work in progress.



>When the car was

done just before Vegas 96 I had it shipped directly from Wilkinson's to the

ballroom giving POCA the exclusive

chance to photograph and display the car. 



>>>Which we did.



>I was not allowed to compete in

the concours as I was parked

on the 3rd floor and of course I was told this after my car was in place. I

told myself it was worth it because

of all the exposure it got with the 'right' crowd. 



>>>I don't know anything about this, John Bratta runs the concours, guy down

in L.A.  



>I was never even thanked

for the effort I went to. Not a mention

from POCA in a newsletter. 



>>>Not even close to being true.  I now quote from the story Kent wrote for

the POCA quarterly that year.  Actually, *I* added in the text specifically

referencing your car, because I thought your outstanding effort deserved

special mention.



"Once again we had a display of some spectacular cars in the third floor

ballroom.  Noteworthy this year was the pushbutton '71 Pantera of Mike

Coffel, which had just been restored by Panteras by Wilkinson.  Rather than

having wings and flares, Mike's car emphasized originality, except for the

custom one-slot 17" Campy wheels.  Our thanks to all those who displayed

their cars on the third floor during the event.  As always, they added a lot

to the enjoyment of your Convention."



I also published a photo of the car with the story, and I wrote the following

caption to accompany it.



"Mike Coffel's pre-U.S. pushbutton Pantera (right) just completed a

comprehensive restoration by Panteras by Wilkinson, and was the featured car

in the ballroom display.  Note the one-of-a-kind one-slot 17" Campy wheels!"



Did anybody else who displayed a car in the ballroom get a photo published,

or get otherwise personally selected for recognition?  No.  Just you, Mike.

 Just you.



>I would point out that PCNC always took the time

to mention me and I always

appreciated that and have shown my gratitude by hosting several events and

writing several articles over the

years. 



>>Uh, Hello?  McFly?  When you say that 'PCNC' mentioned you, you fail to

acknowledge that you mean *I* mentioned you, since I am the one who has

written and published the PCNC newsletter since 1991.  Every time you or your

car, or the events you have staged are mentioned there, it's because *I* took

the effort to do so.



>After Vegas that year I decided to give PI a call and see if they

would like to do an article on the car's

restoration as POCA had done everything but told me to go away.



>>>I learned in Las Vegas that PI had just published a feature on the car.

 Dave Adler and I have always had a terrific working relationship, and we

have a longstanding agreement not to 'poach' from one another, or publish

stories on the same cars.  Once I run a story on a car, PI is hands-off, and

I'm the same way.  We want to keep both clubs viable, and want to guarantee

members get the maximum benefit from belonging to both; thus we avoid any

duplication whenever possible.



I assumed Dave wasn't aware that I was planning on running this feature

myself.  I learned that Mike had given permission to Dave to publish his

story, which was fine.  I was disappointed because I had grand visions, but

Dave had already done a lot of legwork, shot a bunch of photos of the

restoration, so I shrugged my shoulders and waited to see the finished

product.  There's plenty of other cars out there.



>Drew still had my photos and I had promised him that he had

an exclusive on them 



>>>Actually, what I had was a promise to an exclusive story on the CAR, so I

was somewhat surprised to learn that PI had been given the rights while I was

stationed in Korea.  But I didn't make a stink about it; after all, it's

Mike's perogative to give it to whoever he wants to, and to change his mind

later on.



>so I had no photos of my car published in PI except

those that pertained directly to the restoration. Mostly shots of dis and re

assembly. 



>>>It was actually kind of funny, Karen came up to me in Las Vegas all happy,

and told me PI had completed a full feature on their car, and when was *I*

going to ALSO run a feature on their car?  I had to explain that it didn't

work that way, you pays your money, you takes your choice, POCA or PI but not

both.  I was irritated that this had all taken place while I was living in

Korea, but I was philosophical about it too-after all, Dave was able to drive

around the corner to Wilkinson's shop and shoot the photos.  I think

Wilkinson had actually approached Dave and told him of the work he was doing

on the car, and Dave took it upon himself to do the photo shoot, but I'm not

sure.



>A finished photo of the car never appeared in PI until approx the

end of 1996 spring of 97 issue of PI when Dave Adler published a photo he

took of the car at the Concour Italiano on the back cover approx 1/4 page.



>>>Which I thought was kind of sad; the car is so nice, it deserved better

treatment than that initially.



>So after 2 1/2 years of waiting for Drew to get off his ass PI got the

story and now he's trying to make me

feel bad 'cause I've 'sided' with the rival club. 



>>>First of all, I don't consider PI to be the 'rival' club.  Like I said,

Dave and I work together all the time; in fact, he just mailed me a big

package of photos yesterday, for use in the upcoming PROFILES, including

plenty of photos of YOUR car which I still intend to run, despite your

tirade.  We trade photos, story ideas, even send stories to one another to

help round out BOTH publications.



>And, according to him, a

club who "never gave it the coverage it deserved". 



>>>No, I only felt pity for you because after all the effort you expended, in

that one article your car didn't get the type of coverage *I* felt it was

worthy of (although it has subsequently been published several times in both

publications and that situation has been rectified.)



>What a fucking crock of

shit. If coverage of my car was my priority I would have reamed your ass long

ago you pin head! 



>>>Very nice.  Very classy.



>I consider any coverage of my car a priviledge and an

honor but if you think you can hang

it over my head with your 'too bad.... you went with the wring club'

attitude, you are the victim of a severe

case of anal cranial inversion. 



>>>Like I said, it has nothing to do with which club ran it.  I never said it

was published with the 'wrong' club.  If PI had published the kind of story I

think your car deserved, I would have applauded it.



>I guess I'll have to suffer with being the

reigning two time Best of Show car at the

Concour Italiano, a virtual center fold in Euro Car, my autograph on a

poster size picture of my finished car

in the foyer at the factory in Italy, a feature on 'Classics' #18 by Speed

Vision, appearing in the PI website photo gallery for 18 mos (viewed by 10's

of thousands), being in the ballroom not to mention the pile of trophies

from every show I ever attended (except for a POCA event). 





>>>And WE'LL have to suffer with hearing about it endlessly! :>)



>If it weren't for the great friends I have established with PCNC I would

tear my POCA card up right now!



>>>Good, I'm glad you're not.  That would be silly.



>The very thing Mr. Drew insists should not exists.... rivalry between the

clubs, he perpetuates with bullshit like this. 



>>>I think we've established this is NOT a club vs. club thing.   



>I will say this for Dave and Linda, they are good to their word! I can not

say the same for Mike Drew!



>>>I quote from Coffel above, "Drew still had my photos and I had promised

him that he had

an exclusive on them..."



..but of course before I even SAW the car in person, the story had been

published elsewhere.  I only learned about it after the fact.  So WHOSE word

are we calling into question here?



>PS- It was told to me once by a wise veteran member of PCNC that you have to

take some of the crap from

these so-call club 'officers' with a grain of salt because they are, after

all, just volunteers and while their

efforts and intentions may be good and worthwhile some of them are just

weenies who havn't got a life

and the club gives them an opportunity to think they have one.



>>>Oh, that's a VERY classy thing to say.  I'm impressed, I'm sure everyone

is.



Speaking on behalf of everyone who takes a leadership role in either a local

chapter or the national club (or both, as I do), I'd like to point out that

all of our efforts come at the direct expense of other aspects of our lives.

 My Pantera hasn't turned a wheel in seven years, and a large reason for that

is that I have chosen to dedicate such a great percentage of my time in

volunteer service to others in the Pantera community.  



I am not alone in that regard; every one of us who manage and lead these

volunteer organizations must make sacrifices elsewhere in our lives so YOU

can reap the benefits.  Much of our work is sheer drudgery; imagine sitting

behind a PC, or stuffing and addressing a thousand envelopes, or managing

membership renewals and dealing with new member applications, or adding up

bank records on a beautiful day when everyone else is out enjoying

themselves.  



Oh wait, you probably have a difficult time comprehending that.  For other

than organizing the Pantera involvement in one local car show, when is the

last time you contributed anything to the Pantera community at large?  When

is the last time you offered help to a technical question posed on this

forum?  When is the last time you spent a weekend turning a wrench on

somebody else's Pantera when two of your cars and two of your motorcycles

were laid up, and you weren't quite sure how you would be able to get to work

the next morning?  When was the last time you took a weekend off and

accompanied a total stranger on a 500-mile drive to evaluate a Pantera he was

interested in buying, or helped somebody who was in financial trouble quietly

and discretely sell his car, or actively searched the country to find a

specific type of Pantera for somebody you've never met, or spent your own

money to buy and then hand-carry hard-to-find parts to enthusiasts who live

in parts of the country or the world where parts simply aren't available?  



In short, other than writing a $100K check and BUYING a restoration of a very

nice Pantera, what have you EVER done for DeTomaso enthusiasts that entitles

you to criticize the heartfelt efforts of others who manage to think of

people other than themselves, and actually view the clubs and this forum as

tools for brotherhood and mutual support instead of simply a medium for

blatant self-aggrandizement?



Finally, everyone, if you've got a beef with somebody (especially me), try to

show a little class and address that person individually. 



'nuff said.  Asbestos suit removed! :>)



Mike