DeTomaso Mailing List: April 99, Message #26

hi all,

YES, there's a gnu kitty in fredneck county! :>)  many thanks to this list, and
to those who went above & beyond the call of duty to help make it happen.  

thanks to those listers w/cars for sale who provided me w/foto's & info about
your cars - sorry it dint work out, i wish you the best in selling your cars.

thanks to charlie mccall, who volunteered to czech out a car for me in france,
at carclassics.com

special thanks to cary foster and his friend (non-pantera-owner) jeff deperalta,
who czeched out a car i was considering in socal - seemed nice, but in need of a
little tlc, and mebbe priced a little high.  thanks to mad dog, who put me on
cary's scent about czeching out that car, cuz he was headed outta town.

special thanks to wayne stevens, fred terry, george dausch et al, who let me
crash their 'party' several saturday's ago, so i could pick their brains, and
see wayne's pantera completely stripped.

extra special thanks to don & amelia murray, in miami, who called me several
times to talk pantera's, drove an hour to czech out #2606, and gave me a full
report back.  if it weren't for their help, i prolly wudda missed out on this
car, cuz it was priced so "right" - i'm sure it wudda been sold before i was
able to make it down to miami to czech it out.  based upon talks w/the po's
mechanic, faxed repair inwoices, foto's emailed from the po, and, especially don
& amelia's feedback, i bought the car site unseen.  kinda scary, but i believe
it was worth it. (easier to say now!)

so, here's a li'l synopsis of picking up the car:

up at 6am saturday a.m., drive the alfa gtv6 to work, take the metrorail from
work to wash nat'l airport, fly to west palm via newark (?!?)  wery long day,
bottom line is i 1st see the car in pompano beach, fla at about 6pm.  like what
i see (a good thing, since it's mine, like it or not!)  

on the road by 7pm to wisit a buddy in tampa.  it was ~280 miles to tampa, got
there at about 11:00pm.  no problems w/the car, which dint see this many mile
the previous 2 years!  

i was lucky as hell to be in the right lane yust starting out on alligator alley
- interstate 75; i'd been in the center & left lanes right before, and for some
unknown reason, i yust decided i should take it easy, and moved rite.  it looked
like a truck carrying concrete block or something lost its whole load in the
left lanes - huge chunks of concrete, dust & debris flying everywhere, it was
unbelievable, & i YUST missed it!   

then about 140 miles sunday from tampa to sanford to put the car on the
autotrain.  ya, mebbe i wimped out a little, but i dint really wanna push my
luck on a big drive to maryland in a car that had only seen about 250 miles the
past 2 years.  

monday morning, 50 miles to work here in maryland, from the train station in
lorton, va.  then another 45 miles home.  

only problem was a li'l pin that fell out of the clutch linkage ass'y rite as i
was leaving work to head home.  panic at first, as the pedal went all the way to
the floor, w/no engagement of any sort!  then i saw this li'l pin on the floor
mat, crawled under the dash w/a flash lite, found out where it was supposed to
be, & popped it back in.  i'll have to investigate a more permanent install on
this.  

all in all, the li'l kitty seemed to take everything in stride - ~520 miles in
less than 2 days, after a long period of being dormant - can't complain, really.
averaged about 17mpg.

put another hundred miles on it yesterday, took the li'l lady out for a spin
after work to pick up one of the alfas from the commuter train station (had to
train into work tuesday, to rescue the gtv6 which was at work over the weekend).
let the wif drive it back home - boy, what a site seeing that car cruising in
front of you!  :>)  ellen had a silly grin when she got outta the car - said she
almost blew by the driveway, so she could head up the road a little more!  (our
road is an *excellent* cruising road!)  her only complaint is the exceedingly
stiff clutch - any info on that clutch-effort-reduction-kit i've heard about?

now, for a funny story - who sez cars don't have feelings?
my wife told me she hopes my gtwe6 doesn't get jealous of the pantera; i laffed,
but ya know, tuesday, the 1st time i drive it after getting the pantera, driving
it home from work, it blows the #5 sparkplug rite outta the hole - no shit!  i
guess it wasn't torqued down enuff, cuz the threads were intact, musta wibrated
itself loose - the li'l silver plug wire connection adapter from the wire-end of
the plug was also still in the wire boot...  i was about 2 miles from home, on
our road - it's about a 45 mile drive from work - picked a strange time to let
it go, doncha think?!?
:>)

anyway, expect a bunch-o-dumb-newbie questions shortly, about maintenance/mods,
etc.  even tho this is an italian car, i dunno much of anything about the
amurricun-iron motor, except from the threads i've been following here - when it
comes to cars, i'm a commie-pinko-bastard thru-n-thru!  nuttin' but furrin' cars
since '73!

thanks again, all - ciao for now,

dug seed in
'72 pre-l pantera
'78 ducati darmah
'86 alfa gtwe6 3.0 bastard
'88 alfa milano werde
'92 alfa 164L
'95 buell s2, white-lightning motor