DeTomaso Mailing List: June 2000, Message #171

After weeks and weeks of waiting and anticipation, I finally picked up my new car. My alarm was set for 4:15am on Thursday morning, but at 4 I decided that I couldn't sleep anyway so I got up and showered. The taxi was waiting for me at 4:45, and we were off for the one hour drive to the Bilbao airport. 

I flew from Bilbao, Spain to Milan, Italy, the from there to Vienna, Austria. It was easy to identify Mr. Franz Krump, as he was wearing the same DeTomaso shirt as I was! We drove from the airport to his home, about an hour away. On the way, I noticed that compared with France, Italy, and Spain, the drivers in Austria were remarkably obedient of the speed limit. I soon understood why, as my host showed me all the little grey boxes alongside the road. In each little grey box was a radar gun and a camera. And these things  were posted every mile or so! So traffice in general had a surge a little faster between boxes, and the inevitable braking just before the next. Most people just cruised at the speed limit. 

We got to his house and he opened the garage door. There, inside, was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. A pristine, pearl white DeTomaso Pantera GT5-S. Even more beautiful - MY GT5-S! Parked adjacent was a red Pantera 2 and a red '68 Jaguar XKE. You could perform operations on any one of these three cars and cleanliness would not be an issue. They were each immaculate! 

I looked over the car inside and out, it looked beautiful. I put my Spanish license plates on, he handed me the keys, got in his car, and we went for a ride. 

I'd read a lot about these cars, and much of what I had heard was true. My other car wears "normal" tires - 225 in front and 255 in the rear. With the HUGE tires on this car, 285 on the front and 345 on the back, the first drive down a backroad was not exactly fun. The reviews of this car said it hunts and changes direction suddenly because of the huge tires. I thought it was just that the reporters were wimps, and if they ate their veggies or were more manly they wouldn't have this problem. Well, all I'll say is that with these tires, on bad, deeply grooved roads the car is a handful. 

Once I got off this road, which was particularly bad, things improved dramatically. Speed enforcement in Austria is pretty strict on the highways, but not between towns on secondary roads. As soon as we got up to speed, the difference between my pre-L and this car became more apparent. I thought my old Pantera cornered better than anything I had ever been in, but this is 100 times better. You approach a corner a little faster than you think you ought to take it, and as you enter the corner you realize that actually you are just fine. There is almost zero body roll, and the grip is incredible! The ride quality is much different than my pre-L. It feels much more sensitive, more like a race car than a road car. The steering was not twitchy enough to be called nervous, but close. It changes direction in a heartbeat. 

It was fun following Mr. Krump in his Pantera 2. His car appears incredibly wide from the rear, and its movements resemble that of a pure race car. I got a chance to drive his car later, I'll write more about that in another post. 

Fast forward to the drive home. Those radar boxes alongside the road really do impede your speed a little bit. There were frequent slowdowns for construction, but once I hit the German border things opened up a little bit. You gotta love seeing a white round sign, blank, with an "X" through it. This means that whatever speed limit was previously posted no longer applies. No speed limit applies! It took it reasonably easy, cruising at between 200 and 220 k/hr (125-135mph). My speed was dictated by other traffic and my oil temp gauge. When the oil temp hit 280F, I backed down to let it cool off. It was 90 degrees on Saturday, the water temp stayed fine the whole trip, idling or cruising, but the oil temp started to climb if I cruised too long too fast. I wish this car had the "LeMans" final gear, but it is not often I would have needed it. Later GT5-S cars apparently came with an oil cooler, I think I'll be fitting one on my car as I will have the chance to occasionally cruise at extended high speeds :-) 

I drove from Vienna to Paris, 1500 kilometers, on the first day and stopped to eat and sleep. The second day I headed out, and a couple hours into the drive heard a strange noise for about 5 seconds, then the car started to run rough. It started to hesitate a little, and the oil pressure dropped to about 35psi or so. I stopped the car, and below 1500 rpm or so, the oil pressure drops to zero. The car only idles for a second or two before it dies. It restarts without too much problem. But I can't get the oil pressure above 35 psi. Under constant throttle, it stammers and sputters, it smooths out a little bit under more throttle.  I was fairly close to where I used to live in France, so I left it at the Ferrari/Maserati dealer who worked on the other car and rented a car to continue home. 

Unfortunately, they won't be able to look at it for another week, so I won't know what the story is. I've suffered through the dreaded "sheared distributor pin" episode once, but that wouldn't cause oil pressure drop, would it? The 351W has 39K miles on it... I'm not really sure what to have them start checking. 

So this is a happy story with a bittersweet middle (and the happy ending to come, I hope). The car is gorgeous. Some cars look better in photos than in real life, some the opposite is true. I always thought the Guara ugly until I saw them in person. The GT5-S merely looked awesome in photos, in person, words can't describe it. The ability to corner and brake is a real improvement over the pre-L. True, I have less legroom because the front wheel wells are deeper than my old car, but it is not too bad. And true, I can't see ANYTHING out that rear window because of that beautiful delta wing. And true, it follows the road a little bit because of those huge tires up front. But it is just so gorgeous and handles so well. 

So we'll see what the problem is. Any suggestions for where to start looking? 

Charlie McCall 
1972 DeTomaso Pantera Pre-L #3847 (for sale)
1985 Pantera GT5-S #9375
"Raising Pantera Awareness across Europe"