Pantera Specifications #2

Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone. The car was at Pantera Performance whom I had do the pre-sale inspection. Why not just make it perfect? My instructions to Pantera Performance owner Dennis Quella were simple: Make it as fast as possible but still streetable; make it a fun car for open track days. After much consultation, we came to the following conclusion about what needed to be done:

- Get rid of the roller cam. Dennis doesn't like them for the street, and he felt the cam wasn't set up quite right anyway. Seems the rollers eat your distributor gears somehow.

- Upgrade brakes to full-on Willwood. The brakes had been upgraded, but weren't as beefy as I wanted.

- Add a Brembo handbrake. Lots of Panteras with upgraded brakes wind up with no handbrake. Guys put in a hydraulic line lock. That's pretty Mickey Mouse. I wanted the car to have all the conveniences of a new factory special.

- Upgrade wheels to 18" Supercup modular wheels. These wheels just look too darn good to pass up!

- Suspension tune up. She'll run good on the track!

- Regear transaxle and rebuild as necessary.

- Redo rear uprights with better bearings.

- Many miscellaneous problems fixed.

It's been in the shop a long time. So far, we have mostly got the engine together. It dyno'd at 596HP without the roller cam and on a regular Holley carbureutor! That's a little more than I expected, but I'm not complaining. Should be pretty exciting to get this beast out to an open track.