Im getting a Pantera race car!

[mike the snake]

I'm getting a Pantera race car!

built in the 90's, tracked ever since. Going in 3 weeks to see/buy it when it's ready.

I can't wait! Pantera has always been my all-time favorite car. I figured I should get one while I can still afford one, prices are going up fast.

I'm going to have to sell my hotrod turbo 2013 Subaru BRZ, as I can't keep 2 hotrod cars, but the Pantera I plan to keep for a long, long time.

[IEDEI]

VERY cool. I rode in a friend's Detomaso Pantera a few years ago and it was epic.....any photos of the race car you're getting?

[Dackelone]

I'm "in" for photos too!!

[ShocknAwe]

No kidding. Killer engine in those. Never seen one in the wild, but I'll settle for more pictures!

[mike the snake]

here's my future love of my life!

The stock engine is long gone, this baby is running a Nascar engine!

[beats]

Saw a bunch of these at the Tour Auto 2014 in Paris. Awesome show, and amazing older cars...

[Nitrousbird]

Sweet car. By "NASCAR" engine, do you mean an SB2.2?

[mike the snake]

Not sure, the engine was built in the 90's (93). An old ad says SVO motor with C-302-B heads, making 659 hp. 14 to 1 compression with 4 stage dry sump oil system. Rousch manifold, stainless roller rockers, Isky roller cam, King crank, Ross pistons, Crower rods.

I'll be going to look at/buy the car around the end of the month, it's not ready right now. I can't wait!

In the meantime, anyone want to buy a crazy turbocharged Subaru BRZ with 300whp and only 5000 miles on it?

[don 147]

I had a '72 back then. I loved the car, did some work on it and it would fly. It is still my favorite car I have owned, my Z4 is a long second place winner.

[VMRWheels]

Wow, nice pick up. Congrats !

[mike the snake]

Ended up picking up a 72 Pre-L Pantera. Named her Snow White.

She has a stroked 351 (to a 408) with ITB's, EFI, and around 650 hp.

I've had some issues, the owner misrepresented the condition of the engine, but in a couple weeks Snow White will wake from her deep sleep once again!

[IEDEI]

Originally Posted by mike the snake

Ended up picking up a 72 Pre-L Pantera. Named her Snow White.

She has a stroked 351 (to a 408) with ITB's, EFI, and around 650 hp.

I've had some issues, the owner misrepresented the condition of the engine, but in a couple weeks Snow White will wake from her deep sleep once again!

beautiful car....had a ride in a yellow Pantera once and it felt really special! congrats! Not sure i like the wheels on this though...too large and blingy? I'm sure you could find more original wheels for it if you wanted though...

[mike the snake]

I believe the wheels are Campi clones from the GT4/GT5.

Fronts are 225x16, rears are 335x16, and they look BADASS on the car

https://www.google.com/search?q=pant...hp%3B437%3B257

[Josh/AWE]

Yesssssssss!

[mike the snake]

I love Panteras! No other car has a stagger like that!

Im having engine issues (seller was full of shit when he sold me the car) so I'm HOPING replacing some parts will have me running for a while until I can do a proper rebuild.

When it's running it puts out 650 hp!

[mike the snake]

Here's a pic of the injection. Under the air cleaners is 8 sexy velocity stacks. I'm chicken to run without them.

The engine is a monster full-blown sprint car engine, Rousch-Yates C3L heads, Scat crank, Carillo rods, Ross pistons, EFI with ITB's, 650hp on tap.

Unfortunately, the seller was full of shit when he sold me the car, said the engine was issue-free, and fresh, and I've had big issues, and I'm hoping to EEK out a little more life out of it so I can have some fun before I rebuild it and the gearbox next year.

[whats77inaname]

Liberty Walk before there was Liberty Walk

[NickyC]

Originally Posted by mike the snake

Here's a pic of the injection. Under the air cleaners is 8 sexy velocity stacks. I'm chicken to run without them.

The engine is a monster full-blown sprint car engine, Rousch-Yates C3L heads, Scat crank, Carillo rods, Ross pistons, EFI with ITB's, 650hp on tap.

Unfortunately, the seller was full of shit when he sold me the car, said the engine was issue-free, and fresh, and I've had big issues, and I'm hoping to EEK out a little more life out of it so I can have some fun before I rebuild it and the gearbox next year.

I'm very sorry to hear this, dishonest sellers should be done like an ISIS video.

Best of luck getting everything going again, I love those rear tires by the way! >

[mike the snake]

The blue car is one i was considering before buying the white one. I should have bought the blue one!

The white car does not have flares, but the rear tires are almost as big still!

I owned it for an hour, changed the oil, and it wouldn't start. Seller admitted he had a rocker failure, which sent needle bearings all through the engine, which caused the engine to lock up on me an hour after i bought it.

After pulling the pan, and finding all kinds of crap in the pan (needle bearings, circlips) I called the seller, who until then had offered help, answering my questions while I was troubleshooting, and that's when he told me about the failed rocker, said "sorry about that" and then sent me a text saying he wouldn't be available any more for any help with the car.

I spent my life savings on the car, and wasn't going to let this break me, so I took it home and jacked it up and started working on it, and that was when I rebroke my chestbone (I recently had open heart surgery, and shouldn't have been trying to fix the car myself) so I ended up totally stuck, and injured, and broke.

Luckily, a couple Pantera club buddies came to my aid and helped me with the couple things I couldn't do, and then let me finish fixing the car myself.

Unfortunately, a couple tanks of gas after that, I found more rockers failing, so I have new valvesprings, and new rockers coming any day now.

I HOPE to get the motor running reliably for a while, so I can enjoy the car until next year when I plan to go through the engine properly. I HOPE nothing else is wrong with the engine. It DOES run and has HUGE power.
It's just a race motor at the end of it's service life. I was told it never had any issues and was a fresh motor.

Needless to say though, the seller is NOT on my Christmas list, and hopefully Karma will catch up with him. He knew exactly what he was doing. He even misrepresented the car in the ad, which said it had Jesel rockers, which it did not.

I hope to have the car back running in a couple weeks.

Originally Posted by NickyC

I'm very sorry to hear this, dishonest sellers should be done like an ISIS video.

Best of luck getting everything going again, I love those rear tires by the way! >

[rantarM3]

Did you consider getting an attorney? Sounds like it is going to cost you a whole lot.

[Alfisti]

With all due respect, you took him at his word?? I'd want hard proof or assume the worse.

[mike the snake]

I did take him on his word.

I researched the man, and the car. Both are fairly famous in the Pantera world. Seller was at one point the president of the Pantera Owners club of America, and came with good references.

The car ran great during the test drive.

The engine has a road racing pan, with flaps, and a 1/4" lip, and when I wooshed 10 quarts of new oil into the engine while changing the oil, it washed some steel bits over the lip into the pickup box, that instantly locked up the oil pump. Car no starty.

After lots of troubleshooting I found the rotor not turning. I read that Fords sometimes shear the diz drive gear pin, so I replaced that but it re-sheared the pin instantly, telling me the oil pump was locked up.

On the 72 models, the crossmember is welded in, so to get the pan off (something the seller never did) I had to cut the crossmember off, and spend hours grinding to make it look like it was never there. We then installed a bolt-in replacement crossmember.

I found the offending chunck of steel in the oil pump, along with 20 or so needle bearings and half a circlip.

When I called the seller about this, things got uncomfortable. He mentioned about the failed rocker, said he was sorry he missed some of the bits, and then texted me he'd no longer be available to help me with the car.

It's all on me. I did not do a PPI, and bought the car AS IS, so I'm stuck with what I have.

The engine is a monster sprint car stroked 408 with EFI and ITB's, all roller everything.

It'll either run with the new parts, or not. If not I'll be throwing a cover over the car and it'll become a long-term project

He told me he had 24 or 27K (he said both) just in parts alone into the engine, and it was low miles and never had any issues.

The crap in the pan, the 3 different colored rockers, and the other failing rockers tells me he abused the engine, and sold the car before it blew up on him for good.

My problem now.

I'm replacing the rockers and valvesprings, and hoping the lifters are OK, and plan is to run the motor for a while, enjoy the car, and then rebuild and detune the engine so it'll last.

I've got threads about all this on the Pantera forum, so until I rebuild this engine, the value of the car is hurt, so I plan on going through everyting next year so it's all new.