Great Canadian Classic II

The Montreal group met up at the Orange Julep then headed onto the highway, where within minutes the roads had dried. Although it was wet just long enough to require a little detailing when we got to Kingston, after 20 minutes on the road it was smooth and sunny weather for the rest of the weekend.

Too bad for those who decided to stay home.

Along the way we stopped for coffee to meet the Ottawa bunch and hit the road to Kingston.

As we cruised to Kingston we shot some footage for the many Euro owners asking us to be sure and post lots of video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgM9Pss1y_w

As we rolled into Kingston, we met up with the Toronto and Southern Ontario crew who had arrived shortly before us. We thrilled the locals, said hello to Derrick and Gavin, who many of us had spoken to but never met, then buried our heads in eachothers' engine bays.


Eventually the wives dragged us off to WJs, the restaurant overlooking our Pantera coral where we discussed parts, problems and had a nice, late lunch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5MMdgchdGM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czMsFBJtlIg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K--G2GMj_mI

Special thanks to Mark DeCasien for getting there early, grabbing the Kingston parking police and making sure our reserved section wasn't overrun with tourist minvans. While at lunch we got a surprise visit from Kirk Evans. The Jersey Pantera influence and Kirk's attendance made the vent very special indeed.

Eventually, we headed to the hotel and rolled into our Pantera Parking Coral underground. That sure woke up the hotel guests, but was nothing compared to when we took off for dinner a few hours later. As we fired up 6,000 HP, the downtown core of this quaint college town was shaking.

Fortunately we had Deeb's new GPS to rely on so we didn’t get lost this year. We cruised into the River Mill parking overlooking the water where we enjoyed the fabulous scene all those cars presented against the setting sun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5VQbojzTOk

We had a long and relaxed dinner with a lot of wine and then headed back to the hotel for some nice gifts - Participant Trophies and copies of the latest issue from PI, along with some nice Kingston mugs and T-shirts to mark the event.

Sunday we awoke late and cruised to the Marina.

We snaked through the city and then onto the quiet back road to the Marina, pausing to shoot some nice photos and take a video of everyone on the road (too big for youtube).

We enjoyed a quiet lunch by ourselves at the Marina and then after long goodbyes, anxious for our next event, we headed off to find some 94 octane and hit the road home.

An awesome couple of days. Can hardly wait 'till next year!

It was an awesome time and special thanks are most definitely due due to:

• David (DEEB) for so much time, money, skill and effort invested to make this such a great event for us all;
• Robert and Lena for making more awesome tee-shirts for everyone;
• George Pence for sending up magazines and participant awards for everyone to enjoy;
• Mark DeCasien for passing up a Jersey club event, driving almost 20 hours round-trip! to support our event (and arrange for Kirk Evans to join us)
• Kirk Evans of Amerisport for joining us from Ohio to share his experiences importing and certifying Panteras in the '80's as well as answer an amazing number of technical questions and show us some new parts he’s developing
• Normand, Michel, Carmen, Robert and David for braving the rain in Montreal and heading out anyway
• Richard, Wayne, Derrick, Gavin, Josef, Sam and Will (our new Southern Ontario event chairman... ) for hauling ass all the way to Kingston and back
• EVERY KNOWN Pantera owner from Ottawa for making the trip: Jonathan, Andrew, Bohdan and Mark (me)
And, last, but NOT least:
• Our wives, girlfriends and families for being so great about letting us guys be our insane selves

I hope all you guys made it back safe & sound and without “incident”. Andy & I blasted past a cop at 80 mph and luckily for us he was napping after his afternoon Timmy’s donut break. Whew!

Looking forward to seeing all you guys again!

A special thank you to all and your efforts and orginization to make this happen. I had a great time and and met alot great people and to put a face with a username. Didn't get a chance to talk to everyone, but I will next time. It being my first event I found it welcoming and friendly from all participants. I look forward to the next one. It sure is nice to be surrounded with those who share a common interest. Derrick

The 2007 lineup...

Special thanks to Bohdan (in his silver Ford Focus) for driving in the wrong direction on the main street in Kingston so as to divert Police attention away from 15 Panteras!

BITCHEN!

David, Mark, congratulations & thank you for all the effort, it paid off, eh...

To all who attended, thank you for being there.

The most-coveted Pantera award (based on my informal eaves-dropping) goes to Derrick for his spectacular sapphire blue '71.

For the second year in a row, the most awesome engine sound AND the Most-willing-to-risk-being-arrested-for-doing-a-burnout-in-a-sleepy-college-town award goes to Will and his (now) Black '71

Most aftermarket upgrades ever bolted on to a Pantera (with incredible results!) award: Mark DeCasien

UPDATE: Most shameless cross-border event promoter award and early-riser award (did you sleep in your truck?)

Worth noting: Mark was a runner-up for best sounding engine but was, sadly, disqualified once we found out it sounded so cool because it was a Windsor, not a Cleveland.

Most Reliable Award: Richard Turpin has attended every known major Pantera gathering in Canada and many in the USA!

The most willing to be photographed holding a newspaper award: Gavin

David, Mark, Rob, Thanks for another great year. I know how much time and effort goes into putting this event together. After so many problems with the car this summer it ran great with no problems (659 miles round trip). Looking forward to next year. Thanks again it just keeps getting better.
Richard T.

Where's the rest of them? I guess they were out shoe shopping...

thanks Marc for resizing this pic for me,... what a gorgeous city : Kingston, Ontario, and so friendly Pantera Owners:

Nice photo Mic. All the brake lights are on because I dropped my camera on the ground while taking a photo out the window with one hand — while driving. Not recommended at speed, but something DEEB does all the time — except he never manages to drop his camera.

Great photos, some very nice Canadian Panteras, I like.... Thanks for the pics

Thanks for sharing with us the photos and info on your great event!

As the new guy in the group I'd like to thank everyone for making Tamara and I feel welcome in Kingston. We had a great time and I learned alot about the car I just bought.

Glad to hear Wayne got home ok, we waved good bye at the 427. You didn't want to be driving behind him on that trip, he was spraying the trans oil pretty good.

Special thanks to Mark for all the great photography.

I've been wrestling with whether I like the car with or without the wing. Kingston helped me decide what I suspected already. For my car...wing off. The wing is now off. So if anyone is interested in going the other direction and adding a wing let me know. Its taking up a lot of room in my garage.

It sure was fun meeting new owners and seeing old friends again. We should all be working on finding other owners and pushing them to get their cats out of the garage and onto the road for next years' event.

I put together a DVD with video, and thanks to Mark and others added a lot of still photos and slide shows of our Great Canadian Classic. It's a great piece to remember a great event. Look for it in the mail!

Email me your addresses to make sure it gets to the right place. Thanks

dberman@canspan.com