My journey

When I was a kid, my parents divorced, and on the weekends that my dad had the kids, we all had to cram into his (what he thought was cool) Porsche 924 and park in the garage in his building near Lake Merrit in Oakland.

His parking spot was next to a dark, forest green pantera, and way back then (33 years ago) the Pantera became my all-time favorite car, even to this day.
Between then and now I've owned over 20 cars, many classics, but lost or sold them in the years after high school when I discovered drugs, and for 10 years found myself homeless, living under a bridge in Seattle.

In 1999 I pulled my head out of my ass, cleaned up, cared for my Grandmother until she passed, but during that time I started racing model cars, full scale cars, flying model planes, lots of cool shit, all on a high level. I was ranked 20th in the US in 2005, and was California Champion a few years ago, racing 1/4 scale offroad RC cars. I airbrush paint the model car bodies for a living.

Flash forward to a couple weeks ago, I was at my jewelers (I like fine watches-Rolex, Vacheron, Patek) and he was showing someone pics on his phone of some old ferarri. I jokingly asked, "is that yours?" and he said yeah, I have 2, this one I just had restored. I was blown away, I had no idea my jeweler friend was a motorhead and collector.
The last year, I've been building a new Subaru BRZ (look it up) street monster. I added a big fat turbocharger, methanol injection, engine management (similar to Motec), I dumped a shitload of money into this car, and it was a BEAST. This little 4 banger made 350 hp to the wheels on the dyno, and there wasn't much that could hang with it on the street.
I did find however that the tuner crowd was not what I was seeking, mostly younger guys, most with no money (cut coils to lower their cars instead of proper coilovers), nice crowd, just not for me.

My neighbor owns a Pantera, and 5 years ago I told him "someday I'm gonna get one of these just like you".

After seeing my jeweler's car pics, it just hit me, "what am I doing dumping money into this car that I'm going to lose big-time on, when I should be out looking for my dream car.
That night I put ads on the forums for my BRZ and sold it 3 days later to a nice gentleman from Indiana.

6 months ago, I didn't know if I was going to live, I had a clogged heart valve, was told I had less than a year to live unless I had open heart surgery, so I said " sign me up! Get me in as soon as you can! I was having terrible chest pains and probably had a few minor heart attacks (that I kept quiet about until after i got insurance). The first doctor freaked out and said "you don't run, move fast, you are "on vacation, hang in there and we'll get you fixed right up". Well, it took 4.5 months to finally get my surgery date, and by then I was praying to God to live until the operation date. I was REALLY a day or 2 away from death.

Long story short, the surgery went great, I have a mechanical heart valve you can hear clicking from across the room, but I'm healthy and free to live out my life as if nothing had happened. My issue was genetic, I was born with an irregular heart valve, and was told it was normal that people with this problem had the same things happen (late 40's-early 50's heart konks out, once the chest Pains start you have a year or so to live, but easily fixed)so it's been 6 months, and I'm recovered, healthy, and after seeing those Ferarri pics, I decided right there I was going to go get me my Pantera!

I found Roger Sharp's white 72 listed, went and drove it with him, called him later that night and said I'd buy the car.

I trailered it home 2 days ago, I've driven it twice now, and it is everything I ever dreamed of and more! I am beyond stoked, and it was a pleasure, and an honor to buy Roger's car from him and his wife.

I'm taking full advantage of the second chance I've been given in life. I spent more than I had factored in to spend, but luckily I have a large list of tasty Top Ramen recipes, which I'll be eating for the next year! lol

I'm literally one of THE happiest guys on earth right now!

I've named her "Snow White" (who I always had a thing for as a kid), and now that she's mine, oh man, she's gonna get treated like a queen. I'm gonna caress her, get to know her Real good, spoil her, and do her really hard occasionally LOL, just so she knows who the Boss is! lol

Here's a pic of her in her new home.