Reply to "My journey"

There are a couple of ways to stiffen the Pantera 'frame'. The best is also the most complicated: you seam-weld the entire car as a supplement to it's original spot-weld construction. Some of the requisite areas will burn the paint so this is usually done during a restoration followed by a repaint. From the owners that have done this, it results in true race-car handling.

The next is some sort of suspension stiffening attachments underneath. Several of the vendors market bolt-&-weld-on systems front & back. They also seem to work; one vendor ran the famous Silver State Classic in his Pantera so equipped. He passed over a hump-back bridge at 'about' 150mph and according to a course worker, flew 165 feet. The landing left scrape marks in the blacktop for quite a ways but he finished the event, then drove 125 miles back home. A week later he discovered that both front subframe connectors had broken off the tub welds! The only thing holding the lower front suspension on was the aftermarket stiffener system! He hadn't noticed any odd handling at legal speeds.....

Full roll cages protect the driver but do not stiffen up the chassis much unless the cage is also tacked to some/most of the surrounding body panels. A std 2 or 3-point hoop roll bar behind the seats does no stiffening and may not even be necessary; there are several records of crashes and roll-overs- one above 180 mph- and the drivers survived with minor injuries. The stock body construction just behind the seat is essentially a large roll hoop.

When talking about accidents, I always think of the legendary description of the little Piper Cub- "The world's safest airplane! It's barely fast enough to kill you...."