2017 Spa Classic in Pantera

Great write-up Mikael! Thanks for sharing your adventure with us. I love taking trips in my Pantera - my last trip to SoCal had a few hiccups, but I'll save that story for another time as I don't want to hijack your thread. Wish I were there with you. Enjoy the journey!

Had a bit of a guilty conscience this morning when I went to wash the car at 6am, parking lot was full, and I had taken 2 spots. Just a bit. But nothing compared to the 911 Carrera conv 4WD where two perfectly able people had parked in the handicap parking space by the entrance.

Thought I had to find water for my bucket to wash, but there was enough water on the car to wash it from the night. Then checked oil and water. Then time for shower and breakfast. Priorities...

I'm one hour from Spa now, Group C will hit the track at 10:25, plenty of time.

Hi Mikael,

sound like a outstanding trip. And thanks for sharing it with us ! For me its like sitting on the passenger seat :-)

Visiting Simon is always a highlite. He is a great guy and believe me or not - without him and another handful of people from here - I am not sure if my Pantera would still be with me.
Enjoy the rest of your journey and I hope the weather is getting better

Regards
Marc

So off to Spa. First half was small towns. Stopped for the view. Of the Pantera of course. Then highway the last half, they go up and down like a roller-coaster. Forgot to mention, I got blitzed two times yesterday. But since my front license late lies comfortably in the front trunk, it was freebies :-) In Denmark you can get a fine for driving without license plate, not happened yet, but you can lose your license speeding. Easy choice IMO.

So I had arrived, mission accomplished. If the Pantera broke down now, it would be no big issue, I would get a free transport home and save some gas :-) But to break down before arriving here, would have spoiled the trip.

I had tried to buy track tickets from home. Short version, no phone number online, and the written questions I had about it didn't get answered. So no track time and had to park outside :-(. I had hoped I could charm/pay my way in when I got there, but not enough charm apparently.

So had to walk in with the crowd. Now this forum wants pictures, so that's what you get. So be warned, non-DeTomaso pictures ahead, even non-car pictures ahead, continue at your peril...

Here are a few millions, beautiful shapes back then

The famous Eau Rouge. You cannot imagine the elevation until you’ve been

Millions of Euro waiting to get out on the track, and risk it all. I wonder if they’re insured for a crash at Spa

They didn’t hold back. Interestingly, the grey Ferrari 275 set a time 30 seconds in front of second best. Maybe a pro driver against all these gentleman drivers?

Today I walked half the track. With quite some elevation differences. Was at Les Combes, Bruxelles, Double Gauche and Eau Rouge. It was here at Double Gauche I was off 4 years ago in the Pantera. Quite spectacularly, unfortunately I never found any footage of it. I would think that anybody that had filmed it would have youtubed it. Here you can see plenty of tiremarks from people that ran out of asphalt and talent, I’m sure some of the most crazy ones are mine…

”The hills are alive, with the sound of … engines”. It really is a fabulous track. For a driver, better than Le Mans

When I sat and watched the parade laps, I was a bit annoyed. I should have been there. Most cars were painfully slow, but a few modern Ferraris and three GT40s gave it everything they had. I would have liked to play!

The pictured Ferrari went slow and then parked. Then he got out, opened the hood, closed it and drove off. What a mechanic, Ferrari fixed in 1 minute

So, are you missing seeing Panteras!? I saw three. This is one, ready to go on the track. Owner not present, talked a bit with a crew member

Nice

One more race Pantera. Talked to the owner, he in French, me in English, stopped quickly. But “Good luck”

.

And even Bonhams Auctions had one. Looked pretty nice. It's blue!

But can a 9XXX be a narrowbody “GTS”. Does all this add up?

Three girls in tight clothes saw to raising the mood for everybody. They were good at it too. I’ve probably seen three better female figures, but right now can’t remember where, but besides their obvious appeal, they were really great at creating a good atmosphere. They danced, laughed, played games, took pictures with a Polaroid and gave the picture away. At their peril. One of them thought it a good idea to have her picture taken with the waiting drivers of open wheelers, one driver forgot to wait, so his rear wheel ran over her high-heeled foot, her shoe came off. Thankfully nothing happened, she was soon back in a good mood.

As you can see below, one of them spotted me taking a picture

So now they insisted to have their picture taken with me. What can you do, didn’t want to ruin the festive mood. They handed me the picture, said I would see the result in 5 minutes. I said to one of the girls besides me that I could hardly wait, got a big smile. The other girl said that I should blow on it to develop it. I said, why don’t you do that? Quickly she blew on the picture with her pursed red lips. Hhmm, I had one more comment in my mind at that time, but I thought it best to keep it to myself, so I said thanks, took my picture and moved on. Here’s a picture of that picture.

So end of a long day. A great day, almost sensory overload with so many fabulous cars and this great track. I walked a lot, was a bit tired. I always say that I’ve never been on a track where it hasn’t either been cold and raining or blistering hot. Today was cold and raining, but very little rain, so no complaints.

On the way out from the track, my Pantera was parked, ready to go. I started it, and many people leaving the track, having seen fantastic cars all day, still stopped and filmed me backing out. A Pantera being started always gets attention, right guys?

Then back to the hotel, for a hot bath (don’t worry, no pictures) and dinner and maybe a beer. So out on the highway, and then the small roads through towns and woods. When at a cross a Ducati and a BMW Z8 got in front of me. This could be fun I thought. But the Ducati went slow. But then he turned off, and the Z8 floored it. So did I. And then we had a few km of fun through the woods at more than double the speed limit. I must be getting old, I sat there thinking: “I hope he knows what he’s doing”.

Back at the hotel, another stellar parking by me