Photo Blog: 3271 Rides Again

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It's always helpful to get a few great pics to help me figure out where I'm going.

These are courtesy of Daniel at dcartmotion.
We'll soon see a Pantera up there with the other nice cars on his site.

All I can is WOW!

Sheesh. So many great pics...

The crazy thing is, she actually goes better than she looks!

Having had the pleasure of seeing Beastia in person, if she goes half as good as she looks you have a hell of a winner. Great vision! BTW you brought back your avatar of 9203, are you starting to miss her?Rob6145

Looks great David!

wow!

Congrats Dave on a complete job and finishing!

Nice work, David - Impressive build, it's great to see the completion. I am sure you are pretty happy about it too!

Rocky

The last pic i think is my favorite

Thanks for the nice comments. Mark sent me a new Avatar, Rob.

All this talk about completion and finishing is nice to hear. I'm glad she looks finished. But in reality she's only just finished enough to drive all summer and work out the bugs.

Next winter she will be back in Cali with me to get on a long list:

Fenders
Fender flares
Front deck mods
Wipers
New rear face
New tailites
New brakes
Steering rack adjustment
Electric power steering
Passenger floor

Finally refinish all body then paint and wrap. Yeah... lots to do.

It may look like a modern car but even with all these new components, deep down it's still a Pantera and therefor always a project!

Good thing. Otherwise I'd have bought an FCar or Lambo or Vette.

Wow, looking mean! Forgot to say when you left my place months ago the devil roar woke the dead!

Looks Great David!!!

The car has a been a canvas ... a place for an artist to express his vision.

You've done well.

Thanks for the comments guys!

I’ve had a busy summer putting the new Beast thru hell. I’ve taken her on ever increasing distance runs at ever increasing speeds.

Along the way I’ve broken and changed too many things to list …but wow, I’m pretty darn happy with where I’m at.

I remember the excitement my white 9203 GT5 used to cause on the roads. But this one is a whole new experience when I’m out in public. I have been swarmed and photographed everywhere.

If you thought people wondered what “kit car” you’re driving in a stock looking Pantera, imagine what they think of this one? Some old timers have guessed the Pantera heritage, but very few.

I’m waiting on a new billet badge I came up with and hopefully folks will now have answers without me having to yell over the rumble.

I’m going to put it under and beside the blue and white DT badges on the sides and rear.

Anyhow, what a blast to drive! It’s pretty loud outside but not as bad inside. And it’s f&*#ing fast. And that’s without the nitrous connected yet. It’s wild!

I’m putting miles on the engine and working my way thru hard accelerations trying to find a way to get traction without burning the clutch or killing the ZF. So far so good.

You know that stupid grin disease we all suffer from after an early morning run in a cat? Well, it’s tearing my face open.

This thing just keeps pulling. It will rev to 8,000 but I’m still with the 6500 MSD restrictor for now. Sheesh, it will take some time before I’m bored of this power – especially once I connect the bottle!

My plan for the summer was to finish fine tuning all the mechanicals before heading back to CA for the winter. I’m almost there. When I get back to California I can spend the winter finishing the final body details and cosmetics. I need some help in the decisions. Scroll down.

Brakes are good. Steering is good. I haven’t torn up any wheel bearings yet. Cooling is perfect – car never runs hot. AC is so cold I have to open a window! The interior treatments and all the electronics are bulletproof. Aside from a few switches and LED lights that I’ve changed and added, there have been no failures anywhere.

One of the biggest problems to work out was the rubbing. These 19” and 20” wheels extend ¾” beyond the fender flares. This looks great, but rubs under load and on bumpy roads – which are a lot more prevalent here in Canada than in California.

Trying to reduce to front roll, I maxed out the shock compression. But it still rubbed. I finally changed the front springs for heavier rate springs that were ¾” shorter. I’m now using 500 lbs up front, which sounds like a lot, but with reduced shock compression really handles beautifully. It’s very comfortable to drive and no longer rubs under load.

With shorter springs I have lots of room to play with ride height. I raised it 3/8” in both front and rear. I’ll keep playing with this until I find the lowest setting that won’t rub. I still have the lift kit for extreme speed bumps and driveways.

The next big issue to resolve was crankcase pressure. I tried various plumbing methods, with breathers, catch cans and PCV systems.

From heavily smoking breathers and stinking up the garage I finally put some of it back into the carb. But while it improved, there’s still too much pressure blowing oil out the valley pan and elsewhere.

So after much research, tonight I'm going to install this vacuum pump along with a neat Wagner adjustable PCV valve and a new Elite catch can / separator. I’m hopeful this is the solution.

http://mewagner.com/?p=444

I’ve also ordered this new K&N racing filter which has double the flow of my current filter. It’s longer but half the width of the giant 14” cake that takes too long to get on and off and is hard to work around.

After the new plumbing is working well I’ll see if I want to put anything back into the carb.

Better than this, I think.

Ok, so now for the body design. If you looked at the pics over the years of this build you will see that there are two different sides to the car. I wasn’t sure which way to go. Now that I have figured out what to do with the side view, I have to pick one.

Preferences?

DRIVER SIDE

PASSENGER SIDE

So its the plain passenger side or the detailed driver's side. Pick one.

To one of them I'm going to add some detail on the front facing side of the fender.

Plain

A little...

Or a lot...

First off, I am going to cut away some of the flares – the front facing edge of the rears and the rear facing edge of the fronts. I will also keep a consistent dimension all around the tire opening. This should get rid of some of the short / fat look of the side view. I’m happy with the front, rear and ¾ views, but the side view needs work. This should do it.

Then I'll add some cutouts in the rear fenders.

So the choice is a little …or a lot. What say you?

Here's what a little would look like with the other side version...

Then there's the back of the car and the rear lights.

Here it is as it stands.

I looked at a lot of nice lights I could buy. I like this Lexus 350 a lot. I could build a custom rear face around them, with lots of details, just like I did in the front with my headlights.

Here's an idea of what it would look like.

Or I could flip them over...