auto cross ???

They hold soloII events at Qualcomm Stadium monthly...There is a website for SoloII...check it out.It does look like a lot of fun...I know I'll be there when I purchase a P car.

A 3200 lb. car with rack & pinion steering and NO power steering will wear you out on an autocross course. But if you must, look at http://www.scca.org/ Scroll down, under"Getting Started" click on "Region Locator". You should be able to find the website for a region near you. Look for a SOLO II schedule of events. Have fun.

Q #2- they do poorly unless you work on them a bit. Biggest problem is, your main competition will likely be Corvettes, with their 10 or 11" wide wheels in front. Panteras understeer and you cannot stuff wide enough wheels/tires under the unflaired front fenders to compensate so you must finess the situation. An unflaired '71-75 Pantera can run a max of 245-50x 15s on 8" Campis up front with some metal-massaging. A 7/8" swaybar in back will help some, too. The posi in the ZF can make the car understeer even more if its a tight unit. Toe-out in front will make the turn-in transition faster but the car then cannot be safely driven on the road above 50 mph IMHO. Be very careful to set up the shifting linkage so you can upshift quickly, or downshift quickly. You will likely not be able to do both without locking the shifter in one slot while the trans goes in another gear. Removal of the shift gate, and the secondary detent behind the shift stick will help. 45-48 psi in DOT auto-x tires in front & higher in back may be necessary. SCCA used to have 'Vintage sportscar classes' that were easier to deal with, than the contemporaty classes. Enough to get you started.

Thank you for your help.
Is it worth putting a power rack on my pantera..
I'v got a set of hooser Ao303's 245 and 335 17's
I've got the big bars and sphere ends from hall. My shock are alunium for dennis in colorado. Loyd is putting in a 5,25 rear gear. What else could i try?
Maybe a smaller steering wheel. Does any one make a spacer that would bring the steering wheel 1 ot 2inches closer to the driver?
any other ideas or people I should talk too.

My car has a LeCarre steering wheel that mounts to a flange on the hub with 9 screws. I made a 4" spacer for my steering wheel out of a piece of 4" PVC pipe. I bought 2 closet flanges that fit inside the pipe - the type for a concrete floor. I glued the closet flanges into the 4" pipe and then cut them off. The bolt circle for my LeCarre steering wheel is about.020" larger than 4" so the drill kept walking off when I tried to drill the mounting holes.
I had to smuggle it into work and have a toolmaker drill the holes with a small endmill. I think I tapped them for 8-32 screws rather than the 4mm - the wheel originally fastened to the flange with screws and nuts.
An added bonus is that I can now see the right side of the tach and the left side of the speedometer.
If I make another one I may make it 3" long instead of 4". This puts a lot of strain on the support bearing under the dash. I have to tighten the screws that hold tht bearing periodicaly

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jim:
My car has a LeCarre steering wheel that mounts to a flange on the hub with 9 screws. I made a 4" spacer for my steering wheel out of a piece of 4" PVC pipe. I bought 2 closet flanges that fit inside the pipe - the type for a concrete floor. I glued the closet flanges into the 4" pipe and then cut them off. The bolt circle for my LeCarre steering wheel is about.020" larger than 4" so the drill kept walking off when I tried to drill the mounting holes.
I had to smuggle it into work and have a toolmaker drill the holes with a small endmill. I think I tapped them for 8-32 screws rather than the 4mm - the wheel originally fastened to the flange with screws and nuts.
An added bonus is that I can now see the right side of the tach and the left side of the speedometer.
If I make another one I may make it 3" long instead of 4". This puts a lot of strain on the support bearing under the dash. I have to tighten the screws that hold tht bearing periodicaly

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by RC PEAK:
Does any one know about how to get involved with Auto cross or some short track racing in San Diego?.
How do panteras do in this type of racing?
Seems like it could be fun. RC

[This message has been edited by RC PEAK (edited 11-14-2002).]

---

I have the same steering wheel in my car.I had a 3/4" billit aluminum spacer made.It works great. Do you have any pics of the 4" spacer?
Thanks,
Ron

I can take a couple. Where do I send them? You on a phone modem or high speed? Will size pics at 640X480, OK?
The pipe spacer was intended as a temporary tryout thing - to check length. I think I will go with 3" length when I get something made in aluminum. As it is now, I have enough leverage to flex the dash when I get violent with the steering wheel - like on an autocross course

I forgot a couple of other things you'll desperately need if you try this & get hooked. Add to your 'Need' list a 10-qt oil pan, an upgraded distributor drive gear roll pin and an aftermarket hex-driveshaft for the pump. The last two will run a whopping $35 but an Aviad pan is around $500 from the vendors. With sticky tires and the cornering capability of a Pantera, your crank bearings will NOT survive a whole season without them. As for power steering, IMHO it's unnecessary. My 5ft 2" 112-lb wife autocrossed several Panteras with 11" wide gumball tires for 5 years, winning 3 regional championships, with no arm-strength problems. Remember, a LONG autocross course is 60 seconds in 2nd gear; most are shorter. You don't have time to get tired! Adrenalin is a wonderful thing....

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jim:
I can take a couple. Where do I send them? You on a phone modem or high speed? Will size pics at 640X480, OK?
The pipe spacer was intended as a temporary tryout thing - to check length. I think I will go with 3" length when I get something made in aluminum. As it is now, I have enough leverage to flex the dash when I get violent with the steering wheel - like on an autocross course

---

Please send them to rfmccall@adelphia.net I have a cable connection so size isn't a problem.
thanks,
Ron

Jim's wheel spacer:
http://www.panteraplace.com/club%20news/DD%20052601%209.jpg

Thx Mike!

My car is all understeer. I have a 72 w/afco shocks,450fr and 650rear springs, 7/8 rear swaybar. 245/45/16- 335/35/17 sports. car waighs 1520lb fr. & 1490lb rear with me in car. if I turn doun (soft) rebound on frount a lot of push goes away but the frount has a bounce in corners. but if I turn up rebound, the bounce goes away BUT the push comes back. the rear is up almost all the way. please dont tell me to go to less spring on the fr. I just got new ones. looking for all around, top end- high speed and low speed turn. what do I try next?

I suggest you pick up the whole Carroll Smith series, "Tune to Win, "Engineer to Win" etc. What you may be getting is bump-steer. The fix is easy (shil=ms under the sterring rack to slightly lower it, with longer metric bolts to acceptthe shims). but finding out exactly how much shim to use is tedious (hint-it'll be around .300" thick for most). Our Pantera pushed horribly until we found that ZF used two different posi units and one was much tighter than the other. Guesswhich one we had? Jack up a rear wheel & put a torque wrench on a lug nut. The torque required to break the posi-clutches loose will tell you how tight the thing is. FYI, 40 ft-lbs is an average, 15 is worn out and 60-70 is the 'tight' unit that causes push.

You may also have too much spring frt & rear. Stock fronts were only 235, rears were 355. Hanging stiff springs on a car for competition only works if you run on manicured table-top tracks like Indy or Daytona. For real-world driving and parking-lot GPs (e.g- autocross), the softest springs that keep the car from bottoming, with bigger anti-swaybars, works best. Also, adjusting coil-over shocks is a whole weekend of work using a set of Longacre or other scales and some way of measuring ride height accurately, to do it right. Was this done?

Over the years, I've run many autocrosses in the Pantera with very good results. The most recent one was against a 914-6 Porsche, with only 0.2 seconds seperating us on a run time of approximately 108 seconds.
Configure the engine for low end torque rather than all out high RPM horsepower, and as with anything else, experience is the best teacher.
Good luck, Al.