Dilemma solved — 1826 and 2281

quote:

One thing I might do is to swap over to slightly softer springs. This car has 450 and 600 lbs (I think I remember reading that on one of the bills) Hyperco springs and the ride is a bit hard for my "firm" ass.

You might try adjusting those Koni's first. You may be able to set them to a softer setting.

Anyway, you are a BLESSED man Mark! Congrats!

I would put the 450's in the rear and get 300's for the front. I have had MANY customers tell me that the ride is great with those values...

quote:

Originally posted by Tom@Seal Beach:
What size tires does it run?

I have Aldens, but want to change them out to the Koni's with steel bodies for durability...the goal is to turn it into a daily driver (10k+ miles per year and solo 1 events).

The rears tires are definitely 315/35/17. I think the fronts are 245/40/17, but I'm less certain of that.

quote:

Originally posted by Z06 Pantera:
I would put the 450's in the rear and get 300's for the front. I have had MANY customers tell me that the ride is great with those values...

Scott: Yeah, that is what I have on my white car and the ride is virtually identical to the stock suspension (a good thing, IMO). Good thought, and only two springs to buy!

Thanks,

Mark

7/8" is the GTS rear bar intended to use with the 8/10" Campi combo. Should be fine any way though.

Tom, today's Konis are high pressure gas charged shocks. The 300psi or so gas inside the shock for foam control generates around 45 lbs of extra spring strength on each corner. On our '72 L, I run 250 lb front springs and 275 lb rears, plus the extra 45 lbs for each corner from the shocks. Larry Stock runs only slightly stiffer spring weights on his do-everything Pantera that has not been as severely lightened as our car. It makes for a comfortable ride and good handling- at least for these two Panteras; YMMV.

Gas Konis use narrow heim-joint ends that need shims to fit a Pantera's mount tabs. In addition, the heims are for 1/2" bolts- and a Pantera uses slightly smaller metric bolts. So Koni dealer D. Quella supplies 16 of such shims to fit the shocks to a Pantera. E-Bay Koni sell;ers will not include the shims.Note the he ims do NOT increase road noise inside the car, contrary to what you may have read. Matter of fact, we run all-urethane bushings along with the heim-joint shocks and road noise is no different than when the car was stock- by dB meter checks.

Congrats Mark! What a great car!!

With all those cars, you will need a bigger trailer so that you can bring all of them to car shows.

John

quote:

Originally posted by jb1490:
Congrats Mark! What a great car!!

With all those cars, you will need a bigger trailer so that you can bring all of them to car shows.

John

Thanks John.

Just need to figure out how to get the cost of diesel down...



I wish this was mine, but it belongs to fellow Pantera owner Carmen who has made many a long trips with a Pantera quite tolerable (as in we fly, the cars don't).

Mark

What!?!?

You're a maniac, Mark! Congrats, buddy. That fine looking cat has found a very good home!

EA
#3528

Mark,

Now that's the rig I had in mind. Maybe Carmen could store it at your new place (for some sort of "consideration" of course)?

quote:

Just need to figure out how to get the cost of diesel down...

Hmmmmmm....could there be some oil hidden beneath your lot? You do have mineral rights to your property, yes??

John

quote:

... we fly, the cars don't

Weren't you trying to pickup a used transport on e-bay a couple of years ago so that the cars could fly too? I'm sure you've still got a mockup of the TPC logo on one of these babies just waiting for the right deal to come along!

Okay, I am officially outdated as heck. I've no idea how I missed this thread!

Mark, that car is absolutely fantastic. Every single item on it is just superbly done. Of course, you and I agree that is THE color on a GT and fits the Pantera perfectly.

Late congratulations on it. You did great.

Finally we are getting some above-freezing weather here. Spring is coming. It will be a few months, but I decided to roll 2281 out and give her some fresh air to run and warm up. I was REALLY tempted to go for a spin, but so much salt still remains on our roads. Plus, I'm not sure I'd be able to make it back up my driveway...

I thought that looked like Derrick's old Pantera. It's definitely a sweet ride. It looks great against the backdrop of snow!

Michael

I finally managed to make some time today do something I have longed to do: take pics of my white Pantera in the snow.

another view.

and as grippy as these tires look... well, they're almost useless in the snow.

front

back

Beautiful pics, Mark. What could be cleaner that your white cat in a Canadian winter!



It almost makes me want to come back. And I love the tread on those Michelins. They never should have changed it. The new ones don't come close.

Let's see... how about a road trip to the sunshine somewhere? Just think of the awesome album of pics you could post. That would be monumental.

And what memories... just sayin.

Super look. Great car and pix!

Beautiful!


just one question, were you able to actually go UP that hill or were you lucky and it stopped sliding backwards down it?

(remind me to tell you my experiance "going up" a hill in Alberta)

That "hill" is my driveway. It doesn't look that steep, but it has foiled many ill-equipped vehicles in the winter. I have less-than-fond memories of installing snow tires at -30° in the dark on the flat end of my snowy driveway when I foolishly swapped some cars around in the garage and couldn't get one of them back into it.

I had expected I would have better luck reversing the Pantera back up it, but in the end it was better just getting a bit of a run and going forward. The laneway curves about 2/3 the way along, but fortunately there was nothing harder than snow to run into (well, except the house at the end).

Quite impressive. Very clean white paint to look that good against snow. I really like the setting.

quote:

Originally posted by JTpantera:
Quite impressive. Very clean white paint to look that good against snow. I really like the setting.

Pretty indeed. At least you have the weight in the right place. When I just got my CTS-V I had to drive it to work in fresh snow and with 650 HP and summer tires. Chaos on all streets, everybody going slow. I had a few not insignificant inclines during my 47 km route. I had to plan them very carefully, I went slower up them than the others so I would have a gap in front of me, because morning traffic stopped occasionally, and I knew that if I had to stop on an incline, I would not get it moving again until spring. Ordered winter tires/rims that day...