First Pics from Kingston

The rig brought only 2... the rest of us had a blast cruising to Kingston.

Guess who came to the frozen north? And guess what - no snow and no igloos!

Lots of cars and some big clouds - but the rain stayed away!

We dressed up downtown Kingston with lots of Detomaso identification. Michael's crazy Targa makes the scene that much nicer.

Our trailer made a nice backdrop to a great day in the park.

This historic Canadian city got some Italian American attitude.

We missed a few of our regulars. Happy Anniversary Wayne and Roy. I'm sure your wives were happier getting all the well deserved attention today.

Get well soon Gavin. We were all thinking about you and Tamara.

A nice lunch break...

The Crazy Canucks - and a few Yanks too!

Nice private garage - resting up before dinner. More to come tomorrow.

Cool stuff David. You guys put on quite the show.
Blaine

Nice pix, David. Once again, you guys are setting the pace for doing it right. By my count, there looks to be >15 cats. Nice to see our American brothers make the trip north. How crazy is it that they live closer to you than us Alberta guys do!

Can't wait to see more ...

EA

Actually 17 cats and 21 owners.

Here's a look as we arrived at the marina for brunch.

Here's the list, in ordre of pics below:

Andy, Carmen, David, Derrick, Jonathan, Mark, Mel, Michael, Michel, Normand, Robert, Roger, Ross, Russ, Will... plus I missed a pic of Mike and his car.

Also there without cars, were: Anton, Bohdan, Gaetan and Sam.

Andy

Carmen

David

Derrick

Jonathan

Mark

Mel

Michel

Michael

Normand

Robert

Roger

Ross

Russ

Will

Huh? Where's Richard? I didn't get a shot of you? WTF?

OK, that's it. I'm getting a passport. All that Molson consumed and I WASN'T there? Absolutely a disgraceful act on my part.

I'll shave so that I don't look like a terrorist! I'll even cut my hair! Yikes.

Bone-jure Can-e-da!

I'm even practicing my Canadian. Hiem witda goalie a! I'm getting good at it.!

Here's a couple of my shots...

and, yes, Michael's car was the star...

The lineup on Brock Street was spectacular.

Doug, Don't shave, I did a quick tally, and Pantera guys with facial hair outnumber those without by almost 2:1 - ok, there's 2 where I wasn't sure if it counted as facial hair or not :-)

Dave, Awesome weekend, and many thanks for all the work you and your supporting cast put into making it work out so well ... Of course we'll have to do something about not having the guy from California try to lead the pack to dinner! Not his fault though, the people he was following pulled over and waved him into the lead - must admit, it was a nice tour of downtown Kingston.

I'll post some shots after I go through and select a handful.

Here's our morning run. OK, it was more of a crawl and park...

There was even great take-aways. Posters, Crystal DeTomaso mugs, a Ford Anniversary blanket, PI Magazines and a some special awards too.

Yup. A lot of work goes into pulling off an event like this and every one of us owes a huge thank-you to David (and his amazing wife Joanne who has to live through all of the preparations) for everything he does to enable all of us to have a great time. Bringing George up to meet some of his Northern clan was a real treat for all of us too. We even put George to work helping install signs & banners!

I'm glad that in the midst of pretty hectic weekend we had some time to present these unique awards to a few people who make Pantera ownership such a pleasure.

Ok, I'm wasted.

I'll have a very detailed story to tell once I digest all the emotions of a great weekend with some of my favourite people.

Right now, I'm going to grab some mint leaves from outside and make a bunch of Mohitos, then catch up on all the racing I missed this weekend.

So I'm leaving it to everyone else to add more pics (so all you guys who found an excuse to blow off Kingston can kick yourselves).

I had a spectacular time in Kingston!

It was well worth enduring my brother for the 6-7 hours drive there and back. I thoroughly enjoy the Canadian company. You're all very hospitable, and fun to be with.

A BIG thank you to David for organizing the event, and making sure all went according to plan. Let's not forget the unsung hero, Mark Charlton, for taking almost all of his time to photograph the living shit out of us! Mark is truly a talented photographer, and a real nice person.

The crystal mug was a nice memento. I'm going to get a case of Canadian beer and drink it all from that mug!

I'm looking forward to being back in Kingston next year, but I hope to see you all again much sooner than that.

Michael


Mark Charlton in a rare moment when his face is not covered by a camera:

quote:

Originally posted by David B:
I'm glad that in the midst of pretty hectic weekend we had some time to present these unique awards to a few people who make Pantera ownership such a pleasure.

Alright. I got one complaint. How is anyone going to explain carrying this rock thing through customs? It's bad enough that I have to explain why my car makes so much noise.

Glad to hear you made it home OK Michael,

Was a great time and great to see everyone again
Here are a few of my shots from the weekend

Nice colours...

... you'd think with this much signage we wouldn't get the usual questions, but I was still asked "Ferrari or Lamborghini?"

Transporter was the perfect backdrop

Le French Connection

Hi George!

As long as I was only missed and not forgotten its O.K. Thanks to David, Carmen, Rob and Mark (and the wifes) for all the effort that they put into this to make it a great event. Gavin, sorry you couldn't be here this year, were saving a spot for you.
Richard

Looks like I missed a great time, and the shots are fantastic!! Way to go Michael for making it!

Hoping to meet you guys soon.

-William

Le french connection getting ready to rip

ripping with Norman

Pit Stop.

Here's Mark Charlton, myself, Andy, and Jonathan in the back in his all original GT5 with beautiful cream colored interior. We're gassing up to head for home.

Michael

ripping with Robert

ripping with Michel Pigeon

now who is ripping who?

Setting up the shot.

That's Will's 180 header induced wicked sounding yellow Pantera, and David's perfect white GT5 fore and aft of my GT5-S Targa.

Michael

A few of my shots ... always looking for different angles to catch the lines of the cats

And another

Kudos to the team helping to park the cars and getting us all lined up!

Great shots Russ! Guess who's in charge of Photography next year?

Gotta love all that rubber! Will, looks like your left rear is down about two lbs. ;-)

Not on your life Mark, my shots can't touch the awesome work you're doing

And a good time was had by all! JD How did you the CAL-A-FORNIA kid there?

wow nice pics! im sorry i couldnt make the event.IT was liza and my 9th anniversay.we went to las vegas. looks like every one had a great time. i cant wait to see all of you guys next year!

A line of Panteras as far as the eye can see.

Michael

My thoughts ...

Kingston is a beautiful old college town on the shore of Lake Ontario, reminds me a bit of Eugene Oregon. A charming town to hold an event. The cars are displayed on a roadway immediately alongside a green park filled with big trees. A beautiful setting. The hotel and its accomodations are fantastic, the staff was friendly, and it has the only underground parking in the city, where the Panteras are protected from the elements and vandalism. The scenery on the way to Kingston is lush countryside and north-east style forrest.

This is a first class event, kudos to those involved in its planning and execution. Kudos to all those who took the time to contact owners and stay on top of getting people to attend. When you put an event like this together you learn one thing, there is a symbiotic relationship between the event and the attendees, both are needed for success. So kudos also to all the attendees.

It was a joy to meet all who I had the chance to meet, to put faces to names, to see your cars in person, meet your lovely spouses and to make new friends. I love you all. Serving the Pantera community is all the more rewarding when its personal, when I'm helping friends and acquaintances rather than strangers. Thank you for making me feel welcome. I will be back, to catch up with all my new friends.









That's Mark C in the upper left wearing the black baseball cap, and David B waving. I love you guys.

Sam and Michael

Representing the next generation of Pantera owners.

And putting barber shops out of business.

quote:

Originally posted by David B:
Huh? Where's Richard? I didn't get a shot of you? WTF?

Thanks George.
Richard

George, (or anyone who knows) - how on earth did you post multiple images in one entry??? What alchemy is this!

I used an image hosting web site (Photo Bucket) and pasted links to the photos into the text of my post. If you don't have a photobucket account, get one, they're free.

great photography by the way Russ, I've been showing your photos to my photographer this morning.

cowboy from hell

George,
Thanks for the update, I'll go look into photobucket (I have a flickr id, maybe I'll test that out too).

I regret not taking any shots while driving in the convoy, so I've tried to make up for it by editing one of the shots to add some speed

Gentlemen, start your engines!

Michael

Great pictorial of the event guys, a big thanks to David and Mark for putting together a great event. A real pleasure meeting new and old friends. George thanks for taking the time off work,the family and the PI board to come and meet with your other family up north. Can't wait till the next get together. Rob6145

Ok, I have uploaded a few more videos. Make sure you select "watch in high quality."

1 – A pan across the setup on Brock Street and a walk down the backside of the cars

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=JDBErvMybGI

2 – Another walk up the street and the fronts of the cars

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=P7EGiB1PUAY

3 – The cruise to brunch at the marina. I pass all the cats then pull over and let them pass me. Check out the sound of Will’s car as he passes me at around 2:10. Crazy.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=raL5NQAgCHc

More pics

As if I didn't feel bad enough about misssing Kingston. Looks like you guys had a great time. Som new Canadian cars and a bunch of our American friends. Thanks to everyone for your well wishes and pictures. I was just feeling like I had a handle on most of the
car/driver/wife permutations. Now I have to start again.
I'm feeling better each day after the little detour through the hospital on the long weekend. love the signage this year. Gavin

Gavin,
As one of the new guys, I was looking forward to meeting you and your awesome Fyr Breather, and was sorry to hear you were in hospital.
Glad you're back out and on the mend, and I look forward to meeting you and the monster cat in the near future
All the best for a speedy recovery (and don't worry, I won't expect you to remember my name right away, I'm having trouble putting names to faces m'self ... thank goodness David and George took all those shots of us with the cars!)

Great photos and real nice turn out of so many Panteras. You don't see that very often here in CA, except maybe Monterey.

Time for me to experiment with posting multiple shots at once ... sorry, I've been messing with the image processing software again :-)

Russ, No need to "sorry". Both those pictures are very, very cool. You're giving Mark a run for his money in the fantastic pantera pictures posts.
By the way, I just wanted to say an official hello and welcome from the western Canada guys. Pantera's sure are great, aren't they!!
Doug M

Sweet pics Russ. Mark is planning on kicking back and putting his feet up on the beer cooler next year. Now we'll all come after you for prints!

I can't touch the awesome poster Mark created. I'd be happy - if he is planning to do something similar - to share any shots he likes, but my photography tends towards the candids (if I see something I like, I shoot it) as opposed to the careful composition that has to go into the pro work that Mark does. I'm like the crazy uncle at the wedding who ends up getting some great shots because the hired photographer did all the work setting things up.

Besides, I'd end up taking hundreds of pictures of my car and the others would be jealous =)