So I was able to obtain a lot more information from the lead provided by Rocky. "Dan" called me back, and he turned out to be the owner of Handy Chevrolet in St. Albans, VT. Dan sold the car to me on consignment from Johnnie McCraken. Dan told me the engine was done by Tim Quintin from Quintin Brothers Auto in Williston, VT. Dan has agreed to provide me with Johnnie McCraken's number so I could speak with him directly and see if he has any records, documentation, and old photos of the car and the work done on it.
I called Tim Quintin and spoke with him directly. He recalled the car and Johnnie McCraken well; however, he said he only did engine dyno-tuning on the car. He said to me that Roy Waine had done a ton of work on the Pantera, and he is the one to call.
So I was able to speak with Roy Waine from Roy Waine's Auto Body in St. Albans, VT. He remembered the car well and recalled that Johnnie McCraken had bought the Pantera at an auction and drove it home, and that it was a GTS model. Sometime shortly after he had bought it, McCraken had seen a GT5 and wanted his GTS converted to a GT5. According to Roy Waine, the GT5 package was bought from Hall Pantera in California and he and his crew spent months converting the European GTS to a GT5. He said they completely stripped the car of all its paint and repainted it again with a Mercedes red. The car was originally red to begin with, so the color was the same, but just not a Mercedes red originally. Also, the interior was black, and Johnnie wanted it white, so Dennis Cameron (long retired) was commissioned to redo all the interior to white leather to match GT5 interiors. Roy said a ton of money was spend by Johnnie McCraken to convert the car to a GT5. I asked how much, and he responded he didn't remember the exact number, but he remembers it was a lot of money. Roy also said all the engine work was done actually by John Keefer from RPM motors. A simple Google search kept me going further.
I contacted RPM Rick's Racing Engines, Georgia, VT, and spoke to owner Rick Paya. Rick proved to be a great guy, just like Dan, Tim, and Roy had been. All very friendly indeed and eager to talk about the Pantera they had worked on 30 years ago. He ended up remembering much more than he thought he remembered at first. He said he was a young man who was just starting out in engine building and was hired by John Keefer. John Keefer and Rick completely redid the Pantera's engine, balancing it, putting a performance cam in it, putting on aluminum intakes, boring it .30 over, putting performance valve springs, and increasing the engine compression. He said John Keefer might have more information, to include photos (maybe) of the work. He provided me with contact info on John Keefer, and I have placed a call to him and waiting to hear from him.
As soon as I have more information from John Keefer and Johnnie McCraken, I will update this post. I figure one day I will be gone and someone else will end up with this beautiful and amazing machine, so it would be nice for them to have some information on 02778.
A big THANK YOU to Rocky for providing me with the bread crumbs I needed to follow.
