We had a GREAT turnout of Panteras, with 8 in attendance. Long distance driver award go to John and Kathy Buckman who came up from San Diego. We had 4 cars caravan down from Phoenix (Dave, Jerry & Donna, Kevin and Rick), and Jim drove out from Wilcox, 70 miles to the east. Chuck and Ken came from the Tucson club. One of our members had to drop out due to a work commitment.
Here's the Pantera details.....
- Chuck - Yellow '73 L
- Dave A. - Black '72 Pre-L
- Ken - Black & Red Custom '72 Pre-L
- John and Kathy - Lime Green '71 Pre-L
- Jim - White '73 L
- Jerry and Donna - Orange '74 L
- Kevin - '72 Red Pre-L
- Rick - White '7? Pre-L
We also had the following: - Stephen - Beige '74 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce Iniezione 2000
- Dave K. - Grey '82 Fiat 2000 Spider
- Larry - White & Blue '64 Cunningham C4R Continuation Car (#5 of 7 built)
- Joe and Ricki - Red (of course) '09 Ferrari F430
- Ron - Maroon 427 Cobra
We all got in early, meeting outside the museum at 0645. What a sight it was for me to to pull in, and see 7 Panteras lined up beautifully before the event even started!
We met with John, our guide, and received our indoctrination. Initial pictures (group shots) were taken in front of the Boeing B-36 Peacekeeper, a 10 engine bomber. We almost had more cars than there was airplane wing to line up in front of!
Once we got the group shots, and the car club photos out of the way, everyone was free to roam the lot, looking for that exclusive glamour shot with their fantastic automobile. Some of our group were real aircrew that had flown some of the aircraft that were on display, and so the stories did fly! I was tempted to pull my boots out of the back of the Pantera!
After the exclusive 2 hour photo event, the group exited the museum grounds, and parked in the preferred spots under the sun-shade. We were readmitted to the museum for another two hours of browsing the inside exhibits. The Pima Air and Space museum facility is great. I was just in Dayton, Ohio at the museum there, and I have to say the Pima museum is actually a better experience. The aircraft are arranged such that you can take everything in at once, not so at Wright-Patterson. WPAFB has so much stuff packed in there, it's hard to see the entirety of a single plane.
Finally, once the museum viewing was completed, the entire team headed out to a local watering-hole, Brooklyn's Burgers and Beer. We had our normal seating, overlooking the specially reserved Pantara parking area. We had a great meal, and fielded questions from curious and interested onlookers... "What are those things out there?" It was fun to sit there and eat your burger, as cars would slowly cruise the lot, dropping off their passengers, so they could get out, speculate about the cars, and take pictures.
All-in-all, a super event, with good luck, and no issues with any of the cars. A great, once-in-a-lifetime event (O.K., so we have done it twice now).
PS> I want to thank Dave Knawa (F.I.A.T. Club President) who did all the heavy lifting for this event. Dave brings great organization, and super coordination. Our guide, John B. is also to be commended, He gave us the guidance we needed, and the freedom to explore that everyone wanted.
Here's a link to the F.I.A.T. Club photo sharing site. Lots of good pictures, here, but not as many Panteras as one would expect...
F.I.A.T. Photo Site....
Rocky
