Spa Italia 2012

I would bet, not much Panteras will go. The meeting was great, but the support by the organizers for the DeTomaso group was a nightmare.
Go to the classic LeMans and contact Charlie McCall to join his Adventure Tour thrue France and meet the crowd at LeMans Classic.

Sounds like a disappoitment, sorry to hear...

Ill stay tuned for Classic LeMans and Charlie!

Thanks,
Janne

Hi all,

Janne - you could have gone without a Pantera you know ;-)

I concur that I doubt that there will be many people at Spa Italia this year. I haven't heard through the grapevine of anyone attending. Perhaps some of the locals will, but I haven't heard much so far...

Le Mans Classic will be the first week of July. I'm busy working out an agenda but surprisingly enough am having trouble finding the hotels that I'd like to - things in the area are getting reserved a year in advance! But I hope to have all the details sorted out over the next couple of weeks.

If you are wondering what these things are, you can see photos of previous trips on my POCA website, as seen in my electronic signature thing. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I live for these things!!!

See you there!

My impression is that the general public don't respond too well on Spa's date change. I'm curious to see how well the event will do next year, even though I don't plan to attend myself.

Since LM classic is only every two years, and it seen my job is hard to plan time off, I'll go for LM classic this year!

quote:

Originally posted by Charlie McCall:

Janne - you could have gone without a Pantera you know ;-)

Naaah..!

Would have been an experience comparable to non-alcoholic beer. Nothing wrong with it, but not quite right for the effort either

Checked out your photos from POCA, cool stuff!! Timing of the LeMans looks like it could work for us. So far, so good..

Noticed that you're located in Spain. Are you planning from down upwards for the route, or doing a tour somewhere else in France? We'd likely do a bit more extended tour than just LeMans, and could perhaps drive south first and join there...

Cheers,
Janne

You're partially right.

I've only attended one DeTomaso event sans-Pantera - in 1999 I went to an event organized by the DeTomaso factory in Modena, leaving my Pantera home (I was living in France at the time) because I "thought it was too far to drive".

The Factory was kind enough to organize busses to haul around everyone who came without a DeTOmaso car, and it was horrible for me... looking out the bus window at all the DeTomasos - Panteras, Guaras, Mangustas - having fun while I was sitting in a bus. I felt like a kid at a candy store, looking in at all the goodies but couldn't enter.

I swore I'd never again miss an International Meeting, and would never leave my car home again. I haven't missed one since :-) Austria isn't exactly just down the street from Spain, but we've driven there twice in the past 3-4 years. Have to keep the oil companies in business.

That being said, if my Pantera broke, I'd rather attend in a rental car than sit at home. But I think your non-alcoholic beer comparison is pretty accurate.

Anyway, yes I live in Spain but will organize a tour beginning the previous Saturday in the Loire Valley of France. The idea is meet up with everyone the previous Saturday and spend the days prior to LMC touring around the area as a group, visiting chateaus, medieval towns, wine tasting, eating, drinking, and basically "suffering" :-)

So I'd recommend driving down from Finland and meeting up the previous weekend with "The group". There may be more people coming down from Finland/Norway/Sweden?

Hi, Charlie, met you shortly in Spaitalia. And hi, Janne, never met you, but we live in this same cold country.

About that beer thing... I disagree. It was much more fun visiting Spaitalia without Pantera than staying home without Pantera.

For 2012 Le Mans classic there will propably be lots of traffic from Sweden and Norway (those Norwegians are really in fire with their De Tomasos at the moment) but I don´t know about Finland. There are more and more Panteras being bought to Finland all the time, but I haven´t heard of anybody planning to go to Le Mans Classic 2012. Well, I don´t know everybody. I know my car will still be in pieces next summer... maybe 2013 it will roll on it´s own.

Sorry for not noticing you, Kid. Hello to you too, of course. Austrian detective job still continues... no success yet.

Kimmosch - would I recognize you if I saw your arm?

Yes, Charlie, you could. Two perfect beautiful arms, plus something familiar in one of them. And the real name is Kimmo.

It's a hard arm to mistake!

quote:

Originally posted by kimmosch:
Sorry for not noticing you, Kid. Hello to you too, of course. Austrian detective job still continues... no success yet.

You know how to reach me if I can be of any help