The journey is complete. 3 weeks, 2500+ miles, 6 states, 1 border crossing ...
Nearly 3 months after beginning my search for a Pantera, my very own cat is sitting in the garage .. home.
Editor's note: it damn well better be sitting in the garage; there's 20 cm's of new that just rolled through Calgary with another 10 due over the next few days. Welcome to spring time in Alberta! Now, back to the story ...
Despite current weather woes, last weekend couldn't have been better for driving. After putting 500 miles on my cat to take it from Phoenix to San Diego, I called in a favour to my cousin who has a transport trailer and he had it shipped up to Shelby, Montana for the much-anticipated pick-up.
Not knowing how the weather would be, I was sifting through ideas of how to get her home - when Doug McIntyre (INZOWHO) offered to drive down with his trailer. What a great offer: the Pantera community was already delivering on what I was told to expect ... but it got even better.
Because the forecast was calling for mid-summer-like conditions, Doug called me a few days prior to our trip and suggested that we take his gorgeous '74 yellow L down for the pick-up, meaning we could drive home the two cats together. And this is exactly what we did ...
The trip down, which began at 5am, was rather uneventful. We were easing into the day. However, just as I was beginning to become acquainted with the steady hum of Doug's 351C running smoothly at 125km/h (80mph), he gave her a little juice and we were soon traveling north of 210km/h (130mph) ... with a corner fast approaching! Needless to say, there was nothing to worry about. I loved it!
We arrived in Shelby about an hour before the transport trailer, which was a good opportunity to grab some breakfast and shoot the shit about cars. I'm not sure if Doug noticed, but I was starting to get a little antsy, especially after the call came in that my cat was only 10 minutes down the road. I tell ya, boys: I put this experience right up there with getting married. In fact, I don't think was this nervous on my wedding day!
Just as I was about to collapse from anticipation, the trailer rolled up - and I literally started running towards her! It looked awesome! I was expecting big chunks of mud and debris to be all over the car - so you can imagine how pleased I was that only a thin layer of dust was all that was evident.
Being the expert he is, Doug had some way better cleaning supplies than I had packed. So, at his insistence, the first thing we did was clean my car! Typical Pantera guy, I tell ya ...
The drive to the border was equally uneventful and quick. I was getting accustomed to my ride again (it had been two weeks since I first drove her) and it was awesome to wind her up with Doug's L on the same stretch.
The US side of the border was a non-issue; the export process literally took 10 minutes. The Canadian side, however, had a few delicate moments.
First, when I was asked to pull over to go through the paperwork process, I was not surprised that Doug followed me to the inspection lot. That said, it turns out that they wanted to run an inspection of his cat as well - fully one year after he imported it!!! As it turns out, they were running a lot of random inspections that day (nearly 40 cars, ATV's, trailers and boats were being imported during the 2 hours we were there) and this didn't turn out to be anything but a quick inspection for contra-ban. Good news for Doug!
Prior to getting the good news that we would not be at the border all day, I was standing in line to complete my paperwork when I glanced back towards the parking lot to have a look at my new baby. And what did I see? An old lady had not only put her purse on my front hood, but she was bent over writing a note on my car!!! My pulse rate must have jumped over 200 in an instant. This dingbat was using my cat - which was award POCA's "Best Paint" in 2006 - as a clipboard! Long story short, there wasn't any damage, but I made sure to get all her credentials. Man alive ... welcome to Pantera ownership, dude.
If that was the only blemish on an otherwise great day, I should mention that I did have to pay both GST (5% Canadian tax) and Duty (6.1%) when I brought her over. The duty is due to the Italian manufacturing of the car. Just an FYI for other potential Canadian buyers, the only way you can avoid paying duty is to a) have the border guard not ask you where your car was built or b) to buy a GT5-S that was brought in through Amerisport.
Anyway, the rest of the day was sheer joy. The trip from Shelby to Calgary is 400 km's (250 miles) - so it was a good run home for my new cat. I should also mention that Doug's L was also issue-free over the 500-mile roundtrip.
Doug and I hooked up for a quick rip the following day, which was a busy one for me having to give test drive after test drive to all my friends and family in the area. I loved it. Monday morning was the Out of Province Inspection and Appraisal - both of which went off perfectly. I slapped some plates on her a day later. #3528 is officially mine and home now in Alberta.
My journey to find, buy and import my dream car is now over. Now all I need is for the the snow to disappear so I can drive her!
Thanks to everyone who helped me out on this leg of my journey. As good at it has been to find my dream car, it has been great to meet so many awesome people.
Erik
ps. pictures of the day are located in the Canadian forum (#3528 is home).
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