THE STORY

I bought this car about 12 or 13 years ago. It is a 1972 pre L, meaning an early car with smaller bumpers, dual pod dash and flat deck. The car was built in January 1972. Car was autocrossed early in its years and was later set up for tracking, but I don't think it ran much. It had a 351 Cleveland with four bolt mains and 4v heads. It was a little rough when I first got it so I started cleaning it up. I bought 18" Kinesis wheels, laydown Fluidyne radiator, etc.

It really was not that fast and and more of a show car so I bought a 1965 GT350R Mustang clone for track use. It was a gutted street legal race car. I tracked that for a year or two and scattered the 347 motor on the front straight of Thunderhill. I kept kicking the chip up, and finally at 6800 it blew up. I bought a Dart block 302 and was starting to do a 331 stroker but my Pantera buddy bugged me so bad that I decided to do a motor for the Pantera instead.

We sold the 302, bought a 351 Windsor, and stroked it to 411 inches. I detailed the engine bay and installed the engine, 180 degree headers (best part of the car), chassis braces (Byer Brothers), new 4 point roll cage, and a custom Fuel Safe Cell. I run Hoosier R6's or Kumo V710's (DOT road race tires) on the street for the past 8 years. I did buy a set of BF Goodrich Rivals for this event and will see how they do.

First time I tracked the car we won our class and beat many full race cars. This car is fully street legal. I told my wife the car was a lot better than the Mustang. so I later sold that car. I worked with Pogywings and they made the rear wing, but they would not do the mounts so I fabbed them myself. It has run with and without the wing and does not seem to make a big difference either way. It is a love-hate relationship with many Pantera vendors. The editor for our national and local club asked if I would leave it off for the Optima Challenge and I told him no way! The car has been raced yearly at our Pantera event; autocrossed, drag raced, driven to Vegas and back on Hoosier R6's. It has run at Reno/Fernley, Thunderhill (checkered flag racing), Sears Point, Laguna, Firebird Raceway, and the first few years we ran at what is now Spring Mountain in Pahrump.

As a kid my dad used to bring home wheels and we made push go-karts. The nails in the wood would bend and the wheel would fold over so at the age of 6 I was caught cutting the axle's off our wagon. When my dad caught me he was pissed but it worked great on our go-kart. That was the first time I started modifying something and I have not stopped since. I started racing motorized go-karts when I was 12. We then graduated to dirt bikes and then into cars. I did a little autocrossing in a red 69 Z28. I finally got too many tickets... the bad ones. My Dad made me sell that car and I went back to dirt bikes... still have a KTM 520 I dual sport.

I later bought a 69 Trans Am clone and autocrossed that for a few years. I pulled the engine and transmission in it and put them into my 1970 Firebird clone. I autocrossed it for many years, won SCCA regional and divisional championships and several Slush Series championships. I went back to dirt bikes for several years until I bought the Pantera.

The Firebird has been on the back burner for many years. I have recently redone most of the Firebird with a 500 inch CV-1 headed motor out of Popular Hot Rodding. I went through that motor; Kaufman block, etc. and hope to start autocrossing it again. It is 755hp with a Kesler 5 speed, etc.. Maybe Optima next year???

How will I fair? I have seen Mike Maier and Brian Hobaugh grow up and autocross for years so I know what a national champion can do. My Pantera is a little bit of a handful on an autocross track; slow steering, etc. It tends to crack the bondo in the engine bay so I have not autocrossed it much, but did ok the few times I've competed in it. The car has excellent brakes; Wilwood 6 piston Busch Grand National fronts and 4's out back. Getting the stop box figured out quickly will be the issue. Open track is where the car is going to do well. It weighs 3040 lbs. and is balanced. The question is how well I can adjust from running DOT road race tires all the time to the 200 rated tires. That should be my best event. Danny Popp or Brian Hobaugh are my guesses for winning OUSCI this year.

Special thanks to Scott Siegmund for the great pictures!