[TPR] Its supposed to do 150 MPH!Re: Le Man & Jim Hall 1966 History

Fri Dec 20 12:35:20 PST 2024

 LOLOL....great story Owen. I can not put Ken's name to a face now but how cool was that....
My story when I bought my USED Jaguar XKE FHC (before the Pantera) and realize the XKE came out in 1961.  Everything I read about it from 1961 until I owned one in 1973 was it would do an honest 150 MPH...so those intervening years from 1961 until I could even afford to buy a used XKE all I could do was join the EJag Club, buy back issues, and book and magazines and there was as many as I ended up with the Pantera before I bought it. But I regress as usual.....
So I am at the Jag dealer in Seattle in 1973. Everyone is selling or trying to sell their American gas guzzlers but I fall in love with a midnight blue FHC (Fixed head coupe) at the dealer and cut a bad deal with the bank and the dealer. and a couple hours later I am driving it home....and you know exactly what I was going to do then too as a 20-something mad dawg. haha.....I got on a stretch of I-5 freeway which in those days was not very busy up here in the PNW and tried to go 150+ MPH....I got up to about 130-135 MPH before the XKE started shaking or vibrating enough to remind me I was OUT of RPM's at 5500 and was pushing 6,000 when I backed off the throttle...no 150 MPH!!!
Had to think something is wrong with this XKE.....hahaha...it should do 150 MPH....the car magazine road tests all said it would do 150 MPH. So I headed to the dealer a couple days later after all my buddies who were driving and racing Detroit Iron could not tell me what was wrong with this inline overhead cam 6-cyl 4.2 litre engine. I did have a buddy who was a English car fan but he did not know either.  So I am at the dealership and  I tackled the sales manager and he directed me to the Service Manager who quietly explained to me that ALL the North American E-Types were delivered with lower ring gear and I should be happy I did not blow the engine up!!!! I believe I found out that there was the taller ring gear that was available but I never pulled the trigger on it because a few years later I got pulled by a yellow Pantera on the I-5 driving up to Vancouver BC. 
Now I had to buy a Pantera! And I did too in 1985...and it did pull 155-160 without too much effort on the same I-5 freeway..yes indeed the Pantera's would do an honest 150+ Mph.
Thank the gods for Open Road Racing!
Dennis
    On Friday, December 20, 2024 at 12:14:38 PM PST, Owen Lee Green <oneeyez4263 at gmail.com> wrote:  

Well Dawg if you remember my friend Ken, back in the early 70s he was a detailer at Knevil Lincoln Mercury in Billings and part of his job was to test drive the Pantera's, when he was done and the car was pulled up for delivery to the customer he would leave a certificate that the car had been tested and would exceed 150. He got a few confused questions about the certificate from those customers.

On Fri, Dec 20, 2024, 12:09 PM Mad Dog Antenucci via TPR <tpr at teampanteraracing.com> wrote:

Hi Team,
Merry Christmas...Everyone who follows Daytona or LeMans may also know about Jim Hall and I am talking about Jim Hall, the Texan who designed, developed and raced the Chaparral race cars. I loved those cars. By 1963 or '64 I had 3 posters in my bedroom at home in Mukilteo Washington. 
One was the Jag XKE which I later owned and raced in the Seattle area in SCCA and EJag club events. The second poster I had was the Shelby 289 Cobra, and the third was the Chaparral that Mr. Hall designed. In 1966 I was also a GI stationed at the time in Bad Tolz Germany (10th SFGA) and interestingly enough not very far from where Peter "the German" Menyhart grew up in Munich.
I wish I could say at the time in 1966, that  I had one of those amazing race cars but instead I had to satisfy myself with a Opal Kaddett. HAHAOf course it had headers and tuned exhaust but not much else to brag about. Every chance I got I loved driving on those Bavarian back roads or blasting away on the Autobahn and had a blast. During 1966 2 of my Army team mates and I went to LeMan for the race. We were able to briefly talk to both Jim and his driver's Phil Hill and Jo Bonnier which was as big an honor as meeting Carroll Shelby years later was for me. Sadly the Chaparral 2D that Jim campaigned and qualified DNF'd.
While I was disappointed that the Chaparral did not finish There was no way we also weren't supporting Ford and Shelby.  but sadly for me the XKE did not race that year because of new rules for its class limiting it to 3.0 liters and the XKE was 3.8., but I regress as usual.....Ford and Shelby did race and WIN. And sadly for me Jaguar did not have an entry.  And as any of you who know that followed the history at LeMans or watched the movie Ford vs Ferrari already know that it was Ford Shelby GT-40's that went 1-2-3. 
Hellva proud day to be an American anywhere or anytime but more so on that date in France if you loved racing. 
By 1967, I was headed to Vietnam for a couple years. But I did make it back to Germany in 1982 as a contractor building underground air defense facilities for DOD in Germany and Saudi Arabia and went to LeMan that same year but of course Porsche not only won 1-2-3 that year they also dominated all the entrys there. There were however TWO American entrys campaigned by Stratograph Energy  out of Louisiana!  one of their Camaro's won 2nd place with a 150+ MPH average and both finished...sadly no Pantera's or Shelby's (haha)....as Carroll was now partnering with Lee Iacocca at Chrysler by then and there were no Hemi's or Corvette's anywhere in sight either...not a great time unless you owned a Pantera and you actually had a sponsor because it was never Ford. 
Someone else can add what they know about the DeTomaso Pantera race history....Maybe you?Share with us where you were in the heyday of racing.
Happy New Year as well.Stay healthy and happy and see ya in 2025

Dennis,  _______________________________________________
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