PLEASE MEET
"MUCHO WAVOS"
OUR
BAD TO THE BONE!
PANTERA L
(B.A.D.)
Becky And Dave's
1973 PANTERA L
Bought New By Us!
Don't miss the World Recorder Holder at Bonneville
Near the bottom of this page!
Becky & I bought this Pantera pictured above Brand New in Sacramento in 1973. I literally bought it in less than 30 seconds at a Lincoln - Mercury Dealership. When we drove by and saw it in the show room window I yelled at Beck to turn around ... I ran in and tried to open the drivers door .. the sales manager ran over and pointed to a huge sign on the windshield that said "DO NOT TOUCH!" ...and shouted at me "CAN'T YOU READ!? .... I said how much? .. he said .... $11,500. .. I said I'll give you $10,000 .... he said $10,500 .. I said SOLD! ...Now.... Go get my keys and "DON'T TOUCH MY DANG CAR!" ... True Story!!! .... Except I used language a little stronger than Dang (grin).
The stories I could tell of driving a car like this for 40,000 miles are endless ... raced it a lot for fun ... Becky and I autocrossed this car stock at first for 2 years ... These cars handle much better than most give them credit for! Out of 39 cars autocrossing ... Ours was the only Pantera ... but there were Porsches, Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, some custom track prepared cars, lots of Corvetes ...
Because of the car, I came in first over all both years and Becky came in first overall in the woman's division and 4th overall too ... In fact ... She even got one more 1st place trophy than I did!(grin)
Then for a short time a group of us did a little high speed Bonsi road racing, when that was the in thing in the mid 70's ... Very early in the morning ... an empty or closed road .... radios, etc. .... indirect traffic control .. Up to ten exotic cars.
At this point we had the Pantera engine built ... heads by Terry Eldridge of Nascar fame ... 12 to 1 compression ... Nitrous ... almost 800 hp.
But ....Bonsi runs were too dangerous .. too irresponsible .. We were to young .. In fact ... Most of us went into legal road track racing (Laguna Seca, Sears Point, etc.) after this when Joe Wong with one of his Ferrari's took out several fence posts backwards!
I went home, got our 4WD to winch it out of the pasture. Joe did drive it home though .... Without any mufflers. Didn't bend the frame ... the rear bumper a little ... tougher cars than we thought and give them credit for
He still spins out occasionally ... But on race tracks all over the world now (grin) ..... And .... one of our group even grew up to become a Senator. ..... (Post Script: On a long straight road our Pantera with the Nitrous Oxide was the fastest of all the exotic cars though)
Then at Laguna Seca we fun ran the Pantera with the Ferrari/Cobra Club, etc. ... We next took the formula Ford and formula Mazda Jim Russell Race Car Drivers School
These Panteras are FAST! Be careful the first year you own one ... ZERO DRINKING .... Never even a sip of alcohol ....take the race car driving schools given at all race tracks! And "learn to drive to stay alive" ... a word to the wise. (Race on the track only) ... Youth, fast cars and crowded roads don't mix
We have semi retired the Pantera now with only 2 tickets in 31 years and no scratches. I say semi .. because I recently purchased a set of Padgid Orange racing pads for it ... for a few laps on the track ... like with the Unlimited Laps sports car group
I now track race for fun only an early 70's fully track prepared Porsche. Joe Wong .. one of my best friends from our group .. has become a professional of sorts with many cars ... Porsche GT2's, GT3's, Ferrari's, etc. and over a thousand hours on tracks all over the world!
Myself ... "Doc" Hemp .. Now only a few hobby hours on Open test days and a little club racing at our WONDERFUL 3 mile long home track at Thunderhill out of Willows CA.
Vintage racing is my next goal ... if I ever get around to filling out the application.
Doc Hemp
The Baaad Pantera L with owners Doc & Becky Hemp pictured here at Laguna Seca (A Long Time Ago) with the Ferrari, Cobra Club this particular day. Becky raced this car for fun too and has won one more first place trophy than Doc has.
Kenny Vossen with their 1974 Pantera L - During cross - country race!
This is an average of 2 miles - one each way!
Pictured above is the father of the Pantera the Mangusta! It came out with a Ford 302 engine. This and the Panteras also come with German ZF transaxles.
Our Pantera Pictured in front of our live steam train
click on photo to visit our train site
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This site is part of & made possible by the B.A.D. CHARIOTS - (Harleys, Racing, Trains, Planes & Automobiles) and Doc Hemp's DENTAL SITE Homepages! So, Please visit Dave & Becky's other 150 urls there too! After visiting this great page of course! Also visit our world class hi-tech Music Room!
