I started looking for a Pantera in May 2003 and found a couple that were for sale in Germany.
Since my german isn't that good i wrote emails to the sellers and asked for some more info and pictures.
After a couple of days i got a mail from a guy called Michael Peix along with two pictures of the car.
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The car looked ok in the pictures but i felt that i needed some more info and pictures
before i decided to go down there and have a look at it...so i asked for more pictures and papers.
A few days later i got a faxed copy of the registration pappers and a mail with some more pictures.
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After i got these pictures i contacted the Swedish Detomaso Club to wich i showed the pictures and asked a LOT of questions.
Björn and Tomas told me what to beware of when buying an old Pantera and with this information i decided to go to Germany and look at it.
The Trip
(14:th of May 2003 (very very early in the morning)
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Andreas "Skåning" Scharin & Magnus Dahlin decided to tag along (The fellowship of the Pantera)
Wich was good for me since i could not drive two cars back myslef and
you don't want to run around with this kind of cash without protection.
The Ferry to Denmark
(still very early in the morning)
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This picture was taken on the ferry from Gothenburg to Fredrikshavn i Denmark.
It took 2 hours and it was a nice relaxing start of this trip.
(Note the near collision course with the other ship)
Leaving the Ferry
(not quite as early in the morning as before)
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Here we are finetuning our nitrous & supercharged Peugeot 206
that former go-cart champ "skåning" will be driving for the next 1000km
It's very important that the weight is equal on all 4 wheels when you are
trying to break the land speed record. ;-)
Driving in Denmark
(a bit later that morning)
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As you can see on the tachometer this car is geard for very high speeds
We are doing 90km/h and the engine is still below 1000rpm...
Driving in Germany
(geting quite hungry...must be around noon)
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If you look at the speedo you can see that we have entered the Autobahn.
If you look even closer you can also see that we have removed all the heavy
tuning-equipment and that's why the car is much faster now.
Gourmet restaurant
(in the afternoon)
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Since we was in Germany we thought we try out one of their
best restaurants...We had some strange sandwich-like things with
long square-shaped potatoes. You can see how Magnus is fighting to get the
food out of the package and the "aproved" look on Andreas.
We hoped to find this place: Meatshake but without any luck.
Back on the road
(a bit later in the afternoon)
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Our destination draws closer but we still have some hours
of driving to do...the weather in Germany was quite ok.
At the Sheraton
(early evening)
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After arriving in Bad Sachsa the german guys Michael and Dirk took us to our Hotel.
Magnus is still disapointed for not finding the jacuzzi or the minibar.
Dinner & Beer
(late evening)
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From the left we have Magnus, Dirk, "can't remember her name", Andreas, Michael (the Pantera owner)
During the dinner we talked about the Pantera and Michael told us that he had owned the car for 17 years
and that he was not to keen on selling it. However he was getting into buing a Ferrari Testarossa and needed the cash and space.
Dirk was the only one that spoke english so the conversations was very complicated.
(A strange phenomenon was that when you where halfway thru your beer..
...another mysteriously appeard next to it withot having to ask for it. (that's Bierstube service))
JimBeam & Cola
(Seriously late night)
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After the dinner and beer they told us that we had to go to their best pub,
Wich we did...aMichaels favourite drink was "JimBeam&Cola" and we had a whole bunch of them.
I'd have to say that i was a bit nervous walking around with all the cash but it felt safer than leaving it at the hotel.
I'm not sure how many drinks we had but it was enough to make me smoke... so that has to be a serious amount of drinks.
...hangover here i come...
Breakfast
15:th of May 2003 (Quite early in the morning)
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After 2-3 hours of sleep and with over a 1000km to get home you can't help feeling a bit cranky.
Andreas tries to look fresh and unaffected by last nights drinking contests.
After the breakfast we went to Micheal & Dirks place and started out the paperwork for the export.
Leaving the Hotel.
(later that morning)
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After the breakfast we went to Micheal & Dirks place and started out the paperwork for the export.
Dirk's Vette
(just before noon)
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While Michael arranged the export insurance we went to Dirk's garage
and had a look at his Corvette project that he was keeping himself busy with.
A rare view to see 345 tires on a C4 Vette "Quite beefy" he also rebuilt the
roof to "Fastback style" looks a bit like the Ferrari 348 / 355.
The Deal
(in the afternoon)
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After messing a couple of hours with the german export burocracy.
we actually had to drive to the next big city that was 35km away to get things fixed.
Dirk gave us some sightseeing and showed us where the automatic radar cameras was located.
Here's Michael and Me finishing the deal...i admit that the winter-jacket was a bit hot at the moment.
The long way home...
(late afternoon)
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Finaly we were on our way back to Sweden again...I was a bit busy
since the car did have some issues and hadn't been driven too much in the last years.
One quite scary thing was the first time i pushed it to it's limits on the autobahn and then
released the throttle...BAM !! Fropp!! pop !! seriously loud exhaust explosions...
First i thought: Here goes the ZF-Transmission...oh my god !
Andreas that was driving close behind us phoned me on the cell and asked me to stop playing with the
rear flamethrower (50cm flames from all four pipes) and that he now needed new underwear. ;-)
Inside the howling beast
(a bit later afternoon)
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A solid grip on the steering wheel to keep the 285 tires in a straight line at top speed.
We tried to listen to the radio but i couldn't hear anything so we continued to scream to each other instead.
One funny thing was that my shoes was to wide to fit between the brakepedal and center console so i had to drive without my shoes.
Late lunch break
(very late afternoon)
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Another stop for burgers and time to rest the ears.
At this point i was already in serious need of a hot shower and some sleep.
We booked some tickets to the last ferry from Denmark to Sweden and hoped that we would get there in time.
Ferry to Sweden
(very late evening)
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We made it to the ferry in time...phew !
Since the car has very little ground clearance we got to park on the lower deck with the trucks.
The Pantera sounded nice inside the ship...so nice that the workers had to tell me three times to turn it of ;-)
It's just exhaust fumes ...nothing dangerous.
On the Ferry
(around midnight)
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After this greasy "pytt-panna" dinner we did some must-have liqour shopping.
and played almost all the slots on the ship...unfortunatly without any luck.
the ship came to Gothenburg around 3 am and we were stoped by the customs wich
just asked some questions and then let us drive home.
Home sweet home
(the next day)
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Home at last...after driving for hours with the rumbling thunder just behind my neck.
Anyway the trips was well worth it... i got the car that i wanted and
a lot of experience for the next time i'll do something like this.