75 Copo?

[Pantera]

Hmm... the vin is 194675s100011. It is a 365hp 4 sp. sunflower yellow w/black interior. no ps or pb. Am/Fm 3:55 rearend. I have added a Hardtop and factory sidepipes to it years ago. I has the original paint under a nasau blue coat that needs to be removed and restored.

I paid $2200 for it back in 1976. It had a set of Hooker side headers and a hurst shifter in it when I bought it. There was a set of 6 or 7 in rally wheels on it with 67 caps.

It was late just before closing time at my used car lot (Super Cars) on a Thur night. I will never forget that night..! It was just a clean mid-year that needed paint but was all there.
I drove it and the brakes were soft and I figgured it was the reason that the guy was selling it. He was another used car dealer and it was not what he usually sold or so he said. I didn't care. It was a good buy and worth fixing up to sell. I about shxx when I got to the last part of writing the check out which was filling in the vin in the memo section. I handed him the check and we gave him a ride home so fast just in case he might back out on the deal.

I took it home and hid it out in the back yard where it sat for years. It is pretty much still like I got it back then.
I got a set of hubcaps and black steel wheels with radial tires to go on it and used the rally wheels on a car for sale.

I had a 66 coupe come in one day with a nice set of Factory sidepips on it so I parked them side by side and swapped the exaust between them. It still had the original air cleaner and plug shields except where the headers fit on the heads.

I have promised some of the guys in NCRS that I will trailer it to a big event this summer so that they can check it out and document as much as they can about the car.

I started to be active in Autocrosing about that time and since it didn't handle near as well as the Motion's did, it just sat in the corner of the back yard with a silver 67 435 hp coupe that I let a buddy talk me out of years later. Once I started racing SCCA B/P back in '78 I never had time for anything else.

I guess that was a blessing in disguise as both of the Motion cars and the '65 & the '67 just wound up setting while I thrashed for a race. I did drive the Pantera for a while till it had a lifter start to rattle and I could not get the top of the motor apart because the distributor would not come out. Got pissed and it still sets today just like it was back then.

I was obsessed with making a name for myself in racing and let everything in my life go to hell in persuit of that big win that was bound to happen at the next race. Sound like a drug user yet?? Don't ever let anyone tell you that it is not that way. It is like being on drugs. You just want to go faster and have a bigger trailer and tow rig.

I did get to race with some big name racers including Paul Newman himself. Next, I bought a Can Am lola and was entered in the Dallas Grand Prix in '84 and refinanced my business to pay for a shot at it and the mechanic I hired was so slow that the car was not ready by the time the race started. That was my downfall and the reason that these cars are the way they are today.

I shut the car lot down in the early 80's and relied on the income from the swimming pool business & my body shop to pay off the huge loan that I was saddled with. Then just about when things were looking up Bam here came a Divorce.

Sorry there I go rambling again.
If you want to know more about the 65 I will have to let you know what the NCRS judges have to say.