My other non Pontiac cars of interest

[tberg]

Although my soon to be back to me GTO is a 50 year old dream car to me, I have several other cars that represent some other of my favorites.  First, my weekend toy is a 1972 De Tomaso Pantera.  When my desire for a midlife supercar came a callin' about 18 years ago, I didn't feel I could afford a Ferrari or its upkeep.  I hated (and still dislike) anything Lamborghini since the Miura (they're just so ugly), so I bought a Pantera.  Tom Tjaarda's original design was for me the best of the breed before the wide bodied, fender flared, Countach winged models of the 1980s through the early 1990s.  I always thought the Pre L (1971-early 1972) cars were the best, most beautiful examples of classic Italian wedge design, and to this day I still think they stack up admirably to contemporary sports cars.  And I figured with a Ford Mustang engine amidship, that maintenance costs would be reasonable.  Well, I was wrong about the reasonable maintenance, and frankly, just starting the car was usually a 30 minute ritual, so I found myself almost never driving her.  Especially when in 2013 when I bought my current daily driver, a 2010 5.0L Jaguar XKR, pulleyed and tuned to about 600hp, the XKR was quicker, more nimble (on the track and on the street),  more comfortable, more reliable, and the Jag didn't care about external conditions like temperature or traffic, something the Pantera could not tolerate.  I literally wasn't driving it a dozen miles per year.  It was just an expensive paper weight.   But it was so beautiful, that I decided about 6 years ago, that either I was going to make it a car I wanted to drive rather than resent driving or I was going to get rid of it.  So, what started as a carburetor to fuel injection swap turned into a four year project to make it what I wanted in order to enjoy it.  We transplanted a built 351 Cleveland with over 500hp, added cooling upgrades, tore out the entire interior and installed C-4 Corvette seats covered in diamond stitched leather, covered the dash, door panels, and firewall in the same themed leather, put flush windshield glass, headers and exhaust upgrades, some suspension and transmission upgrades, and now I drive it every weekend, and more importantly, it starts by just turning the key, something that had never happened in the past.  It is now a gorgeous, high powered, luxurious sports car that is a pleasure to own and drive.  And the attention it garners is something else.

I'd be remiss if I didn't say that my daily driver, my 2010 XKR coupe isn't the best automobile I've ever owned.  An Aston DB9 doppelganger (that outperforms the Aston), it is beautiful, reliable, quick, and comfortable and forced me to make my Pantera better.  You can buy 5.0L XKRs on the used market now in the low to mid $20,000 range which makes it the best bargain priced luxury GT on the earth.

My other Jaguar XKR which was previously my daily driver is a 2002 XKR convertible, of the prior generation.  It is nowhere near the excellence of the 2010 car, not nearly as powerful, ride and handling are much poorer, and reliability was terrible, but it's so beautiful and wears it heritage link to the venerable XKE in looks everytime you look at the big cat.  So for top down cruising in the Southern California sunshine, I've kept it in the stable.  

I have a couple of others of which I don't have current pictures, a 1958 Corvette which is undergoing a complete restomod on a modern chassis with a modern engine and transmission but that's still a couple of years from completion.  I also have a 1978 Datsun 280Z which I've owned from new but which I never drive.  It's been restored in the past but in need of another one and will be next up to get refreshed.

Below are some pictures of the first three.  Hope you enjoy them.