I joined the Pantera Owners Club of America and attended their rally here in Las Vegas this week. The cars were incredibly beautiful, but it really is the people that make the club --> and they have a great bunch of members!! I cannot stress how welcome I felt and how much fun I had over the last few days. Overall, I would estimate about 50 Panteras and 1 Mangusta (plus 1 Q Mangusta) attended. They drove, flew and boated their cars to attend, with this rally turning out to be the largest group that they have ever had. The longest drive was from Calgary, Alberta Canada (4 days) with attendees coming from as far as Norway and Singapore. Don't let their name fool you, they are passionate about all things deTomaso, including our cars. I am glad that I know a bit about our car's history, as they had many questions and many had never seen one. The good news was that I may have had the only Q there, I was not the only Q owner, as one of the other Pantera GTS owners also has one (repainted to Camaro Green and looked awesome in the pics he showed me. Thanks Dale.)
There may be many hesitant to join POCA, as they may not have a chapter in your area, but that is why you should join. Once you combine the other car owners in your area, a chapter could be started, making the deTomaso/Qvale group larger and more fun. Also, they like to participate and drive to POCA events. I know that I made several friendships that will last many many years from attending this rally, and I look forward to seeing them in the future. I hope that you take a look at their website (this is new and they are still making improvements on it) and join. For the western Q owners, join up and I hope to see at least 10 of you June 12th at Mason Regional Park in Irvine (see the Orange County POCA website).
I will make a day by day posting with a few pictures. I hope to see you and your Q at an event soon.
Michael
#121

Day 1 - Off to Red Rock National Park and then to lunch. A few of us went to Kounts Custom (Danny Koker's) to see his Pantera.
Here is the first of two areas where we were parking. Before we left, I had many questions about my car, as many had never seen one, and not aware of the car. Those that were aware were interested in the history, number produced, engine, chassis, etc. I think my most common statement was that it may have an identity crisis, as it was shown in 1996 at the European Auto show badged as the De Tomaso Bigua, then contracted with Kjell Qvale to be produced as the De Tomaso Mangusta and finally built and badged at the De Tomaso facility in Modena as the Qvale Mangusta. I had to reassure them that like all of the cars there, it was POWERED BY FORD. Many asked about the engine and wanted to know if it was a BMW engine (wrong car, that was the Guara). The other common question was what was the chassis, as they thought it was the same as a Mustang. With great pride, I let them know that it was underpinned by Enrique Scalabroni, former F1 engineer for Williams, Dallara and Ferrari. Most common comment that they made had to do with the interior, they loved it! They were very excited to see it on the road! (seventh car on the left). I had no problem keeping up. A fun trip and then back to the hotel hospitality suite to meet more members.


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Day 2 - Tour of the Shelby Museum and workshop.
Easy drive to get there. Once I was pulling up into the reserved parking area with the Panteras, the guy at the entry way said I could not park there. I replied, "Yes I can" and drove right in. I heard someone explain to him that my car was also a De Tomaso and will be parking with the rest of them. ACCEPTANCE!! Very educational tour and when we got back into the workshop area, we were like kids in a candy store needing a sugar fix. Here are two pics from the lot. The first is my favorite of the entire trip, a De Tomaso Mangusta and Qvale Mangusta. Steve was great in letting me take pics and he took several as well. (not sure if you have two of these together whether or not it's Mangustas or Mangeesta). The second is from behind the parking lot. There were some taken from the roof, but I do not have them yet.

Day 3 - A run to Mount Charleston Lodge for lunch. This is a nice drive, up the mountains (tall hills) to the northwest of Las Vegas. We were visited with several drive-by observances by our police department and they were more than happy to be waiting for us in two different spots on our way down. Having been there on several trips with other car clubs, I let them know what to expect and there were no issues. The parking lot was small, but we got all of the cars in it that went on this trip. Good food and company. We had a lot of others looking at the cars. As you can see in the pic, I was right on the ledge.

Michael
great posts and pictures
My experience has also been very positive of the members of the POCA
I have also joined and plan on attending the show and races with the the group in Pittsburgh in July
Hopefully, we will also inspire people on the east coast to join
Great picture of the two Mangusta's
Harlan
#102

We have been to the Celebration Exotic Car Concours and to a BBQ at the Southeast Panteras President's house and I agree...great group of people. We will be doing the East Coast Rally in Savannah at the end of September.

Kate

Great gathering Michael....lots of folks have no idea what the underpinning consist of on our car.

John