The Pantera Place
"Your de Tomaso Connection"

Northwest Dyno Day

Story By Michael Thomas - Pictures By Chris Papendorf

Shhhhh! What’s that? A distant rumble. Coming ever so swiftly over the horizon, morphing into a thunderous roar and a flash in the sunlight as it passes in a blink and disappears once more into our imagination. Or was it our imagination? Could it be? Has the slumbering beast awakened? In a word, damn right! Thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of one the newer members of the Pacific Northwest Pantera community, Chris Papendorf, Saturday, June 1 bore witness to Dyno Day 2002, and unofficially opened the summer motoring season. On a typically bright, sunny and warm Seattle June day (yeah, yeah, I know), we eventually had 11 Pantera’s in attendance, with a few additional members on hand to hold down the tarmac.

The weather really did cooperate nicely for the event, and likely contributed to the great turnout. Chris secured the services of Carburetor and Fuel Injection Connection Inc. in Kirkland, WA to perform the technical services, and was able get a group rate for the bunch. The owners on hand represented all models save a GT5-S and 200, and members new and long standing. Gary Herrig, host of last October’s tech session, brought his ’73 GT5 conversion with yours truly riding shotgun. Lyle Harris was there in his pearl-white ’71 push-button. Bob Kelly with his bright red ’72 sporting a mean-looking 351 Windsor crate motor and great sounding mystery exhaust system. The aforementioned Chris Papendorf was there in his evolving yellow over black ’74L with GTS steel flares and full rear delta wing, soon to be shod with custom made 18" Fikse wheels. Doug Braun, our local electrical wizard, who has owned his bright blue ’73 L for over 20 years and has successfully competed in Solo II most of that time was there, as was Matt Wells in his rare gun metal gray ’72. Also on hand early was John Maffeo in his red, delta winged ’72 of last year’s Freemont Street table dance fame, as well as the odds on favorite for the day, Jeff Kimball in the very clean, innocent looking black twin-turbo ’72, if you can call a P-car at all innocent looking. Jim Dixon and his brother arrived later in the day in his very stock silver ’74L, and Dave Jaross brought his white ’71 with a For Sale sign attached, but did not partake in the testing.

Briefly, the process was as follows. Once the car is strapped onto the rollers, you would slowly start in first gear, shift to second, then third. When the shop guy gave the signal, you drop the hammer all the way to redline in third. Man, I tell you, that made for some great music but the fumes were something else..

Matt Wells the first to strap on to the rollers. His generally stock 351C generated very respectable numbers, 254.9 hp and 281.4 ft-lbs of torque. Next was Doug, who was just finishing his first run as Gary and I arrived, and that SVO Windsor block of his with custom exhaust (w/crossover) sounded every bit like a Winston Cup car on the front straight at Talladega. Doug took the early lead with a very healthy 353 hp and 338 ft-lbs. Alas, that lead wasn’t to last very long. Next up was Jeff Kimball. With those twin turbos bolted on to the exhaust system, the sound is really somewhat subdued, and belies the power within. Jeff swiped the crown from Doug with 409.8 hp and 414.4 ft-lbs, to stand as the champion for the day. Following this, with one exception, the remaining cars were in the 250 to 295 hp range. The only other car to top 300HP was Gary Herrig, whose 351C, running 10-1 compression, roller rockers and Big Bore exhaust, marked off 311.3 hp and 314 ft-lbs as the best of his two runs.

The resulting printouts from many of the runs were very helpful in pointing out performance issues, which the guys might otherwise have never found. John Maffeo ran quite well with 249 hp and 272 ft-lbs, except that the sheets showed a marked dip in power and torque up near the high end of the rev range. Initial group diagnosis suggested that a lack of consistent spark in his distributor may be at fault. Unfortunately, with the number of cars on hand, the shop didn’t have time do any fine-tuning, but did offer many suggestions to the guys to improve what were already some pretty impressive figures. Bob Kelly with his Ford SHO 351 Windsor create engine got

296.8 hp and 315.9 ft-lbs, Lyell Harris with his early 71 pushbutton got 256 hp and 295.1 ft-lbs and last the host of this dyno day Chris Papendorf had the low score of the day from his very stock 74L with 246.9 hp and 261.1 ft-lbs.

Was that the end of the festivities? On a day like this, not a chance! One of the best car-guy hangouts in our area is a burger joint in Issaquah called the XXX Rootbeer Drive-In. There is not a space on the wall or ceiling that is not covered with pictures, posters and parts from every car imaginable. When you order from this menu, you don’t ask for a double bacon-cheese or a grilled chicken, you ask for a ’57 Nomad or a ’49 Ford. This is a CAR joint! On any nice day, especially weekends, multiple car clubs make this their mid-run watering hole, and the large, open parking areas make great display space. Soooooo, once the dyno session was done, off we went. 7 of the 11 Pantera’s took off and caravanned south on I-405, then east on I-90, about 15 miles to the drive-in, where we immediately became the center of attention to a group of curious burger-munchers and their wide-eyed kids. What a great cap to an awesome day. This will not be the last one of these! Thanks to all and especially Chris for putting it all together.

Papendorf ChrisPDyno.jpg (58892 bytes)

Chris Papendorf preparing for his dyno run. Chris' Peak Power: 247 HP 261 Torque 

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Matt Wells preparing for his dyno run. Matt's Peak Power: 256 HP 295 Torque 

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George Dimoff (left) and Dave Jaross (right) discussing Pantera HP.

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Doug Braun's Pantera getting straped on to the dyno. Doug's Peak Power: 353 HP 338 Torque 

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Everyone watching while Jeff Kimball's twin turbo Pantera is getting ready to dyno.

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Gary Herrig's GT5 getting into position to dyno. Gary's Peak Power: 311 HP 314 Torque 

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Front Row left to right: 
White 1971 Pantera: Dave Jaross
Red GT5 Pantera: Gary Herrig
Yellow 1974 Pantera: Chris Papendorf
Black 1972 Pantera: Jeff Kimball

Back Row left to right: 
White Pushbutton 1971 Pantera: Lyell Harris
Red 1972 Pantera: Bob Kelly
Red 1972 Pantera: John Maffeo

Papendorf Group2.jpg (40716 bytes)

Front Row left to right:
Red 1972 Pantera: John Maffeo
Red 1972 Pantera: Bob Kelly
Back Row left to right:
Black 1972 Pantera: Jeff Kimball
Yellow 1974 Pantera: Chris Papendorf
In the left backgound everyone is huddled around Matt Wells Pantera discussing his dyno run.


Papendorf Group3.jpg (55550 bytes)

Front Row left to right: 
Yellow 1974 Pantera: Chris Papendorf
Black 1972 Pantera: Jeff Kimball

Back Row left to right: 
Blue 1973 Pantera: Doug Braun
Red 1972 Pantera: John Maffeo

Papendorf Group4.jpg (57335 bytes)

Front Row left to right:
Yellow 1974 Pantera: Chris Papendorf
Black 1972 Pantera: Jeff Kimball

Back Row left to right: 
White Pushbutton 1971 Pantera: Lyell Harris
Red 1972 Pantera: Bob Kelly
Blue 1973 Pantera: Doug Braun
Red 1972 Pantera: John Maffeo

Papendorf Group5.jpg (64316 bytes)

Front Row left to right: 
Yellow 1974 Pantera: Chris Papendorf
Black 1972 Pantera: Jeff Kimball

Back Row left to right: 
Red 1972 Pantera: Bob Kelly
Blue 1973 Pantera: Doug Braun
Red 1972 Pantera: John Maffeo

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Lyell Harris' White 1971 pushbutton Pantera.

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Front Row
White 1971 Pantera: Dave Jaross

Back Row: 
White Pushbutton 1971 Pantera: Lyell Harris

Papendorf Group8.jpg (58360 bytes)

Front Row left to right: 
White 1971 Pantera: Dave Jaross
Red GT5 Pantera: Gary Herrig
Yellow 1974 Pantera: Chris Papendorf
Black 1972 Pantera: Jeff Kimball

Back Row left to right: 
Red 1972 Pantera: Bob Kelly
Red 1972 Pantera: John Maffeo

Papendorf GT5.jpg (55582 bytes)

Gary Herrig's GT5 rear 345-35-15 Pirelli P7 tires really cover the rollers nicely.

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Jeff Kimball's twinturbo Pantera getting ready to dyno. Notice the extra chain, Jeff was the only one who got the extra chain tie down. Jeff's Peak Power: 410 HP 414 Torque 

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Jeff Kimball re-programming his fuel injection system before his second dyno run. 

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John Maffeo's red 72 Pantera getting strapped down. John Maffeo's Pantera on the dyno. John's Peak Power: 249 HP 272 Torque 

Papendorf Lyell Dyno.jpg (58726 bytes)

Lyell Harris' pushbutton getting ready for his first dyno run. Lyell's Peak Power: 256 HP 295 Torque