I may have a panther problem

So Florida taketh away and Florida giveth. The MR2 kept chucking idler pulleys so no water pump. No long term issues I think but no chance of using it at the Firm track day. 

I made the mistake of getting on marketplace. This lead me to a listing for a crown Vic in Gainesville within 30 seconds and on the way back from the Challenge to the hotel. Listing price was $2000 and this was the first photo. 

This is a couple of pictures later. 

This is a Mark 8 32v 4.6l. Healthy improvement over what was originally in the car. 

So Gumby, Bobzilla, my friend Joshua, and me all head over to look at this majestic unicorn. The engine install is pretty good and Gumby gives it a decent report card. It has a miss so something odd is going on. The 22s are terrible and the tires suck. There is something happening in the steering. None of these seem light a ton of trouble. A deal of $1000 was struck. This guy just wanted it gone. Nice guy, hopefully he stops in on the challenge next year. 

Sweeet

Weren't you just talking gambler stuff?  

RallyX?

So happy Bob and I stayed in town to help enable!

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Yes, I was. This may be too nice for that though. 

In reply to gumby :

I am extremely grateful for that! It was great to have all the help in the parking lot build/PPI.

In reply to singleslammer :

Wide circle track steelies and boom tubes it is, then!

Lof8-Andy won the Florida RallyX RWD class in a Panther. With a stick, this one should be even more better.

hobiercr said:

Lof8-Andy won the Florida RallyX RWD class in a Panther. With a stick, this one should be even more better.

Snow tires on the rear and she works great at rallyx!  I wish mine was a manual!  But that would disqualify me from the circle track events that mine will eventually do.  The thing is a tank!  I bought it with a few years of circle track abuse, swapped out a couple mangled doors and changed the oil.  That's it. 

So I have made it home. I had to drive the car 4 hours from south Illinois. Thanks Robbie for getting me that far! 

The car did okay. The steering is a mess. It is probably simple but I won't have time to check on it until maybe the weekend. The engine doesn't like part throttle still. It cuts out pretty bad. I was able to drive it normally though if I didn't try and get it to accelerate at lower rpms. It is still not making the right power but I was safe on the road. 

A new thing is that the brakes got somewhat soft along the trip. They wouldn't engage as high in the pedal stroke as before and took more effort to get working. Vacuum leak maybe? The reservoir is still full. 

Lastly the clutch seemed to get stiffer as I drove along. It still releases normally but that initial push seems to have gotten harder to move. Pics tomorrow. Going to bed now. 

Can we see the 22's?

In reply to yupididit :

Post-Challenge parking lot shenanigans

yupididit said:

Can we see the 22's?

And as you read the linked thread, you can see what I recommend for wheels on a panther. Ironically, the picture was taken in Gainesville. 

Those rims aren't bad. Needs to be lifted a little. Don't think anyone has ever built a Donk on here lol. 

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

yupididit said:

Can we see the 22's?

And as you read the linked thread, you can see what I recommend for wheels on a panther. Ironically, the picture was taken in Gainesville. 

Ugh I love those 

In reply to yupididit :

They are something.

In reply to yupididit :

Yeah, I don't think that I want to go that direction on this one. I like someone else's Donk build but it isn't for me. 

Floating Doc's suggestion is VERY high on the list. 

In reply to singleslammer :

The rims not being bad was sarcasm on my part. My bad lol. 

But, I do love seeing Donks. I haven't ever built one, but maybe one day. 

There is a whole community od car-guys who build Donks on at least 22" inch rims then run sub 10 second quarter miles on them. It's absolutely insane and awesome at the same time. These particular guys tend to be in the northern Alabama/Georgia/Tenn area. 

In reply to yupididit :

Ha ha, I get it. They aren't the worst wheels I have seen but they aren't great. I plan to clean them up and and get as much recoup out of them as I can for next year's challenge. 

That is crazy to go that fast on something that big!

In reply to yupididit :

if the NDRA was around when I was 18 and had a 71 caprice I would have been all about that. 

My wife has dubbed the crown Vic Beulah. That match is great with the 96 town car named Ethel. Since she's letting this all happen, she can name it!

I'm not saying I like everything about this..  but this was posted like 1 day after you bought this...

Very far down on my list of challenge project ideas resides a single phrase

"Autocross Donk" 

Call me before you sell the wheels.