While the rest of the world is/was in Las Vegas at the annual POCA bash, us folks in the Houston area who couldn't make it (for one reason or another) went on a trip to Brenham on Saturday, the 25th of April.
The plan was to meet at the CyFair High School on 290 West at 9:30 and head off to Brenham. Some of us got there early and we eventually had everyone present except for John Taphorn. It's 9:45 and still no sign of John. His friend Bob arrived to ride with him, so we knew he was coming...
While we waited, the Porsche club continued showing up and got organized for their trip and a Lamborghini Muira showed up also! I got a shot of the engine.
Suddenly, we spotted John coming down the road! Jogging...
Seems his engine had cut out and stranded him up the road at the Texaco station. We piled into various cars and went back down the road to check it out. Lots of head scratching later, he tried to start it and it worked fine! At least, long enough to get to CyFair, where it proceeded to die again.
Lots of folks dived in to help find the culprit and soon, David Auer's sharp eyes found the problem. A badly burnt ignition wire was shorting out. Thanks to a helpful guy and his wife who pulled up in a pickup and just happened to have some wire on hand, John 'rewired' his ignition by running a wire from the battery up to the radiator, down underneath the car, and back up into the engine compartment. Worked a treat and we were off down the road to Brenham!
We arrived in downtown Brenham (see picture above) at noon. Just in time for lunch at Must Be Heaven.
With everyone feeling much better after some food, The Prez, Don Franck, took a vote and we all headed off for Pleasant Hill Winery. This local winery is brand new and the owner is experimenting with vines of different types to find the most hardy ones to handle the Texas weather and clay soil of the area. The owner was happy to give us a quick tour and we listened intently while he told us about his past and future plans for the winery.
The gremlins weren't through with John yet... His left taipipe and muffler broke loose and John had to remove it before we left. This proceeded to get everyone's attention... Bob Nickels, Tom Upton and his wife, Allan Brown and his wife, and David and Dorene Auer.
We had six Panteras total.
David Auer brought his very nice, recently purchased GT5.
Don Franck had his black '71
(check out those $200 wheels!)
Bob Nickels' nice white '73
Tom Upton's very nice red Pantera
John Taphorn's yellow Pantera
And John snapped a quick picture of Dylan and Kirby
before we left.
The weather was excellent and a few quick runs up to 135mph on the way back topped off the Space City Panteras' trip to Brenham!
Hey y'all. We gotta' do this again sometime! When the guys from Austin get back from Las Vegas, we'll try and get together with them, too!
