Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and London are spread across 600 miles of beautiful country, separated by the waterways and the incredible Thousand Islands region just north of the US border to NY and Michigan. A central location was decided on and Kingston, Ontario was selected to host our event. After visiting the region and choosing a variety of good locations, we communicated with the city and its hotels and restaurants over the next month to determine who could best serve us for such an event.

A web site describing the details of our planned event was created and the original group began knocking on garage doors. It didn’t take long to uncover a large network of Pantera owners looking for just this kind of event. Not too far, like Vegas or Monterey, this event offered a chance to take their cats out for a ride and make new friends.

As we got closer to the date, the weather soured and a long drive in the rain made the event a lot less appealing to all. Like many Pantera owners who live in the north, weather is always a consideration. With only a short summer season most owners keep their cars under wraps unless it's sunny and dry. A few hardcore owners use their cars daily, but most have, over the many years of restoration, become protectors of polished garage queens. As the Kingston date neared, we decided that if we did not make a special and unusual effort the event would never get off the ground. So after much prodding and pressure many of us decided we were going - rain or shine.

That decision was to change the course of our Pantera ownership. Some of us had never before used our wipers. And some of us ended up driving 5 hours in the rain to get to Kingston. Along the way we uncovered a new appreciation for the cat's performance in the wet and witnessed a beauty we had never before enjoyed. It was an epiphany. As we arrived in Kingston we shared the common thrill of making it out in bad weather. And were so impressed buy the fantastic result.

As one beast after another rolled into our reserved parking - a beautiful stretch of parkland near a main tourist wharf - the smiles were hard to hide. Like any other Pantera meet, there was hardly a similarity between the cars that slid into the pack. The sounds were glorious, the colors unique and the levels of modification ranged from one end of the spectrum to the other. Yet the drivers - owners of every age, shape and description - were all the same. We loved our cats and could not believe the sight that was unfolding.

We spent the next couple of days eating, drinking and cruising – but mainly we stared into eachothers engine bays, took lots of photos and began some lasting friendships. In the end, we said goodbye and smoked our tires out of the Marina onto the 401. The rides home went through good weather and bad but the talk was all about the great folks we met, the nice cars we saw and how we couldn't wait to do it again. And to think, all this began with a chance meeting on the PI Bulletin Board. If you aren’t already a member, click here then at the top right click on join. It’s free and fantastic!