After learning about Panther Hondas in the story Don Galloway wrote for Sideburn 27, I came across another in the flesh at the Clash on the Concrete indoor flat track race in Daytona Beach.
Don is a top vintage racer from Canada, he's tried all kinds of frames and says the Panther is the best there is. He, and Led Szmek - Mr Panther - wouldn't give too much away about why their chassis are, in their opinion, better than the more well-known Wood or C&J. So I had a good look at Panther and took some photos on my phone. The one of the bike is a bit rubbish, sorry, the details are better.
What struck me was the extra bracing...
Compared to my Wood Rotax chassis, the twin downtubes on the Panther have this extra plating at the bottom engine mounts.
The nickel-plated box section swingarm is very similar to a Wood, but the Panther has this lower bracing (and few holes for bottom shock mounting).
The other side of the swingarm. I also like to see how people mount their right-side footpeg to get them low enough, but not lower than the bottom frame rail.
Top shock mounts are different too, offering a very radical change in shock angle - move th top one down and the lower mount back...
This frame was built for Mickey Fay, a top national racer and sometime Honda factory rider, from the Pacific North West, who raced as national number 59 from 1978-82, then national number 13 from from 1983-2000.