DE TOMASO PANTERA

History car

This Pantera has the highly desirable Pre 'L' chrome bumper styling by Tom Tjaarda. This car is a rare original example with low milege and only two previus owners. Matching chassis, bodywork is in very good conditions. The engine performance are trully amazing.

De Tomaso Automobili was found by Alejandro De Tomaso in 1959, in Modena. The first car lunched was a 1.5 liter Formula 2 built along Cooper lines with a OSCA engine built by the Maserati brothers. Soon after follows another racer Formula Junior class. In 1962, De Tomaso had worked his way up to Formula 1, using an Alfa engine, and began to be known for his far-out experiments.

The first road car introduced in 1963, was the Vallelunga, a small fastback coupe named after a racetrack near Rome. It had exotic styling--almost like a mini Ferrari 250LM-- but was powered by a practical four cylinder Ford Cortina engine.  Another raod car followed - the Ford V8-powered mid-engined Mangusta (Mongoose) designed by a young Giorgietto Giugiaro of Ghia Carrozzeria.

In 1969, Ford Motor Company was looking for an Italian exotic car company to buy. The Mangusta wasn’t quite right for Ford, but very close in concept. Fortunately, De Tomaso gave Ford an advance peek at models for his next car, the unitized body Pantera. Ford decided that this new design--built more like a Detroit car-- was right for them and in 1969 Ford bought a good piece of DeTomaso’s firm, along with the Ghia and Vignale coachbuilding firms that DeTomaso had bought earlier. There was talk of Ford USA importing 10,000 Panteras, starting with the 1971 model year.

But the Pantera got an auspicious start. Plagued with early teething problems, there was a recall right at the beginning and the car was saddled with an undeserved reputation for poor quality. Suffice it to say that, before the four years of U.S.-importation ended, the Pantera Clubs (including Pantera International) had not only diagnosed every problem but come up with low-cost solutions. Panteras are among the most bulletproof of exotic Italian cars, as a result, they are far cheaper to run and own than Ferraris, Maseratis and Lamborghinis due to De Tomaso and Ford’s fortuitous choice of an off-the-shelf Mustang engine, the robust 310-hp. Ford 351-C, as the powerplant.

Even though Ford canceled importation of the Pantera to the U.S. in 1974, the story didn’t end there. No--not by a long shot. De Tomaso had retained the right to market the car in the rest of the world and he built several thousand more Panteras in the next two decades, including the exciting GT-5, with its "running boards," deep front spoiler and tall Countach-style rear wing-on-stilts.

  

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