KITS AND PIECES
THE ARISTOCRATIC BRIT OFTEN MISTAKEN FOR A KIT CAR
While many mistake the Panther Lima for a kit car, the reality is that these very unique Britishmade cars were all factory built by a company called ‘Panther Westwinds’. Robert Jankel, the company’s founder, built his first car in 1954, a home-made affair based on a wrecked Austin 7. The story goes that his father had to road-test the car for him, because his car-mad son was only 16 at the time and didn’t have a driving license. Later, Robert studied engineering before doing a stint as a car salesman. Although he would continue to design and build cars as time permitted, he decided that there was no money in them, so he went into his family’s clothing company as a fashion designer.
It started with a Roll … er
In 1970, he restored a vintage Rolls-royce in which he took his family for a holiday in Spain, and the result was so magnificent that, while there on holiday, he sold it to a bullfighter for £10K. Requests for similar renovated cars soon led to a flourishing sideline business, and, in 1971, he quit the clothing industry to establish Panther Westwinds. His first few cars, called the ‘Panther J72’, were hand made in his garage and bore a strong resemblance to the Jaguar SS100. Complete with a handmade aluminium body, and trimmed in Connolly leather and highly polished walnut, the luxurious roadsters were very expensive and aimed at the rich and famous. Most of the running gear came from the Jaguar XJ12 and included the 5.3-litre V12 engine. More than 350 of these were produced between 1972 and 1981.
Encouraged by his early sales, Jankel moved from his shed into the old Cooper Car Factory in Byfleet, about 40km from London. In the process, Jankel acquired several of Cooper’s original contractors and incorporated them into his new company. Many of these companies were already doing work for other automotive manufacturers such as Rolls-royce and Vauxhall.
Money talks
Realizing that the rich and famous liked to spend a lot of money on cars that reeked of luxury and were a little bit different, in 1974, Jankel started manufacture of what would be, for a long time, Great Britain’s most expensive car; the Panther De Ville. This time, Jankel took his inspiration from the Bugatti Royale. Naturally, the car had everything — including a television set! Again, it was classic in appearance but with ultra-modern running gear. It cost £22K, which was twice the price of a Rolls-royce Silver Shadow. Examples of the Panther De Ville were bought by Elton John and the King of Saudi Arabia. Sixty of these cars were built between 1974 and 1985. The De Ville gained notoriety when it featured in the 1996 Disney film 101 Dalmatians in and its sequel,
Or maybe not
Jankel’s next car, launched in 1975, was an extensively modified Triumph Dolomite built to be the Rolls-royce of the smallto-mid-sized car market. As with previous cars, many body panels were hand-beaten aluminium, and it had an interior that could compete with Rolls-royce in opulence and comfort. However, the fact that this car was basically a heavily restyled Triumph Dolomite and cost more than a top-of-theline Jaguar did it no favours, and production stopped after around 35 had been sold.
Despite this minor setback, Jankel turned his creative eye to the upper middle class and produced the car featured in this story, the Panther Lima. With this car, Jankel believed that he could compete in the niche retro sports car market dominated by the Morgan 4/4 and Plus 8.
Lima or lemon
Starting with a Triumph Herald/spitfire chassis, Jankel started work on a modern ’30s-styled roadster. But British Leyland was not enthusiastic about supplying him with brand-new parts. Fortunately, at the time, his company had been doing prototype work for Vauxhall. When the Vauxhall engineers saw the pretty little sports car that Jankel was developing they suggested that he should use Vauxhall parts instead. To add icing to the cake, Vauxhall Motors also offered the use of the Vauxhall dealership network to sell and service the cars.
Re-enthused by his Vauxhall connection, Jankel redesigned the Lima around the Vauxhall Viva/magnum floorpan and running gear. On top of this was a highquality fibreglass body complete with MG Midget doors including wind-up windows, quarter-lights, handles, and mechanism. It appeared that Leyland had changed its policy and would supply the doors, possibly in the belief that it had missed a very important boat. The engine chosen was the Vauxhall 2.3-litre 80kw engine originally fitted to the Vauxhall Magnum and Firenza. The engine, along with the chosen four-speed gearbox, gave the car plenty of get up and go for its era. Another advantage of the Vauxhall components, besides having the option of an automatic gearbox, was that they included the Magnum’s servo-assisted brakes — front discs and rear drums — which, being designed to stop a much heavier vehicle, had no problems coping with the Lima’s 850kg.
Launched in 1976, the Lima’s modern platform and running gear were more than a match for the ancient Morgan, its main competition. When the cars were tested side by side, the Lima always came out on top in every respect but one: it was not a Morgan.
One for all or all for one
About 700 Limas had been sold when, in 1978, Jankel, knowing that Vauxhall would shortly be stopping production of the Viva/ Magnum, re-engineered the Lima to take a box-section space-frame chassis. This car became known as the ‘Series 2 Lima’. The box-section chassis had better handling than the previous generation, and the car was moved further upmarket. Jankel ditched the centrally located black plastic Magnum instrument cluster and dashboard,
The 1980 Series 2 Panther Lima shown in the pictures belongs to Whanganui-based Peter Clapham. He has liked the Lima since he saw his first example in Whitby in the early ’80s
replacing it with Smiths gauges mounted in polished burr walnut, which extended to the door caps, and, of course, added Connolly Leather seats. To go with this increased opulence, a turbo-assisted 133kw version was offered, but only 10 were built before the company declared itself bankrupt in 1979 (in part perhaps because of a sideline project to develop and build hovercraft).
Fortunately, the receivers managed to find a buyer, a Korean industrialist by name of Young C Kim, who took ownership in 1980. Production of the Lima, J72, and De Ville was restarted in 1981. Total production of the Series 2 Lima was about 300 cars before it was superseded in 1982 by the Kallista. The Kallista was similar in looks but different in almost every other respect. The slightly larger Kallista had its chassis and new aluminium panels manufactured in Korea and then shipped to the factory in Byfleet for assembly. Another significant alteration was to dispense with all the Vauxhall componentry and replace it with equivalent Ford bits, obtained through Ford’s industrial-products division.
However, the company went through another financial crisis, this time in 1990, due to difficulties caused by Young Kim trying to produce his own modern supercar, the Panther Solo. After this failure, Young Kim closed the Byfleet facility and took the company back to Korea, where it was absorbed by Ssangyong, which built another 70 Kallistas, albeit with ‘Ssangyong’ badging. Ssangyong was, in turn, absorbed into the Korean car manufacturer Daewoo.
Ladies’ look
The story does not end there however; in 2001, Jankel bought the Panther name back from Daewoo and began work on a new sports car. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2005. The Jankel family still own the rights to this name. Perhaps one day this marque will rise from the ashes again.
The 1980 Series 2 Panther Lima shown in the pictures belongs to Whanganui-based Peter Clapham. He has liked the Lima since he saw his first example in Whitby in the early ’80s. This example arrived in New Zealand in October 1987, passing through a couple of hands until it was bought in 2008 by an American who had retired to Kerikeri. By this stage, the car was looking quite tired, so the new owner decided to do a ground-up restoration. Working on the restoration in the winter months, the project took several years and cost many thousands of dollars. The refurbishment of the woodwork alone cost around $1500. Happily, all the Vauxhall parts were relatively easy to find, and the gearbox had already been upgraded to a Toyota Celica five-speed unit by an earlier owner.
Peter is always on the lookout for interesting cars, so, when he saw the Lima on Trade Me in 2017, he contacted the American owner to discuss purchasing it. When he told Peter how much it had cost to restore, Peter knew that he would never be able to pay him that much. The owner wasn’t worried about that. Because he had enjoyed himself so much while working on it during the ‘cold’ Kerikeri winters (well, he did come from California), it owed him nothing. As a matter of fact, it meant more to him that the car was going to a good home where it would be appreciated.
These days, the Lima sits in a shed on Peter’s property beside another rare car, a JBA. Interestingly, the JBA design is also inspired by the Jaguar SS100 and the two retro roadsters, with their ’80s running gear, look quite nice when parked together. Peter says that whenever he takes the cars out, it’s always the ladies who appreciate the looks of the curvy Lima over the JBA.
When we interview him, he is shortly to be leaving on a two-week trip around the North Island. We suggest that it must have been difficult choosing which car to take. Peter says it wasn’t really, as he is taking his motorbike. Go figure.
These days, the Lima sits in a shed on Peter’s property beside another rare car, a JBA. Interestingly, the JBA design is also inspired by the Jaguar SS100 and the two retro roadsters, with their ’80s running gear, look quite nice when parked together