A PAIR OF PANTHERS
Tim was lucky enough to get a drive in two different De Tomaso Panteras recently, both on sale in the UK (ClassicandSportscar.ltd.uk) – an early left-hand drive 1971 ‘Pre-L’ and the other a very rare 1973 RHD Pantera GTS.
It’s amazing what an Italian sounding name can do for a car’s marketing. Alexander’s Thomas Panther doesn’t really get the juices flowing, but De Tomaso Pantera does the job. Despite having an Italian family heritage, Alejandro de Tomaso was born in Argentina in 1928, his grandfather having emigrated from Italy.
In 1955, de Tomaso was implicated in a plot to overthrow Argentine president Juan Perón and fled to Italy. He settled in Modena and married American heiress Isabelle Haskell, thereafter never seemingly short of the money to underwrite expensive car development and manufacturing programmes. Haskell shared Alejandro’s dream to be a racing driver, and both did moderately well in the junior formulas.
He built his own single-seater racers, both to drive and sell. They were quite attractive and well-built but did not set the world on fire. He also made a few attempts at Grand Prix racing finishing ninth in the 1957 Argentine GP driving a Ferrari 500 but didn’t finish in the United States GP at Sebring (Bruce McLaren’s first victory) driving a Cooper T43. De Tomaso cars made a handful of Formula One appearances from 1961 to 1963, with their own chassis and a mix of engines, including a 135-degree 1498cc V8 with a claimed 200CV (147 kW) at 9500rpm, and a six-speed De Tomaso transmission.
The De Tomaso 801 was entered in a number of races but only appeared at the 1962 Italian Grand Prix and the 1963 British Grand Prix, failing to qualify in both.
Alejandro produced sports racing cars too but after seeing how Ferrari was funding his racing with production cars, he decided to go about it himself. Named after an Italian racing circuit his Vallelunga concept car debuted at the Turin Motor Show in 1963. He did not plan to build it himself, merely sell the mid-engined concept, which he failed to do.
Brave as always, de Tomaso decided to produce the car himself using Carrozzeria Ghia, a company he would later purchase
outright to handle the coachbuilding, committing to a run of approximately 53 cars. The car was very attractive and used up-to-date running gear. In a similar vein to Lotus, he used a backbone chassis with a Ford Cortina GT engine as a stressed member. Suspension was by double wishbones with coil springs, front and rear anti-roll bars and four-wheel disc brakes, with the transmission being a VW transaxle with Hewland internals. It weighed in at 726kg and should really have been as successful as the Lotus Elan, being very pretty, and aimed at a similar market, except for being a coupé and mid-engined. Fifteen aluminium cars were built by Carrozzeria Fissore, and 50 subsequent cars in glass-fibre at Ghia.
Not to be put out by the relative lack of sales success of the Vallelunga, pretty as it was, de Tomaso decided he needed bigger margins and therefore a bigger car in bigger volumes. He had conspired with Carroll Shelby to build the P70 sports prototype racer using a Ford V8, notably using a backbone chassis similar to the unsuccessful Lotus 30 and 40, concurrent at the time. Shelby lost interest when the GT40 came his way. de Tomaso continued ahead full steam and developed the closed roof Mangusta mid-engined coupé as a production car.
The name Mangusta was a snub to Shelby, a mangusta (mongoose) being an animal that could defeat (and eat) a Cobra in a straight fight!
At Ghia, Giorgetto Giugiaro had a midengine design on the stocks, and it was a
stunner. de Tomaso placed it on his P70 backbone chassis, and it was a crowd pleaser with many unusual features including gullwing rear bonnet covers. The engine was a Ford V8 mated to a ZF five-speed transaxle with a limited slip differential. Whilst not a volume seller the Mangusta put the De Tomaso name above the parapet.
The Mangusta also attracted the attention of Lee Iacocca, who felt that Ford could market through its Mercury-Lincoln dealerships a Ford engined sports car to fend off General Motor’s Corvette, one offering world-class performance at a fraction of the price of its competitors. For the volumes predicted, the Mangusta was not the car for the job, the spine chassis and glass-fibre body had to go, to be replaced by a steel monocoque which could be produced in the volumes predicted.
BIRTH OF THE PANTERA
De Tomaso’s third and highest volume road-going production model would be the
Pantera, combining American V8 muscle with delicate Italian styling. The design was by American Tom Tjaarda, then working for Ghia in Italy, and its engineering was handled by Giampaolo Dallara, ex-Lamborghini, and whose company is very active today building Indy Cars, single-seaters and sports cars for companies all over the world.
Built under the code name ‘Tipo 874’ MSE (Mid-Ship-Engine), Ford had the rights to serve the USA, and De Tomaso to sell the car in other parts of the world. After its Modena premiere in 1970, 300 Panteras were sold in Europe in 1971, but when the initial cars arrived in the US further refinement was demanded. People bought appliances from Lincoln Mercury dealers, not temperamental thoroughbreds. The Pantera was constantly revised but got itself a reputation for being a bit too hot to handle. 6,091 Panteras had been brought to the USA, which for an Italian thoroughbred is actually quite high, considering that there was an oil crisis going on at the time. However, the numbers just didn’t add up for Ford and the car was getting Ford-Mercury a poor reputation for reliability and high warranty costs. Ford lost interest in the Pantera programme and separated themselves from de Tomaso.
De Tomaso never gave up on the Pantera and multiple iterations were produced over a twenty-three-year production run, the last new Pantera only appearing in 1993.
The GTS was introduced in European to homologate the Pantera for Group 3 racing in early 1972, raising the compression ratio from 8.0:1 to 11.0:1 taking it to 350PS (257 kW; 345bhp) DIN at 6000rpm, with better breathing, much wider tyres and more direct steering, vented brakes and stiffened suspension.
The GTS featured matt black striping and a more garish paint scheme. The Lusso (luxury) was introduced later in 1972 for both European and US markets, and this represented the first major upgrade to address customer and warranty claims. 1973 saw a move away from the large plastic instrument pods on the dashboard to a more attractive, higher quality fascia.
The Pantera was now getting closer to where it should have been, but despite great reviews, the reputation horse had bolted. The US market was allowed a GTS, but this was a style package without the hot-rod engine.
In 1980, the GT5, with riveted on wheel arch extensions bringing it into line with the Countach and others in the bolt-on body kit era. This was tidied up in 1984 for the GT5-S model which blended the arches without rivets but retained the wide-body look. On the practical side, better brakes, and a more luxurious interior, much larger wheels and tires and the fibre-glass body kit also included an air dam and side skirts. Production of the wide body GT5
De Tomaso never gave up on the Pantera and multiple iterations were produced over a twenty-three-year production run, the last new Pantera only appearing in 1993.
The orange car shows more or less where the Pantera started, the blue car shows where they got to after addressing the large volume of complaints.
(and similarly equipped narrow body GTS models) continued until 1985, when the GT5-S replaced the GT5. Fewer than 197 GT5 Pantera models were likely to have been built, while fewer than 183 GT5-S Panteras were produced. Concurrent GTS production continued. In all, about 7,260 cars were built.
SO THAT’S THE HISTORY, WHAT ABOUT THE CARS?
Well, the two cars I got my hands on were both relatively early cars, but as different as chalk and cheese. The orange one was an early US supplied ‘Pre-L’ (before the Lusso) left hand drive example. The blue car was one of very few right-hand drive Lussos, believed to be the car debuting at the Earls Court London Motor Show in 1973.
The early ‘narrow body’, Pre-L model De Tomaso Pantera was built in late 1971 and is a matching numbers cars still retaining its factory fitted Cleveland 351ci HO V8 engine, capable of an impressive 274km/h (170mph). This incredibly usable, superbly aged example has been improved and superbly maintained with £9500 of expenditure with a local Porsche specialist. Work has included braking system maintenance, removal of the engine and gearbox for detailing, various new gaskets, new clutch, slave cylinder, new water pump, new exhaust system, and various ancillary powder coating and also had a brand-new headlining fitted by Malton Coachworks.
Going back to the car’s early life, it was supplied new in Italy before being imported into the USA in 1972, delivered to the state of Oregon. The De Tomaso was owned by a doctor and remained in the same state for its entire time in the USA. By the late 1990s, the long-term owner passed away and the De Tomaso was put into dry storage. The estate sold the car in 2012, and at this point the De Tomaso was imported into the UK.
On arrival in the UK, the car was found to be rust free and was re-commissioned over a 12-month period. The Pantera stayed with the same UK owner until 2020 and whilst used sparingly, it was well maintained with a cooling system/fan upgrade, carburettor overhaul, new shocks and springs, suspension bushes and ball joints. Brakes were also overhauled with new callipers with a set of factory correct Michelin XWX tyres fitted.
Still finished in its original colour of Spring Orange (Arancione a Molla), the De Tomaso is a very original-looking car. This clearly has never been a car left to deteriorate. It is strong, sound, and on the road still offering ferocious performance from its reported 268kW engine. BVM 228K is quick, sounds fantastic and is brilliant fun with its fit, powerful and loud engine, smooth gear changes and impressive exhaust note. All the electrics work, and the car feels well sorted.
The orange car shows more or less where the Pantera started, the blue car shows where
they got to after addressing the large volume of complaints. It is one of the very few RHD UK examples ever produced. Finding a RHD De Tomaso Pantera GTS is difficult, even more so finding one that had covered less than 33,000 miles from new. It has recently been put through a refurbishment programme costing over £80,000. TGX 37M was first registered on the 30th of June 1973 and information in the car’s history file tells us this De Tomaso was used for the Earls Court Motor Show in 1973.
Mr Barr, a London building contractor covered a little over 20,000 miles in 29 years of ownership, and in 2002 sold the car to the second owner who used it for various shows and events, selling it in 2009 with 26,600 miles from new. The third owner owned the car until 2020 covering over 6000 miles and spending in the region of £20,000 on maintenance and upkeep over the eleven years. Malton Coachworks then did a major strip and rebuild, and it is exceptional work.
The 260kW Cleveland Ford 5.7-litre V8
engine and five-speed ZF gearbox were removed and treated to a full rebuild to include an upgrade stroker kit, main and big end bearings, new crankshaft, new rods, new pistons, re-bored, full overhaul of cylinder heads with bigger valves, new carburettor, balanced flywheel, and new clutch. The braking system was overhauled to include new callipers, the suspension rebuilt, and the cooling system was overhauled to include a new water pump. Drive shafts were overhauled, universal joints replaced, the alternator and starter motor replaced, and thousands of pounds spent on rebuilding the air-conditioning system to include a new A/C pump and rebuilt compressor.
Whilst the engine and major mechanicals were removed from the De Tomaso, the external bodyshell was stripped down and fully prepared for a complete full re-spray and the interior then fully re-trimmed in top quality leather. The original seats were re-trimmed, as were the door cards and kick panels, the carpets replaced and a new dash top trimmed. The car is beautiful in terms of detail, the paint finish stunning, chrome work exceptional and the no expense spared interior re-trim looks magnificent. The V8 engine offers outstanding performance, it’s ferociously quick, sounds incredible and the ZF gearbox is excellent to use.
CHALK AND CHEESE
Whilst being ostensibly the same vehicle, these two cars are very different. The orange one is a real firecracker, when it is fired up the building shakes. It idles and revs superbly though and it is not temperamental in that respect. The driving position is, however, awkward in every respect; starting with the pedals being off-set to the right compared to the steering and seat alignment in order to fit between the large wheel arches. The clutch operates throughout its very long travel, making gearchanges through the notchy Ferrari-style gate a long and precise affair. The brake travel is also very long, not inspiring confidence at first, but never coming up short. None of the pedals are matched for feel, travel and effort, with the loud pedal (for that is what it is) acting like a trigger.
The switches are many and a mystery mostly, but the temperature gauge makes it obvious that any of the switches with a fan motif on them should be on full all the time you are driving at town speeds. When you look under the hood to see how the engine is packed in, it is obvious that there is no air going into the narrow channel that the beast must lie in, although the large boot allows air out.
The concept is fabulous, a massive lazy engine in a light chassis, you can use any gear you like, and torque masks any imperfections in any attempt to tame the beast. It’s on quite narrow but high-profile tyres which gives a good ride and progressive, under-steery handling. I guess this is tuned specially, because it would be a monster otherwise for people used to buying a car from an American Ford Dealership.
When you drive the blue car, it’s as if you are driving a production car while the other is a concept-proving prototype. The driving position whilst still placing your feet offcentre is much more comfortable. The pedals all give the sort of travel and engagement that you expect and the brakes give you great confidence. The switches are easier to identify and the engine fan seems to be thermostatically controlled. The Detroit iron behind your head is as benign as it is possible to be and although loud and purposeful, it doesn’t wake the dead. The tyres are wider and lower profile, which doesn’t affect the ride noticeably, but tightens up the handling really well without any tricks.
In short, if De Tomaso had produced something like this 1973 car on introduction, they would have been on the money with the Ford dealers of America. It’s a really sensible exotic car. If you want a very raw beast of a car to thrill and challenge you, the earlier orange one is it.
If you want what is by normal standards a tamed beast of a car that is a really nice place to be in, and not quite such a challenge, the blue Pantera GTS is the one I’d recommend.