De Tomaso Pantera

The Italian-designed De Tomaso Pantera was an incredible sports car that, in many respects, was ahead of its time. It also had its fair share of notoriety, with Elvis Presley famously pulling a handgun in 1971 and pumping several bullets into his Pantera when it allegedly refused to start!

Alejandro De Tomaso, an Argentinian who made his fame as a racer in Italy, founded the De Tomaso company in 1959. While he started building race cars, De Tomaso wanted to produce a high performance road car, the Pantera and Mangusta being his most famous efforts. He built six Formula One cars in 1961 and his first road car - the Vallelunga - in 1963. While far from a performance car in the vein of the later two models, the Vallelunga was a classy Ghai-bodied GT sports car that was powered by a four-cylinder Ford engine.

De Tomaso and the Vullelunga were among the pioneers of the mid-engined layout, with its Ford 1600 engine and Hewland gearbox mounted in the rear half of the car, bolted to a U-shaped spine chassis that also gave it good handling. The prototype had an open two-seater body, but production cars were coupes, styled by Fissore. Early production models were built in aluminium, but later ones built by Ghia had fibreglass bodywork. Named after the racing track near Rome, the Vallelunga was fast and noisy, but supremely agile. It had a top speed of 208km/h and pointed the way to future sports car design. It was never destined for fame, however, with just 50 built between 1963 and 1965, before it was superseded by the Mangusta.

In the mould of the Lamborghini Miura, De Tomaso introduced his own mid-engined super car, the Mangusta, in 1967. Styled by Ghia - de Tomaso owned the Italian coachbuilding company by this stage - it was a low slung, muscular two seater powered by a 4.7-litre Ford V8. There was a box-section, pressed steel backbone chassis to carry the engine and 5-speed ZF transmission. Despite promising 250km/h performance, the Mangusta had too much rear weight bias making it difficult to control at high speed. While it earned a reputation as being a handful to drive, 401 examples were sold before production finished in 1971, giving way to the Pantera.

After the mediocre success of the Vallelunga and the Mangusta, De Tomaso was determined to get it right with the Pantera. He did a deal whereby Ford could badge their cars with his Ghia logo, while his new car would be powered by a Ford 5.8-litre V8 engine and sold through Ford dealers in the USA.

The Pantera was to become the first truly successful De Tomaso car. The design was handled by American, Tom Tjaarda, who had worked with various Italian coachbuilders, including Ghia and Pininfarina, with his credits including the Fiat 124 Spider and De Tomaso Deauville. The Pantera was less confronting than the Mangusta, with its 351 Cleveland Ford V8 and a low, wedge shaped body.

Unlike the Mangusta, which employed a steel backbone chassis, the Pantera was a steel monocoque design. It made its public debut in March 1970 in Modena, and was shown a few weeks later in the USA at the New York Motor Show.

The Pantera resembled a scaled down Lamborghini, with an optional wing on the back. It was a reasonably simple design, to aid an ambitious production program. Initially the goal was to produce 5,000 vehicles a year, with Ford looking after American distribution, while De Tomaso himself would have the European market.

Inside, the Pantera offered advanced features, including full instrumentation, power windows and air-conditioning, but it was the combination of Italian design, the Ford 351 5.8-litre V8 that delivered 246kW of power and high torque, and the bulletproof ZF transaxle that really set the Pantera apart from its better known and more expensive Italian competitors. The beauty of the high torque meant the Pantera had a wide rev range, negating the need for excessive gear changing at low speeds, especially in an urban environment. It could accelerate to 100km/h in 5 seconds and on to just under 300km/h. Ford's V8 featured deep breathing heads patterned after the successful Boss 302 design, 4-barrel carburettors and 4-bolt main bearing caps. It was perfectly mated to a ZF fully synchronised 5-speed transaxle.

As was to be expected from a racing driver, the Pantera bristled with race-inspired componentry. Fully independent suspension with upper and lower A-arms, coil-over shock absorbers, front and rear sway bars, power assisted four wheel disc brakes, cast magnesium wheels by Campagnolo and rack and pinion steering. It was advanced for its time, but by today's standards is simple in design and technology. There is no traction control, or anti lock braking. It has been described as the bad boy of Italian Exotics! The engine was housed in the rear trunk unit and was easily accessible.

Two specific versions of the Pantera were built, one for the European and one for the American market. In 1971, Ford imported 75 of the European specification models to the USA, and they became known for their "push button" door handles and hand built Vignale bodies. These were the only totally factory hand-built Panteras to be imported into the United States by Ford. The 'push button' vehicles are identified from all other Panteras by their round door buttons and a handgrip moulded into the body just behind the door, rather than the later pull type door handles. The main external differences between the two versions were fender side lamps and larger tail lights on the American version.

Late in 1972 the 'L' ('Lusso' or luxury) model was introduced, which featured black safety bumpers, improved cooling and air conditioning systems and other enhancements. In1973 the 'L' model gained a revised dashboard and instrumentation.

Ford ended their importation to the US of the Pantera in 1975. A total of roughly 5,000 cars were sold in the USA, before Ford tired of complaints regarding build quality.

Of the last Panteras to be imported about 150 were GTS models, which added fender flares and additional blackout paint trim. European cars received larger wheels, tyres and other performance enhancements.

The Pantera remained a cheaper alternative to the supercars carrying the Ferrari, Lamborghini or Aston Martin badge. It was phenomenally fast, reaching a blistering 256km/h, with one of the beauties of the car being its relatively 'stock' Ford engine that was both strong and reliable.

In 1980, the GT5 model was introduced, incorporating a more luxurious interior, larger wheels and a fibreglass body kit comprising an air dam, wheel flares and running boards. Production continued until 1985, when the GT5-S replaced the GT5. It is thought that about 252 GT5 Panteras were built. While the factory won't confirm production figures it is believed that only 183 of the GT5-S Panteras were built, being built intermittently until the late 1980s. The Pantera 90 Si was introduced in 1990, with just 38 being built before the Pantera was finally phased out in 1993 to make way for the radical carbon fibred bodied De Tomaso Guara.