Sporting choice; CLASSIC CARS This week: DeTomaso Pantera

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), Oct 3, 2008

Byline: IAN JOHNSON

BACK in the late 1960s it was possible to buy an Italian designed car which gave the same performance as a Ferrari but at half the price.

I first became familiar with the DeTomaso in a conversation with the great General Motors design chief Richard Ruzzin who had one as a Sunday car and used one of the quirky Isuzu Piazzas in the week.

The Pantera was DeTomaso's most significant production car and lived an overall production life of nearly 25 years.

It is the model which most people identify with DeTomaso, and completed the company's transition to a volume producer of high performance GTs.

In the late 1960s, Ford was in need of a high performance GT to combat the likes of Ferrari and Corvette, and assist in generating additional dealership traffic for its mainstream product lines.

DeTomaso Automobili was relying on Ford for engines used in the Mangusta and had purchased the Ghia design and coach-building concern. After Ford's failed attempt to purchase Ferrari, the Ford-DeTomaso marriage seemed quite natural, so a business / purchase arrangement was consummated and work began on a new mid-engined GT. It would be marketed in the US by Ford's Lincoln-Mercury division.

Ghia stylist Tom Tjaarda styled the new machine, and Giam Paolo Dallara was engaged for chassis and production design. The Pantera's layout differed from the Mangusta in several fashions. First, it was conceived with a full monocoque chassis layout, as opposed to the prior car's spine chassis design. Secondly, it was to be built around Ford's then-new 5.7- litre (351 cu in) Cleveland V8. The engine was mated to a ZF fully synchronized 5- speed transaxle with limited slip, and rated at 310 horsepower.

At the end of the 1974 model year, Ford and DeTomaso Automobili dissolved their business arrangement, and importation of the Pantera to the United States was concluded. Mr. DeTomaso reassumed ownership of the Pantera project, and production was continued on a more exclusive basis for markets other than the US. Several models ensued, including the GT/4, which was modeled after the successful Group 4 competition cars of 1972-3. The GT5 model was introduced in 1980, and it featured much-revised bodywork.

The cars were now virtually hand constructed, and over this 15-year time period, the car had made the transition from mass-produced exotic car to a true and quite exclusive luxury GT In 1989, DeTomaso engaged the talents of Italian automotive designer Marcello Gandini to freshen and update the Pantera's appearance for the Nineties.

Whereas the prior car was of a monocoque chassis layout, this final version of the Pantera employed a largely tube frame structure.

Top speed for the GTS is claimed to be 174 mph with 60 mph coming up in just under six seconds. The 1974 model was slightly slower at 162 mph.

CAPTION(S):

ITALIAN DESIGN - the DeTomaso Pantera, claimed to give Ferrari performance