The RARE V8 Monster That Scared Ferrari - The De Tomaso Pantera

if you were a Discerning buyer looking to purchase a mid-engine sports car for yourself back in the late 60s and early 7s you were left without much choice you had the Lotus Europa for the smaller Bal sports car and then moving up in price you had the Ferrari 246 Dino and even the Lamborghini mura sitting at top that list now these were all great cars in their own right there was just one problem particularly for potential buyers State sign and that was the availability of parts and qualified technicians to work on these cars should anything break on one of these and you would be looking at a lot of downtime to repair them with parts having to be sourced from England or even Italy but one car sought to change all of that and below the mid-engine sports car market wide open with a car that was relatively affordable for what it was and one that packed a bulletproof American driv train that could make gobs of Power with a variety of off-the-shelf Parts this car was to be America's new super car and this is the story of the legendary damaso Pedra the name panta is Italian for the word Panther which was a fitting name for a car that was as low slung and menacing as the panta would become and The Man Behind The Madness of the panta was Alejandro deaso an ex formul 1 racer turned automobile manufacturer Alejandro began his Formula 1 career in 1957 for a private team based out of Italy and throughout That season he proved to be a very decent driver but certainly not a world champion caliber driver and by 1959 day Tomaso had quickly shifted his efforts to his new car company day Tomaso which would be his Outlet to build race cars prototyp type cars and even road cars as time went on the first of these road cars which was the eloquently styled and Nimble valonga of which just 59 were produced this first car gave day tomasu the confidence to build their second Road car the Mangusta which was where the panta drew a lot of its roots from the Mangusta was a Ford small block V8 powered mid-engine sports car that funny enough spawned out of a business deal that went South with Carol Shelby and we have made a full video on this car already so that will be linked at the end to go watch but the Mangusta was a slightly more successful car than the valonga selling just about 400 cars in total but the car itself wasn't World beating by any means but the Mangusta needed to walk so that the panta could run this car served really as a proof of concept that day Tomaso could design and produce capable sports cars Beyond just a tiny production quantity and because of Ford's involvement with the prior Mangusta from a drivetrain perspective going well they were willing to expand their business partnership with day toaso and the panta was going to be the card to do it with as in America they would be sold through Lincoln and Mercury dealers the panta body would be designed by Tom jarda at the design House Gia and upon the first sketch they knew they had something special the panta was the Perfect Blend of an aggressive wedge shape mixed with all the well sculpted and proportioned Italian design elements that helped give it insane robe presence when put together from the flip up front headlights to even the repurposed Alpha Romeo Berlinetta tail lights it made this car one of the best looking cars of the era and this body was part of a new steel monoco chassis for the panta that was supported by a four-wheel independent suspension setup that used coilover shocks and equal length a ARS all the way around in the true Spirit of day Tomaso racing pedigree the panta suspension setup was designed with the performance oriented driver in mind with Factory disc brakes at all four corners and an engaging manual rack and pinion steering setup and continuing with their Ford partnership as they had for the Mangusta the panta would also utilize a mid-mounted 4V this time around though it was not the 302 Windsor motor this time it was a 351 cubic in Cleveland 4 V8 which was a very noticeable Improvement at around 330 horsepower in stock trim giving the panta considerably more torque down low than the 302 or even the 289 did in the prior Mangusta all this performance was coming from a car that would weigh in Just Around 3150 lb dry which meant that the panta was going to be a serious contest tender basically anywhere in the [Music] world 0 to 60 happened in 5.5 seconds and the panta also had a 5-speed transaxle which meant that it could top out stock at around 160 mph and rock the quarter mile in the high 13s to low 14 second range and by 1970 the world got their first glimpse of the panta at the New York Auto Show and unsurprisingly it was a Smash Hit at a Target launch MSRP of just under $10,000 us this made the panta literally half the price of the comparable Lamborghini Mira which also funny enough both happened to have the same wheelbase the panta was a very attractive proposition both visually and from a value standpoint and by 1971 the first pantas had successfully made their voyage across the ocean and landed in the Lincoln and Mercury dealerships in America and they actually sold pretty well here with 1,000 cars sold within the first year plus an extra 300 selling abroad as well but not all was great in seemingly classic Italian automaker fashion at the time the build quality on some of these pantas was well 95% of the way there for the early cars these handbuilt cars weren't all perfect and for $10,000 us customers would expect them to be and Ford wouldn't want to sell something through their dealership Network that they couldn't guarantee the quality on as they would be partially on the hook as a result Ford then acquired an 84% controlling stake in the day toaso company that year and helped overhaul production to get the cars more in Spec with things like their panel gaps and over overall just have better attention to detail and this would kick off the 20 plus year production run of the panta that would spawn countless variants of the iconic car and a plethora of midyear refreshes aimed at keeping the platform alive so buckle up your lap belts as there's a lot to go through here for 1972 the day Tomaso panta got slight modifications from the 1971 launch version which included the introduction of a new larger cam shaft actually from the Ford 428 cobrajet the 1972 model year also had a lower compression ratio to help with emissions regulations and it also got a more breathable set of exhaust manifolds these cars though still maintained the small bumpers then during the later half of 1972 through 1974 we saw the introduction of the new panta L where the L stood for lusso the lusos were now fitted with the US crash test compliant bumpers which did sour the beautiful lines of the panta but to be honest this car did fa much better than others from the period as these new bumpers although they weren't great they weren't hideous either power dropped to just 265 horsepower for the US market cars though and the interior did get a refresh dashboard design that actually did look a lot better especially when looking at that amazing gated shifter in the panta the panta luos though did get lost of quality of life updates and refinements which greatly improved the overall experience outside of just speed alone which was enough to get the panta lusso to win rodent tracks Import Car of the Year contest and in Europe at the same time day Tomaso launched the panta GTS which was a higher performance variant of the panta sanss the emissions restrictions based around group three racing these cars received a high compression ratio 351 and some further breathing mods that L it make 345 horsepower the GTS was also brought to the United States in extremely limited quantities without all the cool Go Fast Parts though so it was really just an exterior trim package and all of this went on until 1975 when fatefully Ford officially pulled the plug on the panta Stateside after selling a total of 5500 cars through their dealer Network and the panta actually for a sports car a relative Niche sold pretty well but by this time the 351 Cleveland was now no longer available in the US and with sales slowing and a performance SL gas crisis underway Ford jumped ship on selling the panta state side but sales abroad would still go on and they would end up creating some of the coolest pantas ever as a result amidst The Changing Times day Tomaso now had to source the 351 Ford Cleveland motors from Ford Australia as the engine was still being produced over there and that's what they did and they essentially continued to produce the panta and sell it abroad and even in the US with some gray Market importers until 1980 pretty much unchanged but 1980 was when the decade old sports car got a second lease on life this was when the dayam maso panta GT5 came out and and they would follow the Lamborghini kunos playbook for a facelift by making the car way more outlandish visually these new GT5 pantas received a full body kit that included Giant Wheel arches a new lower veilance and a huge rear wing gargantuan 345 rear tires were now fitted and the power was now bumped to over 350 horsepower because of the lack of emissions regulations abroad then after the GT GT5 there was the gt5s which is essentially the same thing as the GT5 just with a more subdued body but only slightly see the gt5s still featured a giant wing and wider fenders just now they were had more nicely molded body pieces versus the older tack on looking style of the GT5 these cars were built throughout the 1980s and just over a total of 400 GT5 and gt5s cars were built even with the chassis refresh that occurred in 1980 there was no hiding that the panta was beginning to show its age and most people thought that this was going to be the end of the line for the car but much to everyone's surprise 1990 saw one final Swanson for the day Tomaso panta the panta 90 SI and this car wasn't just another version of the GTS that was refreshed again no this new 90 SII panta was totally redesigned by the one and only Marcelo gandini the man who designed the mura the kunos and the Diablo the redesigned pentara 90 SI was stunning jardini managed to somehow capture the essence of the original car and facelifted in a way very akin to the Porsche 9911 where the same Timeless shape remained but it somehow looked so new at the same time this new panta pull design inspiration from the Ferrari F40 and various other sports cars of the time and underneath the original panta chassis was also replaced with a brand new tube frame chassis that housed a newly revised suspension setup with even better brakes from a chassis and design standpoint the panta 90 SI was brought into a totally new era but there was one problem the 351 Cleveland engine itself was no longer in production anywhere in the world so day to Masa would have to go ahead and pull what was essentially a Foxbody Mustang 302 with an EFI setup and put that into the new panta this kept the Ford soul of the car alive but at a cost of nearly 100 horsepower less than the prior 351 as these new 302s could only make around 255 horsepower without opening them up and changing the heads and cam day toaso sold the panta 90 SI from 1990 to 1993 with a total of 41 cars being produced for those years until it was phased out for the new dayam maso Gua which was to be the successor to the panta that never quite took off and then tragically by 93 the pant's 20 plus year production run was over and all that was left was a group of car enthusiasts around the world that were still enamored by the gorgeous Italian amican American Hybrid today the panta is revered as one of the ultimate Classics and even a fantastic restomod candidate for somebody looking to Hot Rod together their own Italian bodied beast at a fraction of the cost of what it would cost to do so to a comparable Ferrari and personally based on the history the look The feel and that glorious American V8 I would take a panta over a Ferrari any day but let me know if you feel the same way in the comments down below and thank you all for watching another episode of our rare cars documentary series if you enjoy this video we will greatly appreciate it if you could drop a like and also share this video with other enthusiasts also please make sure that you are subscribed to the rare cars YouTube channel and smash that notification Bell for more documentary style videos just like this on the world's most interesting cars until next time enthusiasts

Channel: Rare Cars

Views: 50,886

Keywords: rare car, vintage race car, unique cars, unique car, le mans race cars, vintage racecar, world's rarest cars, world's most unique cars, car documentary, 1960's racecars, rare cars, rare racecar, racecar, le mans 1968, daytona coupe, Classic cars, detomaso, de tomaso, de tomaso pantera, pantera, de tomaso pantera gt5, de tomaso pantera sound, de tomaso pantera gts, de tomaso pantera restoration, de tomaso pantera restomod, de tomaso pantera rev, pantera gt5, pantera 90 si

Id: KHZ5ae9GqGI

Length: 14min 55sec (895 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 09 2024