Pantera (Pantera)

An Italian Body on a Detroit Engine The Pantera was shown at Modena in March 1970 and presented at the New York Motor Show that year, with deliveries beginning in 1971. The body was by Tom Tjaarda, an American designer then at Ghia; the chassis engineering is credited to Gianpaolo Dallara, recruited from Lamborghini. Where the earlier Mangusta had used a backbone chassis, the Pantera was a steel monocoque - the first time De Tomaso had attempted that construction - carrying a Ford 351 Cleveland V8 longitudinally behind the seats and a ZF 5DS-25 five-speed transaxle, a relative of the Ford GT40 unit. The pushrod American V8 was the unusual part, and it is the single fact that has shaped the car's reception ever since.

Lincoln-Mercury and the Warranty Bill Lee Iacocca, newly president of Ford, wanted an exotic that could be semi-mass-produced and sold through Ford's own network. Ford acquired 80 per cent of Ghia and Vignale in 1970, took American distribution rights, and placed the car with Lincoln-Mercury, the division that already handled the Capri. The Pantera listed at roughly nine to ten thousand dollars, and what arrived was less finished than the price implied. Bodies were hand-built at Vignale with substantial lead loading over panel imperfections, rustproofing was minimal, and the cooling system - a mid-mounted engine plumbed to a front radiator through a long hose run - overheated in traffic. Air conditioning frequently failed, and because cabin ventilation was tied to it the interior became intolerable when it did. The gearchange ran through a multi-stage remote linkage to the transaxle and was unreliable, and two safety recalls followed in 1971 alone. Ford engineering worked through much of it: precision pressings replaced hand-formed panels, ducting and air conditioning were revised, and vented discs and Goodyear Arriva bias-belted tyres were fitted. By mid-1972 Road & Track allowed that the car showed signs of being perfectible.

L, GTS and the End of the American Arrangement For 1972 compression came down and, for 1973, the car was reworked as the Pantera L - Lusso - with large black impact bumpers to meet the new federal standard, better trim and around 248 to 264 horsepower. The 1974 GTS added riveted fibreglass flares, blacked-out brightwork and matt black panels; in American specification it was a cosmetic package, while the European GTS built from 1973 kept high compression and about 350 PS. The arrangement did not survive 1974: the oil crisis, the 1975 emissions standards and Ford's own product programme removed the case for a low-volume Italian coupe, and importation stopped at the end of the 1974 model year.

Modena Alone: Australian Engines and the Wide Body De Tomaso kept building the car for Europe at a small fraction of the Ford-era rate, on the order of seventy-five cars a year. The immediate problem was engines: Ford stopped Cleveland production in North America, so once the leftover American units ran out De Tomaso bought 351 Clevelands from Ford Australia, and moved to the 351 Windsor in the late 1980s. Bodywork followed the coachbuilders - Vignale until its collapse, then Maggiora, then Embo. The GT5 of 1980 is the car most people picture: bonded fibreglass wheelarch extensions, deep front air dam and side skirts, a rear wing, and 10- and 13-inch Campagnolo wheels on Pirelli P7s, the chassis sequence having restarted at 9000.

GT5-S, the 90 Si and a Twenty-Year Ending At Turin in November 1984 the GT5-S replaced the fibreglass add-ons with smoothly blended steel arches - the S is for steel - and a better-finished cabin of Maserati-style leather, air conditioning and a wooden dashboard, for a weight penalty of single-figure kilograms. The last act was the 90 Si of 1990, reworked by Marcello Gandini around a fuel-injected 302 and built in tiny numbers before the Guara took over. Racing ran in parallel and mostly in private hands: a Group 3 homologation car built from 1972, and a lightened Group 4 car with alloy panels and Plexiglas that shed some 320 kg. Neither made the Pantera a factory programme, but the Group 3 cars won hillclimbs and national races throughout the 1970s.

Overheating is the defining fault. The mid-mounted engine feeds a front radiator through a long hose run, and in original specification the system struggles in traffic; uprated fans and radiators are among the most common modifications, and their presence usually signals a car that has been used. Corrosion is the second: the unibody traps water, undercoating cracks and holds it, and damage to the front shock towers has historically been enough to write cars off. Electrical systems are period-typical and worse for age - fuse boxes have been reported literally crumbling, and window regulators were poor when new. Air conditioning failed on most early cars, and because cabin ventilation was tied to it a failure makes the interior unbearable rather than merely warm. The gearchange runs through a multi-stage remote linkage to the ZF transaxle and was unreliable from new, although the transaxle itself is durable; second-gear synchros wear and a rebuild is expensive. Half-shaft universal joints seize when rusted. The 1971 recalls - a crossmember cracking at the steering-gear mounting, and brake hose routing with a missing pedal stop and cracking fuel-tank seams - show where the early cars were under-developed. Ergonomics are a practical fault rather than a mechanical one: headroom runs out at about six feet and the pedals are offset toward the centre by the front wheel arches. The engine and its service parts are the least of the worries.

Structure before everything. The Pantera is a steel monocoque with generous cavities, factory rustproofing that barely existed and, on early cars, thick lead loading over panel imperfections; corrosion in the front shock towers, sills, floors and rear suspension mountings is the difference between a car worth restoring and one worth breaking. Metallic paint on an early car is worth a second look, since it hides filler well. Establish which era the car belongs to, because the propositions are not the same: 1971 pushbutton and pre-L cars are the collectable early specification and the worst-built; the 1973-74 L was, in the judgement of the period press and of auction cataloguers since, materially better assembled; the European GTS, GT5 and GT5-S are separate markets with their own chassis sequences. On wide-body cars, confirm the flares are what the badge implies - bonded fibreglass on a GT5, blended steel on a GT5-S - because conversions of ordinary cars exist and the price gap invites them. Check the ZF transaxle for second-gear synchro wear and the half-shaft universal joints for rust seizure by turning the wheels by hand with the car raised. Look for a cooling system properly sorted with modern fans and a good radiator rather than patched. Fuse boxes crumble and window regulators fail. A car driven regularly is generally a better proposition than one static for decades, where seized calipers, rusted gear teeth and perished seals are the norm. Registry entries are the practical substitute for a factory certification programme that does not exist.

As of August 2026, classic.com records a Market Benchmark of $116,349 for the De Tomaso Pantera as a whole, with a lowest tracked result of $756 in October 2024 - a salvage lot rather than a car - and asking prices on the seventeen examples then listed reaching $225,000. The benchmark splits sharply by variant, again as of August 2026: base cars at $109,636, GTS at $120,691, GT5 at $170,959, GT5-S at $213,305 and the 90 Si at $313,000. Auction evidence is consistent with that ordering. RM Sotheby's sold a 213-mile 1974 Pantera L, delivered new by Leith Lincoln-Mercury of Greensboro in February 1975, for $246,400 at Monterey in August 2025 - far above benchmark, and explained by the mileage rather than the specification. A 1985 GT5 made $140,000 at RM Sotheby's Amelia Island in 2019. A factory Group 4 car, one of fourteen, realised EUR 224,250 at RM Sotheby's Paris in February 2026, while a road GTS presented in Group 4 style failed to sell against a EUR 180,000-220,000 estimate at Paris in 2022. For the wide-body cars, a right-hand-drive 1989 GT5-S made GBP 157,500 at Silverstone Classic in July 2015; classic.com's GT5-S high is EUR 198,660 at Artcurial in March 2026 and its low $136,000 in June 2024, and a modified 1987 car was bid to $200,000 without selling at Mecum Kissimmee in January 2026. A 90 Si took $313,000 at RM Sotheby's Miami in February 2025.