De Tomaso Pantera

Overview
The Pantera was manufactured by De Tomaso.
It was produced between 1971 and 1992.
7260 were produced.
The designers were Tom Tjaarda at Ghia and Marcello Gandini (Pantera SI).
It was a Sports Car in a coupe style.
It was 4,270 mm (168 in) in length and 1,811 mm (71.3 in) in width and a height of 1,100 mm (43 in).
It’s predecessor was De Tomaso Mangusta and it’s successor was De Tomaso Guarà.
The Pantera is a mid-engined sports car produced by the De Tomaso car company of Italy from 1971 to 1992.
Italian for "Panther", the Pantera was the automaker's most popular model
Over 7,000 manufactured over its 20-year production.
The car was designed by the Italian design firm Ghia by American born designer Tom Tjaarda and replaced the De Tomaso Mangusta.
Unlike the Mangusta, which employed a steel backbone chassis, the Pantera was:
A steel monocoque design
The Pantera logo included a version of Argentina's flag turned on its side.
It also had a T-shaped symbol that was the brand used by De Tomaso's Argentinian cattle ranching ancestors.
The logo has the colors of the Argentine flag because Alejandro De Tomaso,as born and raised in Argentina.

Modena

The car debuted in Modena in March 1970 and was presented at the 1970 New York Motor Show
A year later the first production Panteras were sold
Production was increased to three per day.

Changes

The slat-backed seats were replaced by more conventional body-hugging sports-car seats in the production cars
Leg-room was generous but the pedals were off-set and headroom was insufficient for driver
The Pantera came with an abundance of standard features such as:
Electric windows
Air conditioning
Doors that buzz when ... open".
By the time the Pantera reached production, the interior was in most respects well sorted.

The first 1971 Panteras were powered by:

A Ford 351 cu in (5.8 L) V8 engine producing a 330 hp (246 kW; 335 PS).
The high torque provided by the Ford engine reduced the need for excessive gear changing at low speeds
The ZF transaxle used in the Mangusta was also used for the Pantera
Power-assisted four-wheel disc brakes and rack and pinion steering were all standard equipment on the Pantera.
The 1971 Pantera could accelerate to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 5.5 seconds.
In the summer of 1971 there were the European and American versions.
From outside, the principal differences were:
The larger tail lamps on the cars destined for America
Addition of corner marker lamps
The visitor was impressed by the large number of cars awaiting shipment
The last one being delivered to a customer in 1992.
Late in 1971, Ford began importing Panteras for the American market to be sold through its Lincoln Mercury dealers.
The first 75 cars were simply European imports and are known for their:
"push-button" door handles
Hand-built Carrozzeria Vignale bodies
A total of 1,007 Panteras reached the United States that first year.
Rust-proofing was minimal and the quality of fit and finish on these early models was poor with large amounts of body solder being used to cover body panel flaws.
Ford introduced precision stampings for body panels which resulted in improved overall quality.

1972 De Tomaso Pantera Interior

Several modifications were made for the 1972 model year Panteras.
They had:
A new 4 Bolt Main Cleveland Engine, also 351 cu in with lower compression ratio
A more aggressive "Cobra Jet" camshaft
Use of a factory exhaust header.
The "Lusso" (luxury) Pantera L was also introduced, in August 1972 as a 1972½ model.
It featured:
A large black single front bumper that incorporated a built-in airfoil to reduce front end lift at high speeds
A 266 Net hp (198 kW) Cleveland engine.
It was so improved that the 1973 DeTomaso Pantera was Road Test Magazine’s Import car of the year beating out Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, and Porsche.

1973 Dash

The dash was changed, going from:
Two separate pods for the gauges to a unified unit
The dials angled towards the driver.
The U.S. version 1974 Pantera GTS featured GTS badging
Ford disengages
Ford ended their importation to the US in 1975, having sold around 5,500 cars.
De Tomaso continued to build the car in ever-escalating forms of performance and luxury for almost two decades for sale in the rest of the world.
A small number of Panteras were imported to the US by gray market importers in the 1980s
These included the Panteramerica and AmeriSport.

After 1974, Ford US discontinued the Cleveland 351 engine, but production continued in Australia until 1982.
De Tomaso started sourcing their V8s from Australia once the American supplies dried up.
These engines were available with a range of outputs up to 360 PS (265 kW; 355 hp).

1980

The chassis was completely revised in 1980,
The lineup included the GT5, which had:
Bonded and riveted-on fibreglass wheelarch extensions

The GT5S model had:
Blended arches
A distinctive wide-body look.
The GT5 also incorporated:
Better brakes
More luxurious interior
Larger wheels and tires
Fiberglass body kit
An air dam and side skirts
Production of the wide body GT5 continued until 1985
Then the GT5-S replaced the GT5. A
Fewer than 252 GT5 Panteras were likely to have been built.
The GT5-S featured:
Single piece flared steel fenders
A smaller steel front air dam.
The 'S' in the GT5-S name stood for "steel".
Fewer than 183 GT5-S Panteras were built.
The car continued to use a Ford V8 engine and Ford 351 Windsor engines in the Pantera.
For 1990 the 351 was changed to the Ford 302 cu in (4942 cc, commonly called a "5.0").
The Ford 302 CU had:
A Marcello Gandini facelift
Suspension redesign
Partial chassis redesign
New, smaller engine
Pantera 90 Si Model
Pantera 90 Si model was introduced in 1990.
Only 38 90 Si models were sold before the Pantera was finally phased out in 199.
41 were built (with the last one not finished until 1996), of which four were targa models.
The targas were converted by Pavesi directly off the production lines
7,200 Panteras were built.

Pantera SI

DeTomaso Pantera Si
After 20 years of production, De Tomaso turned to Marcello Gandini to do a major restyling of the production model.
41 units were built of the Pantera SI until production stopped in 1993. In the UK, the model was sold as Pantera 90.

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