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We have read and heard claims that one Pantera is
"best in the world" or "none finer" or
"most well known" before. However, those claims must be
judged in light of this phenomenal Pantera. This car was prepared on
an cost is no object budget. Every nut and bolt has been replaced,
polished, plated or painted. The coachwork and paint are of the
highest and most costly standard known. From bumper to bumper, every
component and every system has been upgraded, customized and
modified to satisfy the original owner, who has prepared other
show-winning DeTomaso cars and Oakland Roadster quality cars. |
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The underlying 1972 Pantera was very original and
clean to begin with. The car was stripped to bare metal and all the
bodywork was done in metal by Gary Todisco, a well known bodyman
over a period of 14 months. All of the lines in the car were
sharpened considerably to make them crisp looking and make the light
fall on the car in a special way. Note the flat, rear decklid. |
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The paint on this car was applied by Eddie Meek
over a period of 12 months. It one of the most exquisite paint jobs
we have ever seen. The color is an unusual manzanita satry done in
urethane with plenty of clear coat. |
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Orange Plating performed powderpainting and black
chroming of the suspension and trim components. The suspension is
billet aluminum, custom fabricated. Jody Glasnapp made special
brackets for mounting components such as the water bottles. |
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The engine was taken to famed engine builder, Reath
Automotive in Long Beach, California, where the aluminum Fontana
block was bored out to 6.8 liters. The compression ratio is 9 to 1.
The heads were cc'd to SVO specs. The roller cam is a special Chet
Herbert item. The motor runs twin turbos and electronic fuel
injection from Electromotive, who also supplied the trick ignition
system that is programmable. In case there wasn't enough horsepower,
a twin nitrous oxide system was fitted. The nitrous can be adjusted
to taper down before the turbos hit full boost. |
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The twin turbos are AiResearch brand TO-4's. The
cylinder heads are also aluminum as is the highly polished, custom
intake system. It is believed by the builder that this car is
capable of 200 mph operation. |
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The cooling system is from PI Motorsports and is
our aluminum Fluidyne with twin sucker fans. The car runs cool. |
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The brakes are NASCAR style with ventilated discs
from Hall Pantera. |
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The unusual wheels are
Torino rims by Tom Tjaarda's Tjaarda Design. They are 17 inches in
diameter and are mounted with Michelin rubber. The tires and rims
are new. The shocks
are special Alden adjustables. |
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The interior is particularly stunning. The seats
and other surfaces received eight hides from Sweden that is extra
thick, measuring 1.4 mm. It has a random mottled grain to it. The
hides were color matched and the interior was created by world
famous Thornton's Auto Upholstery. A darker colored leather was used
for the dash top and in various locations throughout the interior.
As you can see from the pictures, there are lots of Isis logos
worked into the textiles such as on the doors. |
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The stock steering wheel was replaced with a custom
wheel that has a unique wood center. |
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In excess of $100,000 was spent creating this car,
not including the original owner's time. This car has never lost a
show that it has been entered in, such as the recent Concorso
Italiano event in 2002 where it won Best of Show. |
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This car originally was a pure show car and had
less than 10 miles of use on it. The current owner has decided to
prepare the car for street driving use and PI Motorsports, Inc. has
serviced the car and upgraded the engine and ignition system in
accordance with the owner's wishes. |
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Comments on performance: I drove this car on
a demonstration drive. The car has extremely
powerful brakes and rides very smoothly and solidly, like a bank
vault. All of the work performed in building this car is evident in
the manner in which it drives. As for the engine, I can only
describe it as outrageous and way beyond anything I have experienced
in a Pantera. When the engine "gets on the boost" it felt
as though it would literally shove me backwards through the
firewall. It was gripping to say the least and the engine revved so
quickly, it was if it was sitting on an engine stand without
anything attached to it. The passenger told me that he was in shock
at the performance and believed that I had carried one or both of
the front wheels for an instant. Whether this occurred or not is not
important to me because I won't try to duplicate the feat. I am
satisfied that this car lives up to its reputation of being one of
the most powerful Panteras that ever was built. |
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Comments on presentation: Having
participated in the original feature story on this car in Pantera
International magazine and also knowing the builder of it for over
20 years, I am qualified to say that there has been only a few other
DeTomaso cars that were built to this standard. When the engine
cover is raised, the presentation of that highly polished and
chromed engine and ZF draws a crowd like mad. The detailing is
beyond description down to the Isis logos on the brake calipers, in
the interior fabric, pentagraphed on the turbos and on and on. The
paint has that expensive Pebble Beach quality to it where the lustre
and sheen look like the paint is a mile deep. This only comes from
an expertly applied paint job and Eddie Meek is one of the best
painters. The
bodywork is sensational. The wheels have gold finish accents and
pentagraphed Isis logos on the centercaps. The chrome has been
treated to a black chrome finish which is unusual and expensive. The
tailights are Group 4's and underneath the car, it has had aluminum
suspension components installed that are also polished. At Monterey,
the car was shown with a mirror under it but yet at the end of the
show, the owner received his trophy and drove it to his hotel
through bumper to bumper traffic without incident or drama. |
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Comments on pricing:
This car is priced at $79,995.95. It obviously is not for everybody. This car is for the
enthusiast who can afford the best and if he plans to drive it, has
large cojones to stand up to its power output. We have seen other
owners spend in excess of this asking price on their cars and end up
with an ordinary car that the Concours Judges would hardly notice.
This won't happen with this car. Consider that a Ferrari Enzo is
about 7 times the asking price of this car. Flash forward 5-10 years
from now. The Pantera will still be a crowd pleaser and continuing
to escalate in value. We have seen Ferraris, Maseratis, Vipers and
Porsches as examples, all approach or exceed the cost of this car
but yet, their prices sink like an anchor. In appraising this car,
we came up with the following numbers:
Basic Pantera cost: $25,000.00 - $35,000.00
All aluminum, twin turbo engine: $40,000.00
Top quality paint and body: $30,000.00
Cooling, wheels, tires, brakes, A/C and other systems:
$10,000.00
Custom interior: $10,000.00
Suspension, plating, polishing, chrome: $10,000.00
All labor and misc. parts such as sound system: $20,000.00
The bottom line is that quality like this does not come cheap but in
this case, the value is easy to identify. If you as a buyer demand
the best there is, look no further. |
