The DeTomaso Pantera will be the featured model at this year’s ItalianCarFest, a weekend gathering of Italian cars and two-wheelers in Grapevine, Texas (near Dallas/Fort Worth). The designer of the Pantera, Tom Tjaarda, will be the honored guest for the weekend festivities. 30 Panteras are currently registered to attend the show and more are expected. 

The successful pairing of an Italian car with American horsepower has been accomplished several times, including with some Intermeccanicas, the Iso Grifo and DeTomaso’s own Mangusta.  But undoubtedly the DeTomaso Pantera has to be the most successful outcome of this type of project, with the car being produced for almost 25 years, from 1971 to 1994.

During the late 1960’s, Ford felt they needed a model to compete with cars like the Corvette and Ferrari. And much like in recent years, manufacturers at the time believed that these high performance, limited-production vehicles would draw potential customers into the showroom. Having already produced the Vallelunga and Mangusta with Ford powerplants, DeTomaso Automobili (Modena, Italy) seemed like the perfect company to build such a car. Once built, this new high performance GT would be marketed and sold in the U.S. by Ford’s Lincoln-Mercury division.

With Ghia’s Tom Tjaarda handling the styling and Gian Paolo Dallara responsible for chassis and production design, the Pantera was born. Technical highlights of the Pantera included a mid-engined, full-monocoque chassis.
 

This was fitted with a Ford 5.7 litre V8 (the 351 “Cleveland” unit) initially rated at 310 horsepower and a ZF fully synchronized 5-speed transaxle. Other performance-oriented features of the Pantera included fully independent suspension, coil-overs, front & rear sway bars, 4-wheel disc brakes and rack-and-pinion steering. Importation into the U.S. began with a 1971 model.

After the 1974 model year, the relationship between Ford and DeTomaso was dissolved and the Pantera was no longer imported into the United States. Production of the Pantera for other markets continued until 1994, with numerous improvements and styling tweaks. During the last few years of production, the Pantera featured some radical changes: major styling updates, a switch to a mainly tube frame structure and the replacement of the 351 engine with a Ford 5.0 litre (302) V8.

The programme at ItalianCarFest will include a Friday reception, Saturday show, Saturday evening dinner, Sunday morning scenic drive/brunch and a Sunday track day. The events will be held September 8, 9 and 10.  More info on the weekend can be found at www.ItalianCarFest.com.

by Garrick Whitnah