The best around: ’74 deTomaso Pantera
We have seen quite a few DeTomaso Panteras but none that called out to us like this one. That doesn’t mean that the others were inferior, they just didn’t have a story like this one. First, a short version on how the Pantera came to be. Henry Ford wasn’t satisfied with vanquishing Ferrari at LeMans. He still craved owning an Italian carmaker. He thought the Mangusta that DeTomaso built was very interesting but he liked the car that was in development better. It was designed Tom Tjaarda while he worked at Ghia.The 351 Ford Cleveland fit snugly amidships and a deal was struck. It was to be marketed by Lincoln-Mercury dealers with a volume ambition of 10,000. It was introduced in 1970 with really sketchy quality and was clearly under developed. The early cars were plagued with problems. Happily, modern technology can fix pretty much all of those. So a really well cared for Pantera that hasn’t been cobbled up along the way can be made into a really interesting ride. Today’s find is just that car. All of the deficiencies of the original have been rectified with this build. The listing tells us the seller has over $90,000 invested in this one. If you read the details you will not be surprised by that number. Of course the looks of the Pantera will tell you this could be one of the best available. In fact, we are going to bail on describing all of the effort that has gone into this car but we encourage you to take a serious look at the listing. The seller is looking for $60 grand and that matches the SCM Price Guide for a perfect example. This could be it or better. Click here for the eBay listing.