/ 28 May 2007

A scarce exotic

Elvis Presley put three bullets into his when it wouldn’t start, but most owners of the other 7 300 or so De Tomaso Panteras produced between 1970 and 1993 loved ’em, because they looked and sounded absolutely gorgeous, and delivered supercar performance at affordable prices. Pity about the build quality though …

Alejandro de Tomaso was an Argentinean, rather than Italian, and his famous supercar was styled by an American architect, Tom Tjaarda.

It used a cast-iron Ford V8 mounted amidships, rather than an exotic Italian quad-cam aluminium marvel, and this allowed it to cost significantly less than anything else remotely like it.

The gorgeous De Tomaso Pantera has earned a place in automotive history as the most affordable Italian supercar ever. Even 37 years after it was unveiled, it looks as mean and aggressive as it ever did.

De Tomaso set up De Tomaso Automobili in Modena in 1959, and did rather well, using affordable Ford engines in most of his creations. In the Sixties, his Mangusta earned a reputation as a sort of poor-man’s Ferrari.

The Mangusta attracted the attention of Ford, which had been frustrated in its attempts to enter the upmarket supercar league by buying Ferrari or Lancia. The American company bought 80% of De Tomaso’s company and appointed Tom Tjaarda of Ghia to style the body of the next supercar, while Giam Paolo Dallara was tasked with developing the chassis.

The engine delivered 246kW, but American emissions legislation meant that Panteras — sold in the US for $9 000 — offered 15kW less. Still, top speed was around 255kph and the 0-100kph dash took well under six seconds. Not bad for 1970.

About 70% of all the Panteras built between 1970 and 1993 went to the US, most of them before 1974, when Ford ended the partnership because of both the fuel crisis and build quality problems, and production volumes took a nose dive.

Only about 25 right-hand-drive models made their way to South Africa in the Eighties before punitive import duties and a falling rand made them too expensive.

Tommy Schoeman’s 1983 GT5 is one of these, and it’s not original: the Ford 351 engine (5,8-litre) has been replaced by a big-block Chevy 454 (7,5-litre) V8, delivering around 300kW.

The additional radiators needed to keep all those extra horses cool usurped the position previously occupied by the aircon, so the car’s no fun at all in Durban’s heat.

Schoeman has owned his Pantera for about five years now and has covered only about 500km in it.

“I dust it off occasionally and take it around the block to scare the kids a little — things like that,” he says.

The car’s in need of a rebuild, with the proper 351 Cleveland engine and the aircon due to find their way home.

It’s not very often that a Pantera comes up for sale in this country and right-hand-drive versions are scarce anywhere in the world. When they do pop up here, a good one goes for around R300 000.

So, when the time comes to replace the Mercedes, you could downgrade from a CL500 to an E63 AMG and buy a Pantera with the change.

If, of course, you can find one …