Spring Mountain, Pahrump, NV  April 29, 2005

A Pantera is a high performance sports car built by DeTomaso in Modena, Italy from 1971 to 1996 and imported into the US between 1971 and 1974.  They are Italian cars but use Ford 351 Cleveland engines and German ZF transmissions. In short, they are Italian muscle cars.

The 1971 Panteras known as the "Pre-L" had higher compression engines and small bumpers. EPA and safety regulations forced DeTomaso to lower the compression and use larger bumpers on the "L" cars in 1972.  Further regulations in 1974 made US compliance impractical so importation was halted.

The number of cars built is subject to debate but is on the order of a few thousand over its 25 year run.

My Car

My car was built in 1971. It is #1512. Like many Panteras, it has had some performance improvements and other updates over the years.

Show Award

With an older paint job and the original engine bay liner, my car is a long ways from being a show car.  However, I did manage to get a good enough polish on it to be able to win the Mother's Cool Car of the month, October 2002.

Contact

Mark McWhinney
msm -AT- portata.com