Southern Classic Auctions

1972 Detomaso Pantera. Vin# THPNMB02340

this stunning 1972 De Tomaso Pantera featured in Red with black interior. The Pantera was the perfect combination of Italian beauty from the Ghia design studios in Turin, with one of the finest American V8s built, the 351 CI Ford Cleveland. It offered enthusiasts the best of both worlds: a beautiful Italian mid-engine exotic sports car with the reliability and low maintenance costs of the Ford V8. Lee Iacocca, head of Ford North America, had a vision to have De Tomaso create a GT car that could be mass-produced and sold through Fords Lincoln-Mercury dealership network. Ford desired a car that would overshadow the Corvette and anything else General Motors could produce and Iacocca had a keen plan to leverage Alejandro de Tomasos suave Italian image to promote the car. The notion was to create a car featuring a steel unibody monocoque body rather than the more exotic backbone chassis of the previous cars, and that was powered by a suitable Ford V8 engine mated to a production ZF transaxle. This was to be the Pantera (Italian for Panther). The design was by American Tom Tjaarda working for Ghia and its engineering was done by Gianpaolo Dallara, whom De Tomaso had lured away from Lamborghini.This specific Pantera chassis #2340 is from the first year of Pantera production, in which approximately 7,000 cars were made.. This is the nicest Pantera that we have had the pleasure to enjoy over the past 15 years.  It has been sitting in a temperature controlled environment since 2010 as is now offered for sale.