Just saw one last week outside of Washington DC; my heart skipped a beat! Always loved them, from the simple elegance of early models to the excess of the GT5s. Definitely underappreciated.
Awesome hidden gem!!! I remember reading about this car in The Ultimate Classic Car Guide when I was like 10 & finding it every bit as impressive as the Ferrari's & Lamborghini's. More of these videos please.
@ TRAVTHERIPPER666 Not right away. De Tomaso got the engines from the Holman Moody stockpile that was set up for worldwide supply. Then SVO recieved a top up from the Geelong Australia plant, and then Ford Australia supplied various kinds of 216 hp net or 200 hp net engines to Peter Monteverdai's tuning garage in Switzerland. Fords Cleveland Ohio tooling got damaged enroute to Australia in 1975, and had to be sent back for refurbishment, so it was 1977 before some deTomaso's got the Aussie block.
I valet parked one of these back in the day. If I remember right it didn't have power steering and was a bear too back up because of limited visibility. It was a cool looking car but belonged on the highway.
This is how the misunderstanding continues, this is not a GT5-S, this is a GT5, a huge difference. S stands for all steel, not the bolted on fiberglass flairs & air dam of the GT5. S is entirely different and not easily duplicated like you are able to do with a 5. The 5-S is very contemporary looking as opposed to the more dated 5.
I remember the Pantera as a kid. My sister denounced it as a Ferrari/Lamborghini wannabee. After that I forgot about it. Shame, because this car looks even cooler.
I know this video is 2 years old, but I have to point out the Pantera in this video is a GT5 not a GT5s The GT5s had steel arches that were moulded into the bodywork. The GT5 had the bolt on fibreglass arches (which look better IMO)
My neighbor had one in the early 1980s when I was in grade school My dad said it was scary fast and he had owned a six pack Charger and fulie Corvette in the day. The guy damaged the transmission and ended up selling it rather than dealing with the repair cost😔
I believe it was four years of the Ford-De Tomaso partnership not three, it was 71, 72, 73 and 74 and I believe they produced just over 6500 cars not 5500. By the way there is NO WAY you will find one running for $60k as he stated (I have looked) especially the 80's versions, the early 70's versions in average condition average $120k+ and none are cheaper than $75k, a nice one will be $150k or over and the 80's versions which were basically completely hand made even more $.
Growing up in the 80's most boys had posters of a Lambo or a Ferrari, the preppy kids had posters of Porsche's but the kids who went their own way kind of rebel types had posters of Pantera's
I mean rusting to bits isn't due to how the car is being used. It is an exciting design and I think a great use of an American engine, but it was kind of a turd.
