Michael, That is a famous bonnet. MARIO was Mario Tossi Condivi, proprietor of MTC Cars, the official UK De Tomaso importer. Starting with the first pushbutton Pantera tested by the UK press, a whole string of different Panteras wore the MARIO registration. But yours is special. It comes from a 1973 right-hand-drive factory Group 3 race car, which was driven by a talented club racer named Chris Meek. Attached is a photo of him when he ran out of talent and spun in the wet at Silverstone on August 5, 1973. You can clearly see the same markings that appear on your bonnet. I confess I don't know the VIN of the car or its whereabouts today, although I certainly should! Mike Sent from my iPhone On Oct 9, 2016, at 10:43, Michael Barnes <michaelbarnessrt10@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:

Hi chaps😜,I bought this on EBay earlier in the summer and wondered if any of you guys have any stories about it.Presumably taken from the remains of a racing a Pantera ,I wonder what happened to the rest,vin number,who was/ is Mario?? Anyone?

<IMG_0069.JPG>

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No, Mario was the team owner's name and all his press cars, and later race car used the MARIO number plate. Mike Sent from my iPhone On Oct 9, 2016, at 11:55, Michael Barnes <michaelbarnessrt10@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:

Hey Mike that's pretty cool, thanks for the info, so Marion was the team name then?

Sent from Michael's iPhone

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On 9 Oct 2016, at 19:41, Mike Drew <MikeLDrew@aol.com> wrote:

Michael,

That is a famous bonnet.

MARIO was Mario Tossi Condivi, proprietor of MTC Cars, the official UK De Tomaso importer. Starting with the first pushbutton Pantera tested by the UK press, a whole string of different Panteras wore the MARIO registration. But yours is special.

It comes from a 1973 right-hand-drive factory Group 3 race car, which was driven by a talented club racer named Chris Meek. Attached is a photo of him when he ran out of talent and spun in the wet at Silverstone on August 5, 1973. You can clearly see the same markings that appear on your bonnet.

<image.jpeg>

I confess I don't know the VIN of the car or its whereabouts today, although I certainly should!

Mike

Sent from my iPhone

...

On Oct 9, 2016, at 10:43, Michael Barnes <michaelbarnessrt10@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:

Hi chaps😜,I bought this on EBay earlier in the summer and wondered if any of you guys have any stories about it.Presumably taken from the remains of a racing a Pantera ,I wonder what happened to the rest,vin number,who was/ is Mario?? Anyone?

<IMG_0069.JPG>

Sent from my iPad _______________________________________________

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Lol, yeah ,you never know what you're buying on fleabay until you get it,in my case it was six months after I picked it up.£50 for a piece of garage wall art. Sent from my iPad

On 10 Oct 2016, at 00:26, "audionut@hushmail.com" <audionut@hushmail.com> wrote:

Hmmm.......Buying Pantera memorabilia on eBay without quite knowing what one is actually buying--

This is a true Pantera guy.

Congrats on the purchase, Michael!

(Pretty sure everybody here would love to have that.) Sent using Hushmail On October 9, 2016 at 10:44 AM, "Michael Barnes" <michaelbarnessrt10@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:

Hi chaps,I bought this on EBay earlier in the summer and wondered if any of you guys have any stories about it.Presumably taken from the remains of a racing a Pantera ,I wonder what happened to the rest,vin number,who was/ is Mario?? Anyone? _______________________________________________

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