[DeTomaso] Panteras at Barrett-Jackson auction

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

Hi guys,

Just looking at the B-J auction website and found three Panteras listed.

The first is one of the late George Peloquin's "PUR GOLD" cars.   Lot 963 is 
listed as a Pantera De Tomaso (instead of a De Tomaso Pantera), and although 
they correctly state that it has a 4.6 liter engine (without elaborating to 
point out that it's a modern Ford Mustang engine), they incorrectly state that it 
has "8 gold-plated carburetors" when in fact it's fuel-injected.   It's 
coming up for graps on Friday the 16th.

Shortly afterwards, lot 967.1 (somehow they goofed and there are two Lot 
967s!) will appear.   This is a car that was a subject of some discussion (and 
almost universal derision) here a few months ago; it appeared in a for-sale ad 
filled with all sorts of ridiculous puff, touting a 200 mph top speed, 10,000 
rpm redline from a 351C etc.   Well, all that puff is here as well, to go along 
with a radically restyled body (they inaccurately claim the car was 
'restored', but in fact it was extensively modified to the point where it looks much 
more like a Noble than a Pantera).

And finally, on Saturday, lot number 1260 appears, and it's deja vu all over 
again.   Tom Tjaarda produced a special Pantera for the Las Vegas B-J auction 
last fall, and it was hyped to the moon, appearing on the program's front 
cover, on display in the B-J advertising tent at just about any big-time car event 
you could name, etc. etc.   The car supposedly sold for $80K (plus premium 
that works out to $88K), with the pitch being that it was Tom's personal 
Pantera.  What wasn't explicitly mentioned was the fact that Tom had owned the car 
for about fifteen minutes; the implication had been that it had been his car 
since new.   Whether that bit of deception by omission is the reason that the car 
is once again for sale is unknown, but in any case, the same car is now up 
for grabs again, this time with very accurate descriptions of both the car's 
technical and design characteristics, and its true heritage.   It will be 
interesting to see if this car comes anywhere near the sales price it supposedly saw 
a few months ago.   If I was a betting man, I would expect this car to take a 
serious beating--perhaps $20-30K off from the former $80K price?   We'll see.

The auction takes place June 14-18th; it will be interesting to see how these 
cars fare?

Note that all three of them are radically restyled (and arguably, ranging 
from tasteless at best to bloody horrible and deserving of a trip to a blast 
furnace at worst, depending on your individual feelings on the original Pantera 
design), and thus whatever the results may be, they won't be able to be extended 
to the Pantera market as a whole, since each of these cars is arguably 
something other than a genuine Pantera....

Mike


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