[DeTomaso] Pantera down the street

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/11/08 5 37 47, ihannington286720mi at comcast.net writes:


> I was out walking my dog in my neighborhood yesterday, and out of the 
> corner of my eye I saw a the familiar look of a Carrello tail light.  When I got 
> up to the house, sure enough there was a Pantera parked in the garage and the 
> owner was in there shining it up.  He just bought the car from an older 
> gentleman whos had it since new.  I saw it once years ago at the Ford 100th 
> aniversary event.  Mike Drew may remember it.  It's a super low mileage '72 that 
> was painted a funky light green metallic color, and he claimed it came from the 
> factory that way and was the only one that color.
> 
>>>Yes, I remember that car, and the original owner, quite well (although his 
name escapes me at the moment).

He was a Ford employee.   Ford had (has) a policy of displaying cars in the 
foyer of the world headquarters building, and any Ford employee can 'tag' it 
and claim it as their own, and buy it on very favorable terms when the display 
period (a few weeks or months) is up.   

This particular Pantera had been a test case for a color option that Ford 
decided not to pursue.   As such, it received an *extremely* nice paint job, much 
better than your run of the mill Pantera in terms of quality.   Although it 
was a Pre-L car, it was on display late in 1972, and he purchased it towards 
the end of the year.

He then proceded to pamper it for its entire life, not driving it very much 
except in the summer when the salt on the roads was a distant memory.   He kept 
it virtually 100% stock, for better or worse.

I heard that health issues were forcing its sale last year, and was going to 
work with Chuck to build the fellow an ad on Chuck's website, but the car sold 
before that was carried out.

Here's a couple of photos taken at the Ford Centennial:

http://members.aol.com/mikeldrew/DetroitPantera.jpg

> 
> >Anyway, it turns out the new owner is a  big Ford nut and buys and sells 
> Ford muscle cars.  He bought a Pantera a couple of yeas ago and just cleaned it 
> up and sold it again and never really drove it.  After driving this 
> Pantera,he says he's keeping it!  He also has two '67 GT500's. 
> 
> So, it's pretty cool that there is another Pantera just 10-15 houses away 
> from me.  In the near future I will try to get him on the realbig list and, of 
> course steer him over to Chuck's registry.
> 

>>>...and further of course, steer him over to POCA! :>)

Mike


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