[DeTomaso] Pantera 2862

MikeLDrew at aol.com MikeLDrew at aol.com
Tue May 20 14:15:03 EDT 2008


In a message dated 5/20/08 4 48 46, info at ferraribuy.com writes:


> For sale, see ads in the last classic car magazine
> pantera2862 at yahoo.com
> 
> How many Gr4 2862 exist ?
> 

Only one--the genuine one, owned by Patrick Hals, of Brussels.

There is also a well-known counterfeit Pantera race car, that is pretending 
to be 2862.   I have had the opportunity to inspect both cars for hours, and 
there is no question as to which one is genuine.   The counterfeit car is almost 
laughable, in fact.

The history of 2862 is well-known; after a racing career in Italy, it went to 
Portugal, where the owner chopped the fenders up to convert the car to Gr5 
specification.   It raced like that for a few years, and then when the FIA 
eliminated the Gr5 class, it was restored to its original Gr4 configuration.   It 
was then sold to the USA, and eventually sold to Patrick Hals in Belgium.

The history of the fake car is unknown.   If one knows what to look for, it's 
possible to determine that it's a fake from 20 feet away--the Gr4 cars were 
all built in late '71/early '72, and the fake is based on an L-model chassis, 
which of course wouldn't exist until much later.   It has an L-model side fuel 
filler, plastic one-pod L-model dashboard (which makes me believe it is a 
US-spec car of 1973 or later), L-model turn signal pods, etc. etc.

Most significantly, the Gr4 cars all received special lightweight chassis, 
with lightening holes stamped (not drilled) liberally throughout the body.   The 
fake car is lacking any of these items.

The serial number on the counterfeit car is an obvious fake as well; the 
characters are all crooked, indicating that they were stamped one character at a 
time, by hand, whereas the original cars had all the characters stamped at once 
(and thus they line up properly).   The VIN on the fake car is missing one 
character as well!

I got the chance to speak (through an interpreter) with the owner of the fake 
car while at the De Tomaso factory several years ago.   He seemed quite 
earnest about it, and was filled with pride.   It dawned on me that he might have 
been quite sincere, and simply didn't know that his car was a fraud.   After 
all, Gr4 cars aren't exactly common, and there is only one other one known in 
Italy.   He was clearly not a Pantera expert, but rather a guy who happened to 
own this particular car.   I questioned him at length about it, while being as 
polite as possible, and I didn't challenge him.

I then cornered Santiago De Tomaso and spoke with him at length about it.   I 
felt badly for the owner, and asked Santiago if the guy knew his car was a 
fake?

Santiago came unglued.   He started waving his arms and spewing forth all 
this BS about the car's "history", apparently not knowing that I was intimately 
familar with not only the history of 2862, but the actual car.   I would have 
thought that De Tomaso would want to straighten out any misconceptions, but 
that was before I learned that the company was apparently complicit in the fraud! 
  

You see, the owner of the fake had all of his work done by the factory, which 
at the time had precious little else to do.   There were big stacks of Euros 
rolling in the door to keep that car going, so it was obviously in De Tomaso's 
best interests to keep the customer happy and perpetuate the fraud!

I don't know if they were involved in the fake car's construction, or sale to 
the owner, but after learning a bit more, it wouldn't surprise me.

I don't know when the fake car was built, or who built it.   But I can easily 
envision a scenario, where the original car is known to have been exported to 
the USA, presumably never to be seen again.   With that car gone, and some 
paperwork still lying around, why not just whip up a replacement and pass it off 
as the genuine article?   This is long before the internet, of course, and 
thus it would be a pretty safe bet that nobody would ever find out, at least not 
in the short term.

But who could have predicted that the genuine car would return to Europe, or 
that the values of these cars would skyrocket, or that the internet would make 
it simple to debunk bogus stories about a car?

The fake car actually does look like quite a good automobile.   It is 
equipped with lots of nice Gr4 cosmetic goodies.   I don't know if it has genuine Gr4 
brakes, but I doubt it--it probably has GT5 stuff (which is nothing to be 
ashamed of as the GT5 had great brakes too, just not quite as robust as the Gr4 
stuff).   The fake car has been active in vintage racing where it has 
apparently acquitted itself well.   Thus it would probably be a good car to buy, if it 
was presented (and priced) on its own merits.

As a converted street car with race modifications and good (recent) race 
history, it's very much like Jim Saxton's car, which he struggled to sell for 
years.   Like Jim's car, it's probably worth about $50-60K.   It really depends on 
the engine.   A used race motor is just scrap to a buyer, no matter how good 
it might actually be.   If the engine had been recently gone through and there 
was objective witness to that fact, then the car would be worth a bit more.   
But generally, any used race car engine is basically considered worthless, 
and the value of the car reflects that.

But the fact that it has been stamped with a fake serial number is quite 
problematic indeed.   I know that this is a federal crime in the USA, and if 
somebody buys a car with a fake VIN, trying to get it sorted out can turn into a 
bureaucratic nightmare.   The seller should probably unearth the original VIN 
and fix the problem before the car is sold.

(These facts are all well-documented in the recent De Tomaso Racing book, by 
the way).

Really, this situation is rather like comparing the Mona Lisa with a 
paint-by-numbers copy.   Both are generally the same, and both can provide the same 
type of enjoyment to an owner.   One is a genuine masterpiece and the other is a 
simple, reasonably accurate copy.   But the idea of somebody offering a 
paint-by-numbers Mona Lisa as the real thing, when everybody knows that the real 
thing hangs in the Louvre, is just a joke.   And the idea that the seller of 
this car has a genuine, original Gr4 car is just as ludicrous.

Mike


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