[DeTomaso] A real "barn find" Pantera

Tue May 10 14:46:59 EDT 2011

That would explain the old-style AC controls...

Charles McCall
1985 DeTomaso Pantera GT5-S #9375
"Raising Pantera Awareness Across Europe"
http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=2323

-----Mensaje original-----
De: detomasoregistry at gmail.com [mailto:detomasoregistry at gmail.com] 
Enviado el: martes, 10 de mayo de 2011 20:40
Para: 'Charles McCall'; 'De Tomaso List'
Asunto: RE: [DeTomaso] A real "barn find" Pantera

Charlie,

THPNZ*09*** and using the motor number 7242:

There are cars in the registry that also have the Z (year code).
They range from car 9184 to 9219.  Car 9203 has motor number 7240.

http://www.provamo.com/Members/Registry/SearchMotorNum.asp

I'd say it has an initial build date around 1982.
Cars with the "Z" range from 1982 thru a 1984.  A body built(or started)
in 1982 might have been finished, or first sold in 1984.

More?

Chuck Melton

Speaking of barn finds.

On various car forums here in Spain, I've heard rumors of an abandoned
DeTomaso Pantera a little over an hour from where I live. 

It was sounding like urban legend - there were some grainy photos every now
and then, but nothing to be able to determine if they were taken in Spain,
in Europe, in the US. 

Nobody had any first-hand knowledge of the car. It was all "a friend of my
cousin's neighbor saw it once.." So trying to get more information was
difficult, if not impossible. 

A couple of weeks ago, while attending a car rally, someone mentioned the
famous "abandoned Pantera", and said that they knew someone who had actually
seen it. It was supposed to be in decent shape, but missing the engine and
transaxle.

They sent me the GPS coordinates of a garage where the car was supposedly
located. No street name, no garage description, just GPS coordinates. 

I plugged the coordinates into my GPS to get an idea of where the car was,
and about 2 weeks ago, on the way to work, stopped by. I spent roughly an
hour walking up and down the street looking for a garage that looked like it
might have a Pantera inside, but since I didn't really know what I was
looking for, it was difficult. The street was full of multi-story apartment
buildings with their large, common underground parking lots. After an hour I
gave up and went to work. 

But I kept thinking about the car all day, and since it was just before
Easter break, a 5 day weekend, I decided to give it another shot in the
afternoon.

I went back to the same place, parked, and looked around. There were roughy
6 garages within sight, so I just hung around. When I saw a car coming out
of one, I ran up and tapped on the window. I was wearing a suit and tie, so
I didn't look too homeless-like, and they rolled down the window. I asked if
they had seen a red sports car abandoned in their garage. They looked at me
strangely and said "no", rolled up the window a little quicker, and headed
off. 

I repeated this strategy with car number two, about 15 minutes later. No
luck. At 15 minutes per garage, this could take a while. It could also be
difficult to explain to the cops exactly what I was trying to do. 

I saw a young couple come out of a third garage, so I went up and asked
them. 

"Yes, it's been there for years!" they said. 

"Cool!", said I. "Would you mind letting me into the garage so that I can
leave a note and take some pictures?"

They looked at me rather suspiciously and mumbled something about being in a
hurry and shuffled off. But I had located the car!

It only took another 10 minutes for a car to come out - while the garage
door was open, I scooted in behind before the door could close. 

And there it was! A Pantera!

It was completely covered in dust, and as mentioned I was wearing a white
dress shirt and a suit, so I couldn't really touch it too much. I also
couldn't find the lights, so I only had the emergency lights to go by.
Stumbling around I found the switch, but it really didn't help - the garage
was dark. Far too dark to be able to see the serial number. I opened the
front hood (the doors were unlocked), wiped off the serial number area with
my finger and took a photo, hoping to be able to read the number in the
photo. 

I was unsure as to whether it was an original GT5 or a conversion. The
interior has the old style AC controls, and the rear delta wing isn't stock.
There are also some funky air intake things on the rear decklid that aren't
stock. However it wears original Campys GT5-style, the antenna is located in
the Euro-location, and not in the US front fender location, and the rear
license plate area is wide, for a Euro-plate. So I was thinking that it was
at least a post Ford-era pantera, but was hoping the photo would shed light
on it. 

Interestingly enough, it has BRITISH license plates! WTF? 

It had the original spare up front, which is pretty rare. 

Unfortuantely I couldn't read the serial number in the photo, but the first
number sure looks like a "9" to me, which would make it a late-model, real
GT5. Later analysis of the date code shows it to be a 1984 car. 

Overall condition appeared to be decent - at least two dents in the fenders,
but I didn't see rust oozing out from every pore, although in the dark and
with the dust, who knows? 

Now the tricky part - getting out of the garage. Without a key, you don't
get in or out. Some kids were passing by, so I asked them if they knew
anything about the car. they told me that it had been there for years and
that nobody knew anything about it. They were kind enough to let me out, or
I'd still be there now!

Pix may be seen here: http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=30786

I managed to get the phone number of the garage management and gave them a
call the next day. Here's where the trail cooled off. 

"Yes", they know the owner. "Yes", someone is paying community fees and
taxes on that spot. "No", the car isn't abandoned. He knows perfectly well
that it is there. "No", he isn't interested in selling it. 

The best I could get has a half-hearted commitment to pass my name and phone
number on to the owner to have him call me to see what the deal is. I don't
exactly have high hopes. 

As it has British plates, I contacted the British club, but they don't know
anything about it or recognize the car. 

So it is still sitting there, still collecting dust. And it appears it will
continue to do so indefinitely :-(

That was my adventure from a couple weeks ago. A real "barn/garage find",
although I couldn't do anything with it.

Charles McCall

1985 DeTomaso Pantera GT5-S #9375

"Raising Pantera Awareness Across Europe"

 <http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=2323>
http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=2323

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