[DeTomaso] Just the facts survey

MikeLDrew at aol.com MikeLDrew at aol.com
Thu Mar 1 13:08:35 EST 2012


In a message dated 2/29/12 14 02 16, michaelsavga at gmail.com writes:


> I'm looking at my copy, and on page 6 it gives the following example:
> THPNLS01859
> 
> T - DeTomaso
> H - Assembled at Modena, Italy
> PN - Pantera
> L - 1971 (Calendar Year)
> S - July
> 01859 - 1859th unit built
> 

Note that both the Ford AND De Tomaso books are wrong on one critical 
point--they fail to account for the fact that Pantera VINs began not with #1, but 
rather with #1000 (or #1001?).   So if they start with 1000, 01859 is the 
900th built, not the 1859th built.   (The math looks weird, but this is 
because the first car was effectively "number 0", the second car was "number 1" 
and so on.

Steve Wilkinson tells me he owns the original prototype (still in Italy), 
but I haven't actually confirmed if it's #1000 or #1001.   So it's possible 
that serial numbers started with #1001, in which case #1859 would be the 
859th Pantera built.

Mike


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