[DeTomaso] Gr4 Pantera clone for sale

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

Hi guys,

I first posted this a few months ago, but the car hasn't sold.   The 
owner's widow has moved back to France, but the Pantera remains here, seeking a 
new home.   The asking price has dropped to below $50K, which is a screaming 
deal I think.   The website has been upgraded with a short video of the car 
running in the showroom.

Mike

====

Gr Pantera clone for sale (THPNMD03988, July 1972 build date)

Specialty Sales, an exotic and collector car dealership with four locations 
in the San Francisco Bay area, has a pretty special Pantera for sale at the 
moment:

http://www.specialtysales.com/1972-detomaso-pantera--c-3665.htm

I have had years of exposure to this car, off and on, and during that time 
it has changed dramatically.   

It was purchased from another car showroom (Kassabian Motors) by Greg 
Jacobs, who humorously referred to himself as 'Crash Test Dumbass'. His first 
drive was to my house where we put it up on my lift for me to examine.   I was 
amazed at how tight and solid the car was-zero evidence of even the 
slightest amount of rust anywhere!

He has a now-defunct website, www.jacobsracing.com, but some of the pages 
continue to exist in the cloud-o-sphere somehow.   Here is a link to an 
introductory page that shows how the car existed when he bought it in October of 
2000:

http://jacobsracing.com/page3.html

Further down on that page, there are links to various other sub-pages that 
detail the various modifications and improvements that he made to the car 
over the years (even including a photo of me working on it years ago, with 
Larry Finch).   

The car made the trek to the POCA Fun Rally several times, and ran well on 
the track each time.   The first time the car had the original narrow body, 
fitted with the wing and the front air dam.   Next time it had fiberglass 
Gr4 rear flares, but the stock front end, which looked decidedly strange.   
Noted De Tomaso importer and racer Claude Dubois drove it on the track and 
pronounced it one of the nicest-driving Panteras he'd ever experienced.   
Shortly afterwards, Greg finished the conversion and fitted the front flares.

He continued to modify and upgrade the car (including an aborted attempt to 
introduce a flamethrower system to the exhaust!).   When it reached its 
final iteration, it was equipped with a 180-degree exhaust system.

Somebody made him an offer he couldn't refuse, and he sold it (actually 
traded it straight across for a Ferrari 355 Spyder, which he then immediately 
sold for substantially more than the Pantera was worth!)

The intermediate owner took it to a Cobra restoration and fabrication shop 
called Hall Fabrication, in Benicia, CA, to have some work done on the car.  
 They were completely unfamiliar with Panteras, and thus they did excellent 
work but did everything the hard way; the result was an enormous stack of 
bills (for instance, I believe the owner paid $3000 for a custom 
hand-fabricated airbox when one much like it could have been purchased for $750 or so).  
 The owner eventually decided to let the car go, and consigned it to 
Kassabian Motors again.

The car was purchased in late 2010 (I believe) by a Frenchman who was sent 
to the silicon valley to work on California's high-speed rail project.   
Denis Doute took possession of the car, and began driving it and enjoying it.   
He had a few minor problems (the stock damper came apart and needed to be 
replaced, and one of the sway bar end links fell off and had to be replaced), 
but by and large, the car was 'on the button' as they say.

Sadly, Denis passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, and now the car is for 
sale.

His wife contacted me because she wasn't able to get the car started, and 
asked me to come take a look.   I then drove to their home and saw the car 
for the first time in several years.

Greg had performed innumerable modifications to the car, some of which were 
highly questionable in my opinion.   One of them was to disable or bypass 
the stock ignition switch.   There is an illuminated red rocker switch and a 
red “Start” button to the left of the steering wheel (the latter sourced 
from the Honda S2000 I believe).   The key has to be turned on, then the 
illuminated rocker switch activated, which powers the car and the electric fuel 
pump.   Then the start button is used to start the engine.

The car was reluctant to start despite a fully charged battery which turned 
the motor over easily, but this was due to the fact that it had sat for 
several months.   Once it caught, it started and ran perfectly-and surprisingly 
quietly in fact.   (It subsequently started easily on repeated occasions, 
both hot and cold).

(The key seems to have no function; the car continues running if it is 
switched off, so the only way to turn the car off is to switch off the red 
rocker switch.   This is a rather dangerous condition I think, because if a 
driver accidentally removes the key from the ignition, it's still possible to 
start the car and drive it a short distance, but then the steering lock will 
engage!   If this was my car I would revert back to the stock 
starting/ignition switch configuration immediately-perhaps keeping the 'start' button 
connected for convenience of starting, but certainly turning the car on and off 
with the key, not a button).

With the engine running, I stepped on the clutch and found it pleasingly 
light.   The steering was also rather light, this caused by the fact that the 
car wears 245/50-15 front tires instead of the more commonly-found 285/40 
size on a widebody car.

I set off on a test drive and found the car to be very well-behaved.   The 
gearbox shifts more slickly than any other Pantera I can remember, and I'm 
fairly certain it's equipped with a taller-ratio 5th gear for relaxed highway 
cruising.   The steering is perfect (I rebuilt the rack many years ago).   
There is zero play in the steering linkage either, making it a delight.
The throttle pedal travel is rather long, but quite linear.   The brakes 
are absolutely outstanding (massive Wilwood six-piston calipers in front, 
four-piston in the rear) and seem to be dialed in perfectly.   The clutch pedal 
is a bit misaligned with the brake pedal, but that's because Greg got tired 
of fiddling with the adjustment; it's a simple matter to turn the pushrod in 
the clevis and raise or lower the pedal so it matches.

Greg had a fetish for instrumentation, and therefore several holes have 
been bored into the dashboard and tacky-looking gauges have been shoehorned in. 
  Above the ignition switch is an air/fuel ratio gauge (the sender is 
plumbed into the exhaust system, and it only seemed to function part of the 
time), and between the heater vents are an oil temp gauge and a 'boost' gauge 
which actually functions as a vacuum gauge, since there is no forced induction 
fitted (Greg ultimately had plans for either a turbo or blower setup).

The seats are by Scat, and are quite comfortable; a Precision Proformance 
two-point roll hoop is fitted with five-point harnesses.   The comfortable 
steering wheel is a Momo unit.

There are some random switches and buttons on the center console; at one 
point they were used to control the long-gone flamethrower system; now they 
might be used for the nitrous system-nobody seems to know.   The nitrous 
system is completely installed, but not hooked up; the line is capped in the 
engine bay.

One thing that struck me is how incredibly tight and composed this car is.  
 It's not unusual to find a heavily modified Pantera that has a collection 
of clonks, groans, squeaks, and rattles, but this car seems as tight as a 
new Mercedes-very refreshing!

Greg always had extremely overoptimistic beliefs regarding the power output 
of his engine; the number grew in the telling and at one point it was 
purported to be 600 hp-ridiculous.   However, when I got to the freeway and 
booted it, it pulled very strong-I would guess 400+ horsepower, maybe even 450+, 
which is none too shabby from a non-stroker Cleveland.   There is a big of a 
hole in the carburetion, probably caused by a too-large carburetor, which 
manifests itself in a slight hiccup if you boot the throttle wide open while 
at lower rpm.   If you roll into it, it pulls perfectly with no problems.   
In any case, it willingly pulls to redline at which point the rev limiter 
kicks in and saves the day.

The cooling system is perfectly dialed in; the car runs at 160-170 degrees 
and refuses to get hot, even when I left it idling for 15 minutes after 
driving it for a half-hour.

Once back at the car's home, I jacked the car up and checked the steering 
rack (still perfect, as it should be since it's been rebuilt), axles (ditto), 
and everything else I could find.   The car is pretty much as close to 
perfect as could be, with some minor exceptions.

One of Greg's highly dubious modifications involved the removal of the 
entire windshield wiper system.   Fortunately, the only difficult parts of that 
system to find are the wiper arms, and those are still present among the 
spare parts that go with the car.   But the new owner will have to procure a 
new motor assembly, switch, and may have to invent the wiring to power it 
(depending on how extreme Greg was when he removed the system).

There is, naturally enough, no air conditioning system fitted; I didn't 
test the heater for function, but all the other electrical components (lights, 
interior fan, windows etc.) all work perfectly.

The headlights are simply amazing.   Detailed on one of Greg's pages, the 
HID lights are adapted from a Honda S2000 and work spectacularly well.

Here is a listing of some of the high points of this car:

Not a trailer queen-the paint is in very good shape but this car was built 
to be driven HARD.

Gr4 flares were initially done in fiberglass, but now (apparently) they 
have been replaced with steel

Fantastic Wilwood brake system

Custom billet aluminum A-arms fitted with readily available Corvette ball 
joints

Carrera adjustable coilover shocks

Gehling/Woodhouse   racing sway bar package

New rear wing (sadly, it's installed in the wrong place on the decklid and 
looks a bit weird as a result)

Very effective side-view mirrors

ZF gearbox freshly rebuilt, among the best I've ever felt.   Although I 
can't be sure, I am fairly positive it has been fitted with a tall-ratio 5th 
gear as well-a huge bonus (and very expensive!).

Fantastic cooling system-Fluidyne radiator, curved-blade sucker fans

180-degree exhaust system and Silverline stainless steel straight-through 
mufflers that are surprisingly effective at keeping the car quiet

Custom hand-made aluminum airbox with internal K*N filter, which ducts air 
from the side scoops for forced fresh-air intake

Cobra-style flip-top external fuel filler (as used on the original Gr4 
cars, although those cars had the tank repositioned on the passenger side)

Heavily reinforced fiberglass air dam, braced underneath and connected to 
the chassis in four places to prevent damage from impacting the ground (yes 
it's low)

Two-point roll hope with Deist five-point harnesses.

Autometer programmable shift light (comes on at 5500 or 6000 rpm, I think; 
about 500 rpm below the rev limiter kicks in)

Extensive Alpine sound system that I didn't bother to switch on.   It has a 
4-channel PDX-4-1500, speakers, tweeters and subwoofer, and an Ipod 
connection in the glove box.   The speaker boxes were beautifully crafted to match 
the rest of the interior.

Nitrous system fully installed but not hooked up (and totally unnecessary 
in my opinion)

Momo steering wheel

Billet aluminum shift knob

New front and rear bumpers (fiberglass, I presume)

MSD distributor and 6AL box with tach adapter

Gehling/Woodhouse   racing sway bar package

A/C system removed

Rebuilt steering rack

Bassett wheels (15x14 rear, 15x9 front) with Pirelli PZero 345/35-15 rear 
tires and Dunlop 245/50-15 front tires

HID headlights, best I've ever seen

Bosch relays to protect the electrical switches

Engine specs:

NOS 351C 4-bolt block, bored .030 over
Stock crank and rods
Speed Pro pistons/rings
Closed-chamber iron 4V heads w/Ferraro stainless steel valves
Edelbrock performer intake

Comp cams roller cam # 32-431-8 FC-284RF-HR10
224 @ .050 intake/exhaust
Lobe 110
centerline 106
284/284 advertised duration

====

The bottom line:   Overall, this car is in really excellent condition, 
ready to be driven and enjoyed today.   Many of the modifications (paint scheme, 
interior modifications, Nitrous system, odd positioning of the rear wing, 
wiper system delete) are very 'personal' and most people will find at least 
some of them objectionable.   However, the engineering that has gone into 
this car seems to be first-rate, and the problems that I've identified could 
all be easily rectified (even a replacement dashboard could easily be had from 
any of the Pantera vendors, as many people have switched to the later-style 
dash, so early ones like this one are plentiful and should be quite cheap).

This is a rather extreme car, definitely more 'go' than 'show' oriented, 
although it rides comfortably and quietly, and if the nitrous was removed from 
the front trunk, it could function as a wine-and-cheese tasting car; for 
sure it would be an open-track weapon and would draw a lot of attention at a 
car show.   

I shudder to think what it would cost to start with the Pantera that Greg 
started with in 2000, and build the car up to its present configuration.   As 
it is, I think in this depressed economy it's worth $55-60K, especially if 
the spare parts (complete spare set of Hall Pantera Ultra wheels in 15-inch, 
and several spare front and rear tires, some of them brand new) are 
included in the mix.

Contact Specialty Sales for more information and to schedule a viewing and 
a test-drive…and feel free to contact me with any questions, at 
MikeLDrew at aol.com.   Greg Jacobs is still around too, and could also answer questions if 
necessary.

Cheers!

Mike Drew
Pantera Club of Northern California