[DeTomaso] Marti report question followup

Asa Jay Laughton asajay at asajay.com
Wed Feb 28 00:51:03 EST 2018


   For what it's worth, Pantera 05533 (now owned by Steve Lisa) was first
   sold to Central Accounting Services, Dearborn, MI.  Presumably Ford.
   The Ship To address was for Philco Ford Corporation in Palo Alto, CA.
   For whatever reason, if I post a direct link to the photos, people are
   getting a Forbidden error on my server, so try this, which seems to
   work.  Go to [1]www.asajay.com and click on my Pantera link.  There,
   click on My Pantera Purchasing Experience.  From there click on the
   link to "You can look at it here."
   On that page, if you scroll down, you'll find some pictures of the
   original documents that came with the car.  If you click on the images,
   they should open without a problem.  I no longer have these documents
   (Steve does).  This is what I remember from going through all of it
   years ago.
   The car appears to have been a corporate car.  That's the first Window
   Sticker you see.  At the top of the sticker it has a dealer number
   04A56J (I think).  Perhaps that will lead someone to the correct
   dealer?
   The First CA registration also shows Philco Ford Corp with Ford MTR Co
   as the legal owner.  However Gene Hickcox name is penciled in at the
   top, kind of indicating he was driving it.  There were a LOT more of
   these registrations in the stack of owner data when I bought the
   Pantera.
   Next you'll see what looks like a sale contract penned by LAGO
   Lincoln-Mercury in Los Gatos.  This appears to be the "sale" document
   after Ford gave up the car and Gene purchased it.  Note the mileage of
   13,668 at time of sale.  What I don't show is another piece of paper
   that appeared to show several names, presumed to be -other- employees
   who were bidding on the car?   That document also had an interesting
   coded number, which happened to match a Dymo label still attached to
   the front of the car.  I presume that was kind of a corporate asset tag
   of some sort.  It was still on the car when I sold it to Steve as I
   recall.  I'm sorry I didn't include that extra paper on that web page.
   On that paper, Gene's name is the apparent winner and would become the
   new owner.
   Date and mileage on other paperwork included with the car (now in the
   hands of Steve Lisa), paint a pretty good picture that the car was
   owned by Ford, used by Gene, then subsequently purchased by Gene and
   driven until he could no longer drive.  He probably put 100,000 miles
   on it and in general took very good care of the car.  Then I purchased
   it from his estate (with help from Mike Drew and Jack DeRyke).  That's
   a story you can find in a back issue of Profiles, 2001 I think.
   So, was a "dealer" involved in the original movement of the car to
   Philco Ford, when owned by Ford?  I don't know, maybe the dealer number
   on the sticker can provide a clue.  What we do know, is that later,
   when ownership was transferred to Gene, the contract was written by
   Lago Lincoln-Mercury.
   And that's my story.  Hopefully you can get to the photos.
   Asa  Jay
Asa Jay Laughton - W7TSC, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
Spokane County ARES-RACES Net Manager
******************************
[2]http://w7tsc.org
[3]http://www.teampanteraracing.com

   On 2/27/2018 8:24 PM, Matt wrote:

   I want to thank everybody who responded! Good stuff!
   Just a couple things:
   1. The cars destined for Ford executives needed to be returned to Ford
   for re-sale when they reached 6000 mi.A
   That might also be the case for other divisions such as public
   relations or marketing but it probably depended on who ya knew.
   But it makes me wonder. Was there also a time limitation? How long
   would it take a full time Ford executive to put 6000 miles on a
   Pantera?
   What if you lost your job? Did you have to give it back?
   Anybody know any specifics?
   2. Just because the Marti report says it was delivered to a specific
   retail dealership doesn't necessarily mean they sold it but it does
   help track it's travels.
   Just as they still do today, dealerships will swap inventory with other
   dealers. Sometimes even out of state.
   I received a PM about this and I'll copy/paste some of it for you all
   hopefully with the writers blessing!
   He states-
   "The Marty Report really only gives you the "DSO" & "Ordering Dealer",
   and then reports the initial (retail) "sale date".A  It does not
   actually list the dealer that sold the car new to the first retail
   purchaser.
   I stumbled across this oddity researching my own Pantera(#deleted).A
   My Marty Report says it was ordered by Pacific LM in Seattle, but I
   interviewed the original owner extensively, and he said he bought the
   car new in Orange Co. CA.A
   So this minor incongruence hot me curious, how do I explain this?
   The only possible explanation I can think of, is;
   1) a simple dealer trade due to regional sales demands, or
   2) that Ford was using a non-California DSO & dealer to order 49 state
   smog certified cars, then moving them into California (where they were
   selling well) and calling them "dealer trades" -- thereby skirting the
   more stringent CA emission regulations.A  If true, that would be pretty
   clever.A "
   That last part got me wondering exactly how Ford dealt with the tougher
   smog laws being imposed at the time. See VW.
   Besides the 5 mph bumper redesign, bad marketing, low sales headaches,
   cooling, electrical issues ,etc. there must have been some major hair
   pulling going on around the whole program from the beginning.
   Imagine having to tell Alejandro he now needs a redesign to make room
   for a smog pump!
   We are lucky they got built at all. For just a sliver of time the stars
   were aligned just right. Time will tell if they'll ever line up again.
   But IF the oddity called the Pantera hadn't been built you would have
   had to choose another car to dream about and then eventually own and
   enjoy.A
   What would it have been? I probably would have had to settle for a
   Lotus Esprit or something at my price point. The M1,Countach,Ferraris,
   all out of price and maintenance range for me at the time.
   I guess I'll just thank my lucky stars I didn't have to settle for
   anything less than a one of a kind Pantera, no matter how it got here.
   Happy trails,
   Matt
   3584



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References

   1. http://www.asajay.com/
   2. http://w7tsc.org/
   3. http://www.teampanteraracing.com/
   4. mailto:DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
   5. http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso


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