[DeTomaso] Pantera included in Classic Motorsports web article

[Sean Korb]

J. G. has nice things to say about Craig Brody's Pantera  From the May
2014 issue
https://classicmotorsports.com/articles/five-unique-ford-powered-cars/

"The De Tomaso Pantera hit the U.S. in 1971, perhaps just a bit ahead
of its time. Available right off the showroom floor at Lincoln Mercury
dealerships, the Italian-built Pantera’s debut year was fraught with
quality-control flaws and difficult marketing. Never mind that it was
a cutting-edge design for the time. One of the earliest sports cars to
employ a monocoque, unibody construction, the early Pantera
nonetheless languished in showrooms and was hobbled with questions of
quality. Elvis Presley famously shot his Pantera when it once failed
to start.

Improvements came quickly, though, and quality control increased. By
1975–when Ford stopped officially importing it–the Pantera was a
top-shelf supercar. Sadly, one of the things that some say keeps it
from true world-class status is also one of the things that makes it
wonderful: the Ford 351 engine parked behind the driver, nestled
between the two huge rear wheel arches. That blue-collar powerplant
may not have the pedigree of an overhead-cam Italian mill, but open
the throttle anywhere north of idle, and the sound–and thrust–it
provides is unimpeachable.

Craig Brody’s 1974 GTS model (there was also an L model with a few
more luxury-minded accouterments) is a true survivor, untouched aside
from a few scratch repairs and normal maintenance. A few spiderwebs
are starting to appear through some of the original paint, but the
interior looks like a press photo from 1974. Brody reports that the
driving experience is thoroughly modern as well.

Vision out back is somewhat restricted by the inherent shape, but
thanks to rack-and-pinion steering and a rear weight bias, steering
takes only a modest hand. There are even power windows and air
conditioning for those steamier days."


-- 
Sean Korb spkorb at gmail.com http://spkorb.org (est 1994)
"Computers are useless.  They can only give you answers." -P. Picasso