[DeTomaso] Rebuilt/recreated Gr4 rings the bell!

[Mike Drew]

Hi guys,

Stephane Bergeron is visiting me from Paris, where he just came from Retromobile. He told me that the former wreck of a Gr4 Pantera #2344, the only one originally raced in the USA (by Warren Tope), sold a couple of days ago to a German woman for 480,000 Euros!!!

Here is an article (best ignored) about the cars generally with good pics of the car in question:

https://www.goodwood.com/grr/columnists/dan-trent/2018/3/dan-trent-is-the-de-tomaso-pantera-the-best-value-70s-supercar/

This car led a very, very hard life. It was raced and crashed and then subjected to several different wild 1970s body modifications (it probably had 500 pounds of bondo and fiberglass added) and then crashed some more. It was finally abandoned in a field in the south. A friend went to inspect it in the late 1990s and was horrified. The whole chassis aft of the firewall was destroyed and replaced by bubba tube frame chassis with some sort of generic non-Pantera suspension. Same for everything ahead of the windshield. The only part that remained was the center structure, and that was rusted to the point of transparency. The guy, who owns another Gr4 car and has been an expert in the marque for decades, pronounced it beyond salvation.

Philippe Olzyck bought it, then apparently bought a street L-model Pantera, cut it apart and grafted the necessary bits back onto this chassis to make it a complete car once more. I’ve seen it several times at events in Europe, and it looks quite good, but the plebeian origins of the front and rear of the car are obvious to see. (Notice the L-Model front fenders with turn signals). 

It has been for sale off and on since about 2011, running through this auction and that dealership with little or no apparent success. Now somebody has finally knocked it out of the park. 

The best Gr4 car would probably struggle to be worth this much (Les Gray, what say you?) but this one is a bitsa, with probably no more than 10-15% original Gr4 in it. The various vendors who have offered it for sale over the years have been rather economical with the truth when describing it, so I hope the buyer did her homework and decided to buy the car anyway, rather than being duped by an unscrupulous seller. 

It will be interesting to see what becomes of it. 

It bears mentioning that the story of its sale (and the eye-watering sales price) could be inaccurate, as it was a private sale rather than an auction sale.  Only time will tell.....

Mike

Sent from my iPad
-------------- next part --------------
   Hi guys,

   Stephane Bergeron is visiting me from Paris, where he just came from
   Retromobile. He told me that the former wreck of a Gr4 Pantera #2344,
   the only one originally raced in the USA (by Warren Tope), sold a
   couple of days ago to a German woman for 480,000 Euros!!!

   Here is an article (best ignored) about the cars generally with good
   pics of the car in question:

   [1]https://www.goodwood.com/grr/columnists/dan-trent/2018/3/dan-trent-i
   s-the-de-tomaso-pantera-the-best-value-70s-supercar/

   This car led a very, very hard life. It was raced and crashed and then
   subjected to several different wild 1970s body modifications (it
   probably had 500 pounds of bondo and fiberglass added) and then crashed
   some more. It was finally abandoned in a field in the south. A friend
   went to inspect it in the late 1990s and was horrified. The whole
   chassis aft of the firewall was destroyed and replaced by bubba tube
   frame chassis with some sort of generic non-Pantera suspension. Same
   for everything ahead of the windshield. The only part that remained was
   the center structure, and that was rusted to the point of transparency.
   The guy, who owns another Gr4 car and has been an expert in the marque
   for decades, pronounced it beyond salvation.

   Philippe Olzyck bought it, then apparently bought a street L-model
   Pantera, cut it apart and grafted the necessary bits back onto this
   chassis to make it a complete car once more. I've seen it several times
   at events in Europe, and it looks quite good, but the plebeian origins
   of the front and rear of the car are obvious to see. (Notice the
   L-Model front fenders with turn signals).

   It has been for sale off and on since about 2011, running through this
   auction and that dealership with little or no apparent success. Now
   somebody has finally knocked it out of the park.

   The best Gr4 car would probably struggle to be worth this much (Les
   Gray, what say you?) but this one is a bitsa, with probably no more
   than 10-15% original Gr4 in it. The various vendors who have offered it
   for sale over the years have been rather economical with the truth when
   describing it, so I hope the buyer did her homework and decided to buy
   the car anyway, rather than being duped by an unscrupulous seller.

   It will be interesting to see what becomes of it.

   It bears mentioning that the story of its sale (and the eye-watering
   sales price) could be inaccurate, as it was a private sale rather than
   an auction sale.  Only time will tell.....

   Mike
   Sent from my iPad

References

   1. https://www.goodwood.com/grr/columnists/dan-trent/2018/3/dan-trent-is-the-de-tomaso-pantera-the-best-value-70s-supercar/