[DeTomaso] Fascinating Ford memo

Tue Oct 5 17:22:26 EDT 2021

Sweet! My GTS is listed here 6774

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 5, 2021, at 2:46 PM, Mike Drew via DeTomaso <detomaso at server.detomasolist.com> wrote:

Hi guys,

A few weeks ago Matt Stone was on a road trip and dropped off his entire archive of De Tomaso documentation and literature at my house. POCA was in the midst of negotiating its purchase and the premise was that it would reside with me, as the POCA historian. However Scott Mead has the ability to professionally scan and digitize the whole thing, so it was decided that it would go to him (ironically Matt and Scott live just miles apart and I am 400 miles north). He archive is too precious to trust to shipping, so I will have to hand carry it down there in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime I had a thumb through it and found a fascinating internal Ford memo.

The Ford parts book lays out the serial number breakdown for each model year, thusly:

<image0.jpeg>

It’s pretty black and white, and clearly rather arbitrary given the non-linear production sequence of the cars. Also, I think it was generated partway through 1973, and if so that means it stated what DID happen with the 1971, 1972, 1972 1/2 and 1973 model years, and what was SUPPOSED to happen with the 1974 model year.

However I had heard of numerous anomalies—1974 cars titled as 1973 and vice versa. I knew that Ford played fast and loose with the truth to title 1974 Panteras as 1973 models in order to sell them in California (since the emissions laws in California changed for the 1974 model year which made it impossible to sell 1974 Panteras there, apparently?). This was particularly known for the GTS models. Conventional wisdom has it that 52 of the 150 GTS Panteras were retitled as 1973 cars so they could be sold in California while the remaining 98 were sold in the other 49 states as 1974 models.

But then I stumbled across this document, dated April 4, 1974:

<IMG_1779.jpg>

Besides listing 40 (of the eventual 52?) 1974 GTS models as 1973 cars, it also listed a whole bunch of random 1973 cars as being officially 1974 models!  I can only guess what may have led to this latter change—cars laying unsold in warehouse or dealer inventory that they didn’t want to have to discount as “last year’s model”, or perhaps cars that were stuck in the pipeline and hadn’t arrived in the USA before some arbitrary cutoff date and thus couldn’t be considered 1973 cars? Or ???

In any case, it’s a fascinating peek into how incredibly micromanaged (and haphazard) the Pantera program was, even at the end.

Mike

Sent from my iPad
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   Sweet! My GTS is listed here 6774

   Sent from my iPhone

     On Oct 5, 2021, at 2:46 PM, Mike Drew via DeTomaso
     <detomaso at server.detomasolist.com> wrote:

   Hi guys,
   A few weeks ago Matt Stone was on a road trip and dropped off his
   entire archive of De Tomaso documentation and literature at my house.
   POCA was in the midst of negotiating its purchase and the premise was
   that it would reside with me, as the POCA historian. However Scott Mead
   has the ability to professionally scan and digitize the whole thing, so
   it was decided that it would go to him (ironically Matt and Scott live
   just miles apart and I am 400 miles north). He archive is too precious
   to trust to shipping, so I will have to hand carry it down there in the
   upcoming weeks. In the meantime I had a thumb through it and found a
   fascinating internal Ford memo.
   The Ford parts book lays out the serial number breakdown for each model
   year, thusly:
   <image0.jpeg>
   It's pretty black and white, and clearly rather arbitrary given the
   non-linear production sequence of the cars. Also, I think it was
   generated partway through 1973, and if so that means it stated what DID
   happen with the 1971, 1972, 1972 1/2 and 1973 model years, and what was
   SUPPOSED to happen with the 1974 model year.
   However I had heard of numerous anomalies--1974 cars titled as 1973 and
   vice versa. I knew that Ford played fast and loose with the truth to
   title 1974 Panteras as 1973 models in order to sell them in California
   (since the emissions laws in California changed for the 1974 model year
   which made it impossible to sell 1974 Panteras there, apparently?).
   This was particularly known for the GTS models. Conventional wisdom has
   it that 52 of the 150 GTS Panteras were retitled as 1973 cars so they
   could be sold in California while the remaining 98 were sold in the
   other 49 states as 1974 models.
   But then I stumbled across this document, dated April 4, 1974:
   <IMG_1779.jpg>
   Besides listing 40 (of the eventual 52?) 1974 GTS models as 1973 cars,
   it also listed a whole bunch of random 1973 cars as being officially
   1974 models!  I can only guess what may have led to this latter
   change--cars laying unsold in warehouse or dealer inventory that they
   didn't want to have to discount as "last year's model", or perhaps cars
   that were stuck in the pipeline and hadn't arrived in the USA before
   some arbitrary cutoff date and thus couldn't be considered 1973 cars?
   Or ???
   In any case, it's a fascinating peek into how incredibly micromanaged
   (and haphazard) the Pantera program was, even at the end.
   Mike
   Sent from my iPad
   _______________________________________________
   Detomaso Email List is not managed by POCA
   Posted emails must not exceed 1.5 Megabytes
   DeTomaso mailing list
   DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
   [1]http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
   To manage your subscription (change email address, unsubscribe, etc.)
   use the links above.
   Members who post to this list grant license to the list to forward any
   message posted here to all past, current, or future members of the
   list. They also grant the list owner permission to maintain an archive
   or approve the archiving of list messages.

References

   1. http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
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