Ford must have still had a bee in their bonnet over the failed attempt
to buy Ferrari in the early ‘60s. Henry Ford II wanted a European division that
could crank out exotic cars and racing machines. Enzo Ferrari wanted no part of
Dearborn, so Henry II took it out on Ferrari by pumping millions of dollars into
the World Manufacturing Sports Car Championships and eventually winning the
championship several times. What’s odd is that after Ford got the trophy they
eventually left sports car racing and Ferrari continued on their winning
ways.
So to satisfy their hunger for something Italian, Ford bought the
struggling DeTomasso Company. Mr. DeTomasso had been an excellent Ferrari
designer before making his own cars, so buying out DeTomasso was another shot at
Enzo.
The Pantera was part of the new wave of exotic mid-engine
high-performance sports cars. It had great Italian lines and lots of Ford
grunt-power. Using the 351 cu. in. "Cleveland" V-8 engine and a ZF fully
synchronized 5-speed transaxle with limited slip differential and 4-wheel disc
brakes, the Pantera was dripping with sexy Italian sweat.
Naturally, the
Pantera was compared to Chevy’s Corvette, but it was really apples and oranges.
The Pantera was a very low volume production car compared to Chevrolet building
over 38,000 Corvettes in 1969. Zora Arkus Duntov had pitched many mid-engine
Corvette prototypes, but wasn’t able to get GM to go along with the tooling
expense.
Performance-wise the Pantera ran on par with the Corvette. On a
race course the Pantera and Corvette were evenly matched, although the Pantera
had very different handling characteristics.
Unfortunately, the Pantera
came along just as Detroit’s muscle car party was ending, so Ford and DeTomasso
never really had a chance to work out the bugs. For an expensive exotic car,
quality and reliability wasn’t what it should have been.
Ford closed the
book on the Pantera in 1974, but aftermarket parts suppliers and builders kept
the Pantera alive with racing parts and upgrade kits.
