Dream Car

The De Tomaso Pantera has always been on my "bucket list" of cars to own. These cars were made from 1971 through the mid 90's. It was a low-slung two seater, mid-engined hot rod. Some call it the original "Hybrid" car since it married an Italian designed and produced body with good old fashioned Ford muscle in the form of the very potent 351 Cleveland engine.

As a teenager I heard of this car. I never saw one until I was out of college, but when I saw one I was instantly hooked. I never thought I'd ever own a Pantera, but I think I'm ready to move in that direction.

For the past few years I have been checking Craig's List to see what was available. Most of the cars are priced way out of my range - $50k and up! Ouch. But every now and then I stumble across one that is interesting - needing some work but ready for me to take it on.

Just such a car came available a couple weeks ago. Here she is, a 1972 model.

The price was way too good to be true. Upon further exploration I found that the reason the price was so good was this is nothing more than a rolling chassis. No engine, no transaxel, no interior to speak of. So why consider this car? That's the big question.

I contacted the owner and found out that he owned this car for the past 10 years. He was working on turning this particular example of a Pantera into a race car but ran out of time to work on her. He had taken the body and worked out all the rust (something that is needed in original Panteras), changed all the bushings and ball joints, coated her with rust proofing and primed the entire car - top to bottom and added a roll cage to help stiffen the body (again, something required in Panteras). The body seems to be in 100% excellent condition. But what about all those missing parts?

Well the more I think about it the more this car might be right for me. I want this to be a project I work on over the next 4-5 years or so. Some of the parts I might just customize. Maybe a different dash. Maybe a modern engine (can you say Mustang Cobra or the like?). She's a blank canvas waiting for me to add my own style.

You see restoration to original just isn't my cup of tea. My 1966 Galaxie and 1965 F100 pickup are prime examples. I have made both these autos into good, reliable daily drivers by adding modern safety and performance features such as fuel injection, disc brakes, etc. Purist cringe at the modifications I have done. Ok I admit it, I'm a Resto-Mod kind of person.

The same can be done to this particular Pantera without a lot of guilt since she is missing so many of the original components. Yes there is a little bit of the purist in me that doesn't want to take a highly collectible classic and turn it into some bastardization of what the original designers had in mind. But with this shell of a Pantera, no one would ever blame me for taking a few liberties with how I bring her back to life.

So tomorrow Jay and I will hit the road for an 800 mile round trip road adventure. We will take a close look at this particular Pantera and see if she is calling my name. If not, I believe I have stepped over the line and will be more diligent about finding my dream car so that I can be a part of making it a permanent part of my daily driving experience. The adventure begins....

We all have our best side when we are photographed, this is the Pantera's