Although De Tomaso was very much an Italian company, both in spirit and location, being based in the city of Modena in Emilia-Romagna, its founder, Alejandro de Tomaso came from a prominent farming family in Argentina. Perhaps inspired by his countryman, Juan Manuel Fangio, he moved to Italy in 1955 to pursue a career racing cars. Having made it to Formula One by 1957, his failure to score any Grand Prix points by 1959 prompted him to quit and form his own car company. Modena was already the home of a number of small firms building fast sports cars, and with a pool of experienced designers and skilled craftsmen, seemed an ideal place to start.
Over the years a number of exotic designs emanated from De Tomaso, the Valelunga, Deauville, Longchamp and the Guigiaro influenced Mangusta, however it's the Tom Tjaarda designed Pantera that will be remembered as their flagship vehicle with 7260 being built between 1971 and 1992, this figure representing some 86% of the company's total production.
Introduced in November 1984 one of the final incarnations of the Pantera was the GT5-S of which less than 190 were produced. A further evolution of the GT5, the S model had blended arches and a distinctive wide-body look. The 'S' in the GT5-S name stood for "steel", as unlike the GT5, the entire body was of steel construction.
This particular Pantera GT5-S is one of the last produced, having been built in 1989, and is an original RHD UK car, one of only 17 RHD GT5-Ss out of a total factory production of 187 sold worldwide!
Looking resplendent in Rosso Corsa with a Crema interior, it's in lovely condition both inside and out and is a really nice example of a piece of Italian exotica. The car has been well maintained and regularly used, always the best way to ensure that any classic runs well, and in fact last year completed a trip to its Modena birthplace in Northern Italy.
The engine and gearbox were stripped and rebuilt approximately 4/5 years ago with the big V8 being uprated to a fast road specification at the time and more recently, the power unit was refreshed in the Winter of 2014.
Non-standard components on the car are confined to the engine internals, (though the original block is retained), heads, headers (originals with the car), valve covers (originals with the car), and the fitting of a reliable mechanical oil pressure gauge to supplement the factory item. This displaces the original clock, which has been retained and is supplied with the car to facilitate a return to standard. As the block is original and the majority of the ancillaries are present, the car could easily be returned to the original factory specification.
G337XLO was featured in the April 2015 edition of "Retro Cars Magazine" with quite extensive coverage and a copy of this article is provided with the car.
An incredible blend of Italian style with American muscle. There may be more outlandish cars out there, but for sheer aural and visual drama, the Pantera takes the prize.