Mon 22 Feb 2010
De Tomaso Pantera GT5-S
Posted by Fahad Majidi under Automotive News , History of Cars , Nor Cal Spotlight[2] Comments
After early forays into building single-seater for Formula Junior and Formula 2, Alejandro de Tomaso joined the ranks of Italian sports car builders back in 1963. The first offering was the mid-engined Vallelunga which used a backbone chassis to which was bolted a 1600 cc Ford Cortina engine; this took all the rear suspension loads via arms on the transaxle bell housing. The theme was extended at the 1965 Turin Show with a sports racing car using a bigger backbone which carried a 271 bhp Ford Mustang engine; never raced, this formed the basis of the Mangusta using body styling by Giugiaro while he was working at Ghia.
Production started in 1967, the year that de Tomaso acquired Ghia – Ghia built the bodies in Turin and de Tomaso fitted the power train in Modena. The same year saw Ghia in production with the Giugiaro designed Maserati Ghibli. Meanwhile, Ford of America, having tried to buy Ferrari in the early ‘sixties, were still on the look-out for an Italian supercar to add to the Lincoln range.









