quote:Originally posted by Deloreans and De Tomasos:
Does anyone know when the floor pans were dropped on the Pantera? Being 6ft4 makes it kinda difficult when looking for a car. Thanks
D&DT, you're a big guy huh?
None of the Ford era cars had dropped floor pans. The deTomasos continued to use left over Ford era coaches (manufactured by Vignale) through 1976, through chassis number 7700 (approximate). So even the early Euro cars would not have dropped floor pans, unless the pans had been dropped by the owner.
When the supply of Vignale coaches was exhausted, deTomaso contracted with Carrozeria Maggiora to build coaches for them. This was during the years 1976 through 1977. Beginning with chassis number 9001. They were all GTS models. I've never read a report or seen any pictures of a Pantera with a Maggiora coach, I do not know if they had dropped floor pans, or the sharp edged rear wheels houses. Not too many Panteras were built with Maggiora coaches, I'm unsure of the count, but less than 100.
In 1978 deTomaso contracted Carrozeria Embo to build Pantera coaches, starting with chassis # 9101. These coaches had dropped floor pans & the sharp edged rear wheel houses. Embo coaches are available as GTS, GT5 and GT5-S models. These are the models that were gray marketed into the US during the '80s. As I am sure you are aware these models are valued in the US $10K to $20K more than a Ford era Pantrera.
So your chioices for Panteras with dropped floor pans boils down to a Ford era Pantera that has had its floor pans dropped by a previous owner, or a grey market GTS, GT5 or GT5-S with a chassis number greater than 9100.
your friend on the DTBB