quote:Originally posted by GTPowered:
While I would think the largest resale audience would be if you leave it with a Ford small block in it, there is no guarantee that it would be worth more money than one with a Chevy motor. It is your car, and your decision.
If this blog is correct, the highest selling price for a Ford era Pantera was paid for one that had a Chevy LS engine in it.
http://ringbrothers.com/blog/BarrettJackson2015/
On a technical note, I discussed with both Les Gray and Roy Butfoy about running supercharged horsepower in the 600-650 range thru the ZF and neither were too concerned. Les said the most likely failure would be in the higher gear. I cannot remember if he said 4th or 5th gear. Drag racing and speed shifting has broken ZFs in the past.
I can personally attest that my car at the peak of its power production was making 811 HP to the tire. I took it drag racing three times and autocrossing once. I recently sold it and sent it to Pantera Performance for repair. Total repair cost was $5000. This was a trans that had NO driveability issues. Dennis informed me that almost all of the damage was from excessive torque. The ZF's are good but they are not unbreakable by any means. Funny thing is that the damaged components were not the ones under load when drag racing. Go figure.