Reply to "Pantera #7229 - Big Project"

I know of five previous owners of this GTS. I know three of them personally and met a fourth. The one I never met was the one who smashed it up, although I did speak with him on the phone.

The first owner of this car bought it in Montreal in the mid '70's and brought it out to BC. He was a friend of my Father's and gave me my first job! The color was the "GTS only" Yellow Gold and it had the "DeTomaso" script on the side of the car. I'm pretty sure it was new when he bought it but it might have been slightly used. He really loved the car and drove it daily; rain or shine. He'd owned a number of Ferraris but got tired of the service headaches, thus the Pantera. He ran into financial difficulties and it was taken by his bank. The second owner was a car enthusiast who enjoyed the car and looked after it for a few years.

The third owner of the car spent every penny he had to buy the car and couldn't afford insurance after buying it (or so he told me). He said he went to the bar one night with his friends, had a few too many, and couldn't resist taking his new, uninsured Pantera out for a drive. He slid through a stop sign and a big truck ran over the nose of the car. It's possible the car was insured and his insurance company refused to "pay-out" because he was drunk when the accident occurred. As far as the car is concerned, it doesn't really matter why it wasn't repaired after the accident. I'm sure his bank wasn't too happy.

The next owner (number four) bought the car with the idea of restoring it. He bought a used front "clip" from a vendor, that he intended to graft onto the front of the car; however, I believe there were extensive rust issues that made the whole project financially impractical, so he sold it.

Owner number five was a mechanic who worked at a garage about ten blocks from my house. I only met him once. It was obvious he knew nothing about the car but thought he could fix it up and sell it. I guess he was wrong. That was about two years ago. I guess owner number six is the one selling it on eBay.