Reply to "Pantera vs. other Italian"

Well, I don´t know much about Panteras, but for starters it´s two seater unlike most of the cars you listed.

When I was at the market for a car to sink all my money into my final list was:

Alfa Monteral

DeTomaso Longchamp

Ferrari 308gt/4

Iso Lele

Maserati Kyalami

I wanted a car that could be driven and carry my family too, so the rear seat had to be more than a parcel shelf. Alfa is sexy looking car but no room, and pretty high maintanance engine. Ferrari is a pretty nice car, but I didn´t think that my 10 000 km / year, would be realistic as far the maintanance costs go + I noticed that my dislike towards Ferrari F1 was big enough to discount the whole brand. Iso Lele is intresting, but the looks can be challenging, and period tests weren´t too complimentary about the drive shaft arrangement(too many pieces, too much cloncking). Great looking interior though. Maserati Kyalami has the same problem as the Ferrari, as far as the engine rebuild to cars value ratio goes ( 1:1 me thinks), the interior was a bit disappointing too. Love the brand.

So I ended up buying a DeTomaso Longchamp. At first I wasn´t sure about the looks (It doesn´t photograph too well for some reason - I ´ll try my luck next summer), but seeing one in the flesh changed that. Great, easy to maintain engine, exclusivity, great chassis, exotic interior (at least mine - red leather and velour..)

Good luck with you hunt.