Reply to "Popular Hot Rodding article on Pantera"

It is said that everything Shelby did after the Cobra/Shelby GT programs with Ford ended, including anything he did with Chrysler was just in waiting to get back in the good graces of Ford.
Look at where SAI is now with Ford.

The Dodge program was just rubbing Fords nose in the do-do. I suppose Iaocca at Chrysler was too?

The reality is that Shelby never did anything, or very little, with his own money. Ford payed for everything and essentially Shelby had what we now call a personal services contract, with Ford.

Shelby was a front man for Ford. Detomaso was a front man for Ford. With the Italians that rubs them worse then others.

Detomaso was just your average European millionaire. Not capable of operating himself in the big leauges like Ferrari. He needed backing.
As a manufacturer he didn't have a pot to piss in and back stabbing by people like Ferrari in Europe is unequaled anywhere else. Enter Ford.

This is the way Ford operated on these projects, including with Detomaso. They just cut to the quick and bought in and used their enormous clout to expedite everything from suppliers. Truth is Ford lost money on every Pantera that was built, and every Cobra.

Didn't matter. The publicity was worth more then they ever lost and made it happen today, not ten years down the road.

Detomaso was guaranteed money on every car he built and Ford sold. The "investment" in the Cobra has to be the best money ever spent by a major auto manufacturer. They still are reaping rewards from it to this day.

Ford eventually bought controlling stock in Ghia, purchased Vignalle, and when the Pantera project was cancelled sold Detomaso the 75 cars left on the assembly line for $1.

They just abandoned Vignalle and walked away from them. I don't think Ford liked the petty demands shoved at them by the Italian work ethic and procedures. This was payback to Vignalle.

Ford continued servicing Pantera parts to the legal letter of the law and dumped them as soon as the clock hit 12:01 midnight on that date.

That's just the way it was.

It is said that Henry Ford himself spent his personal money on these projects. The GT40 program alone is said to cost $15 million in 1965 dollars. It is thought that the true number with everything was around $250 million.

Essentially this is all because Ferrari backed out of the deal to sell to Ford after they shook hands on it.

It isn't just sports cars that were involved here either. NASCAR with Holman-Moody was too.

No one ever said that Henry Ford was a good guy, but without his maniacal ways NONE of this would have every happened. It likely will never happen again either.

Oh and not to get all manical on my own but if you want to swap out a Ford engine for a Chevy, or a Mopar or a BMW in a FORD Pantera...just doesn't make sense to me in the overall picture of things. Just emphasizes that you built a street rod, which of course is anyone's prerogative.

Would you do that in a Cobra too?

Makes about as much sense as the Cobra electric car to me, but hey it's the irrational ideas that sometimes open a new avenue of creativity that no one ever thought about before?