Reply to "Seat belt mount"

Michael!

What I seriously know about the early Panteras:

The pushbutton door mechanism was a left-over from the Mangusta. The contract with Ford was signed on 9-9-69. By April 1970 they were hand assembling cars at Vignale in Turin (Torino) Italy. Car #1 was chassis 1001. One of the earliest cars was shipped to the US in April for display at the New York & Los Angeles auto expos that year, I've never read what happened to that car. DeTomaso began selling pushbutton Panteras in Europe in 1970. When shipments of new cars to the USA began in spring of 1971 the remaining, unsold pushbuttons were among the first to be shipped, 6 of those cars went to Ford for testing, much too late in the game, testing should have occured BEFORE any cars were delivered to dealers. This is Ford's mistake, Ray Geddes was in charge of the Pantera project, although Ford employees pointed the finger at the Argentinean guy residing in Italy. Ford purchased Rowan interests in the deTomaso auto companies about this same time (deTomaso, Ghia & Vignale).

Current owners claim chassis 1286 was the first pushbutton in those early 1971 shipments, but I've never read where the cars shipped to Dearborn for testing fit into that sequence. Current owners also claim chassis 1382 was the last pushbutton, which would make chassis 1383 a pre-L, I've never read of that confirmed either.

George