quote:I would double check on that. I am uncertain that you could not get a 71-74 Pantera in Canada. Also in the 80's it was easier to get one North of the Border through guys like John Scotti than south of the border and they didn't have to worry about the emissions like the Amerisport cars. I am just speculating but, would think that the Pantera just like Shelby's and Boss Mustangs were available in Canada. With the number of them being in Canada I don't see them all being import cars, but could be wrong.
There were Pantera's in Canadian Ford Dealer's showrooms but they didn't get there via Ford. Dealers in Canada, that felt a demand for Panteras, established relationships with Lincoln Mercury dealerships in the USA, to purchase their Pantera's through. They came into the country on MSO, so the Canadian customer was legitimately the first owner. I wonder how they handled warranty claims? My Pantera was one such car. It was purchased off of the showroom floor in 1973, from a Ford dealer in Alberta, but the dealer had bought it from Peyton LM in Los Angeles.
John Scotti, a car dealer in Montreal, imported a number of Panteras over the years. The earliest one I know of is a '74 Euro GTS, that Scotti imported directly from DeTomaso. It had fender flares and the US GTS only "GT" in its serial number. Scotti imported a dozen or so GT-5's as well. Some gray market GT-5's and GT5-S's, that were imported into the USA, entered via Canada. Apparently, it was easier to import a Canadian car than it was to import one directly from Europe.