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Reply to "Shelby Pantera"

I had some limited involvement with the Shelby/Chrysler/Pantera project back in the mid-eighties. I owned a highly modified (for back then) 1972 Pantera,



and had a fairly extensive literature collection on Panteras and Mangustas. Somehow some Chrysler engineering guys got my name, and wanted to see me about borrowing most of the technical stuff I had on Panteras. One of the engineers came to my house in a Red "L" model Pantera with a large Chrysler Pentastar on the bumper where the DeTomaso Isis logo should have been. I told them I wanted a $1,000 deposit on my material, to ensure that I would get it back. They kept it a few weeks, made copies, and returned it to me.

A couple weeks later, I had a trip to California come up. I made a couple side trips on my California venture. I went to Willow Springs to catch up with Gary Hall who had promised me a ride in his Pantera - I arrived just in time to see him coast into the pits with a blown engine. I spent the rest of the day at Gary's place, helping him replace the engine. On another day, I took a ride down to Santa Fe Springs to see Shelby's operation. In another absolutely amazing coincidence, the Red "L" Pantera with the Pentastar on it arrived by truck from Detroit while I was there. After it was unloaded, I went over it with the guy who was showing me around. Maybe he was trying to throw me off track, but, the story he told me was that they planned to stuff a 361 ci Chrysler (truck) V8 in this car, to gauge public reaction to the car. He said the production model they were considering would have a turbo FOUR in it!

regards,

cobrajeff
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