Hi guys,
I'm Darius, 24 and based in the UK. I'm midway through restomodding a 1971 Corvette Stingray I bought off Ebay USA earlier this year and have been thinking about a second car for my collection. I've been in love with the styling of the Pantera since I was a young child and really like the idea of owning one in the next 6 to 12 months. My budget would be around £70,000. Now, I LOVE the styling of the GT5 but they are way out of my budget so will have to settle for a conversion. I read somewhere that conversions add very little value to a car and so they can be found for reasonable money, and did see one in the UK which had sold for around 70k GBP. I'd actually prefer a LHD car as i'm comfortable driving my Stingray. Not sure exactly which engines Panteras came with but i'd prefer something around 350ci as opposed to 400+ due to the fuel economy. I actually saw a very interesting group 4 car for sale on this forum for a very nice price. My main question is, how realistic is finding a GT5 conversion within my budget? I'm not adverse to importing one at all. Are they reliable enough for semi daily driver use (say 3/4 days a week around town and potentially on a European road trip) Are there any parts which are impossible to find? I assume Ford v8 bits won't be a problem and neither will the axle, and that it's the Pantera specific parts which will be difficult if they go.
All thoughts and opinions welcome!