1976 EUROPANTERA

1975-77 Panteras were about 200 or so so-called "left-over" bodies that Ford threw away when they abandoned the Pantera project and the factory. DeTomaso, when he repurchaed the factory, simply completed them at his leisure, often incorporting expensive things Ford vetoed, like sunroofs, leather interiors etc.These cars were likely built to US specs simply because over 75% of the Panteras ever built went to the US. There are several '75-'76 Panteras registered in CA, arguably the worst state to register a non-compliant car. The only real problem with these machines is, they don't show up on any "Official Smog Law" books, so anywhere you go to certify them will automatically route you to a Referee Station for an extra dose of expense and bureacracy. Other than that, they are mostly custom '74 Panteras.

And, if you have to go to the Referee Station in CA, I wish you luck. I spent two trips to a test only center, then four trips to the Referee Station when trying to get my Maserati Biturbo smoged (not to mention the in between trips to my Italian mechanic trying to resolve all this). It ran clean, but they didn't like the set up, event though it was set up correctly. So I bought a diesel MBZ and another "pre smog era" Pantera.

Be sure to have plenty of vacation leave on the books if you have to the test only & Referee Station.