Any Guaras or Pantera SIs in the US?

On Le Mans Classic this year there show up a yellow Guara (for sale) and 2 Pantera Si
and a whole bunch of other Pantera's

Simon

sorry I dont understand how to post pictures

Yes, the Le Mans Classic was a great place to see some rare and desirable De Tomasos this year. This was my favorite by a long margin.

And Chris, your two choices were parked beside each other.

an SI (one of three we saw).

Great pictures.

I'll bet you guys had a blast.

Rocky

Looks like it was a great time. Thanks for sharing the pics Mark

quote:

Originally posted by DtRockstar1:

... I have been absolutely DYING to see both a de Tomaso Guara and a Pantera SI, and hopefully own them in the future. I heard a rumor that there is one of each in Michigan ...

Chris

Chris there was one street legal Guara in California, yellow. Brought in by Steve Wilkinson. It looked just like the car in Mark Charlton's picture. It was involved in a fire. I don't know if it was ever repaired, I doubt it.

There was also a Pantera Si race car. It was never street legal.

Those two are the only Si & Guara in North America I can remember, but my memory isn't what it used to be.

Up until now the only way the Feds would allow an Si into the country was for the owner to sign a promise and provide proof for non-operation. I believe we are within a year or two of being able to import and legalize the Pantera Si in the US, federal law requires cars like that to be more than 25 years old to allow them into the country without a "non-op" agreement. State laws are another matter, even if the Feds approve import, the states may not agree to register it. So the states shall be the first hurdle. Getting European owners to sell their Pantera Si shall be the second hurdle. It may take a lot of Euros ... its a very rare car.

If there's other Si's or Guara's in North America Chris and I would both love to hear about them.

Amazing!!! Thank you for the pictures guys! I wish I could have been there, I think I would have fell flat on my face.

Hopefully when I get the money I can convince the owners to part ways with their cars after they become legal in the US. I am especially in love with that light blue Pantera SI targa top, but I'm pretty sure the owner is smitten with that one.

Chris

I was at the CLM and if I'm not mistaken the grey Si Targa in the picture above is actually a converted GT5s.

At the French DT club dinner on the Friday night there were two stunning looking SIs there one of which was the grey one. The guy who owns it has changed every panel to convert it from GT5s to SI. Not sure how much it cost but he has done an excellent job. Mike Drew and a few other US owners were there so maybe one of them will confirm it I'm sure.

Maybe thats the way to go in the US if the SI can never be imported.

Past POCA President, Joe Moore, owned a Guara and may still. I saw it at the Pocono event held in the late 90s early 2000s. I believe Joe lives in New Jersey. I my memory serves me correct, it was red.

Pat Mical built a very impressive conversion quite a few years ago now, and as far as I know still owns it. You can see photos of it here:

http://www.patsauto.com/bodyshop.html

I believe 2 Guaras entered and are in the US (well perhaps I should say 1.5... read on)

The first is likely Joe Moore's car mentioned by JT, which is a race only car as far as I know. Steve Wilkinson's was the only road registered and as George stated suffered a fuel line rupture and fire. It is still for sale at PI Motorsports (as I inquired less than a week ago) asking price $49,750 for a major project.

Here's a link to photos;

http://www.pim.net/Guara2011.html

There are no true Si's in North America, only Pat Mical's conversion and Dave Kanahale had an early car he was converting, which as far as I know is also still for sale.

The euro/US FX rate is favorable currently, but even then the few Si's that do change hands are selling for excess of the GT5S cars. The biggest hurdle is getting one into the US, as George stated once the 25 year age criterion is met it becomes a little easier, but not a slam dunk.

You could always relocate to Europe!

Julian

quote:

Originally posted by Horace Cope:
I was at the CLM and if I'm not mistaken the grey Si Targa in the picture above is actually a converted GT5s.

At the French DT club dinner on the Friday night there were two stunning looking SIs there one of which was the grey one. The guy who owns it has changed every panel to convert it from GT5s to SI. Not sure how much it cost but he has done an excellent job. Mike Drew and a few other US owners were there so maybe one of them will confirm it I'm sure.

Maybe thats the way to go in the US if the SI can never be imported.

Yes the gray Si is a converted GT5-S Pavesi Targa.(#9471)351 Windsor.
On the site from Chuck you can see a part of the rebuild progress.
Added Original Si A arms, brake's , hard to get Original rims aso.,every detail on the Si is different.
I try to make a copy of the real Si , but it's almost impossible to do the job exactly.

The doors are wider, front and rear fenders , taillight panel , chassis,shock mountings ,door sills ,fueltank on RH aso.
Because my dream was own a Si Targa also I do this conversion.
sorry for my bad English.
Simon

quote:

Originally posted by Peter H:
Pat Mical built a very impressive conversion quite a few years ago now, and as far as I know still owns it. You can see photos of it here:

http://www.patsauto.com/bodyshop.html

I've heard of these conversions, and I could swear I saw one in Michigan in the 1990s. How long have they been making these conversions?

Chris

A buddy of mine sent this picture....

Mark - Choices, Choices!

quote:

Originally posted by Horace Cope:
At the French DT club dinner on the Friday night there were two stunning looking SIs there one of which was the grey one.

Horace, I'm sorry we didn't get to meet, but there were a lot of people at the dinner. The parking lot was quite a sight and it was fun to watch the passing cars hit the brakes to see the spectacle as they drove slowly past. Here is the real SI Targa.

And parked almost beside the gold SI Targa was the "fake". But saying that is very unfair. It is an astoundingly accurate and beautiful construction. Simon and his team of craftsman have built a car that I suspect is nicer than one would have left the factory.

Mark

Think we did meet at the Hotel dinner on the Sunday though we didn't get a chance to chat. Thought you were there with Mike, Julian etc.

We were the crowd that got lost and arrived late at the Friday dinner ha ha.

I thought it was the grey car that was the GT5s conversion and agree with you its an absolutely fantastic job they have done.

Interesting debate amongst the UK DT boys there as to why 2 SIs that have never been in the UK are running with UK number plates ???, red and gold cars. No one seemed to want to discuss it on the night ?? How do you get a UK registration for a car without a UK MOT and more importantly how do you get a non "Q" registration plate for a car that was never UK homolgated ??

quote:

Originally posted by Horace Cope



Interesting debate amongst the UK DT boys there as to why 2 SIs that have never been in the UK are running with UK number plates ???, red and gold cars. No one seemed to want to discuss it on the night ?? How do you get a UK registration for a car without a UK MOT and more importantly how do you get a non "Q" registration plate for a car that was never UK homolgated ??

The owners of those 2 Si's have their official recidance into the UK.
Because the cars are parked into Belgium and not drive them into the UK they have no MOT.
UK and the rest of Europe dont share the car and owner information ,also handy for speed tickets .

Time to move to Europe.

Thank you for the pics guys, they are beautiful!

Chris

Here are some videos I shot quickly while at LMC. Apologies for the complete absence of any nice Pantera sounds.

At the De Tomaso Club of France LMC dinner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dit3d1i1wc

and at the Le Mans Classic club coral:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAMm19_pLUI

Just watched and commented on the videos, thank you for posting them Mark! Footage of those cars is next to nonexistent, and I want to change that.

While we're at it, anyone know where I can find a Pantera GT5-S in the Midwest or surrounding states to take pictures/video of? That's another Pantera I totally fell in love with.

I also want to find its arch rival, the AMX/3.

Chris