Those Panteras came about because of Chrysler's involvement in wanting an Italian super car when Ioccoca was the CEO.
Initially they purchased three and had them imported directly to Shelby for analysis as a production exotic for Chrysler.
Ioccoca had brought Shelby in house and he was converting some of the current production cars like the Daytonna and GLHS into souped up specials like he had done at Ford with the GT350's, etc.
To my knowledge there is only one of the first three that had the engine converted to the MoPar 340 with a turbo charger added. The other two stayed as delivered from Detomaso.
Where those cars got sold to, or who bought them is largely undocumented.
The final decision of Chrysler was not to deal with Detomaso and they went and bought Lamborghini. The Diablo of 1991 or 1992 model year clearly has a Chrysler VIN tag on them and that was as deep as Chrsler ever got with this Italian exotic thing. That was solely Lee Ioccoca's thing and apparently ended when he retired from Chrysler and Shelby had gone back to Ford.
So therein lies a tale.
There was a European member of this forum, Belgium Barry, that claimed to have owned one of the three. That was somewhere in the 5 years ago range and he said that he sold the car. He didn't say to where or whom though.
Those original three that Chrysler imported were not US certified for sale to the public and lacked equipment such as catalytic converters or emissions controls that would have made them certifiable in the US.
As it turns out, a fellow member here, Kirk Evans, somehow got involved in US certifying Panteras in the 1980's. The cars were different enough to give them a different name and they became known as Amerisport Panteras.
Why did I bring this up? Kirk in a previous discussion here on this subject claimed that all of the Panteras were sent to him to become Amerisport Panteras, for getting his certification parts installed.
He clearly stated that all had invoices on the cars he received as being delivered to Caroll Shelby. I don't remember the exact number he claimed but was something like at least a dozen, i.e., 12.
I believe he said that he didn't remember the exact number but would investigate the records that he had. The paperwork was not in his direct possession but was in storage at a storage facility.
I do not remember if he actually ever did complete that task. You might want to search for him in the membership files here and send him a PM about your car to see if he has any records of it? That's my best suggestion.
What original records of Detomaso cars survive, I'm not sure that anyone can answer that question now? Maybe yes? Maybe no?
The only records that I know you can get on Panteras are from Kevin Marti. He has the original sales records of US and North American Ford sold Panteras. That's all. Just the Ford records and the Amerisport of Chrysler/Shelby cars are somewhere else.
I'm not great at searching old threads here. Some of our other members are pretty good and maybe can help out? I'm more like Inspector Cleseau and will get you stuck without your clothes in Paris traffic in a Renault. Just be forewarned. And I don't know Elke Sommer either so don't even ask.
I'm old so I know some stuff. Here is a sketch of me walking my dinosaur when I was a boy.
Cameras weren't invented yet so someone had to do this artwork to document it.
