Chassis # & date confusion

You are absolutely correct.

The VIN number indicates the coach was built in November 1973, making it a 1974 model. If it were a true US spec GTS, the VIN number would read "THGTND06709", (GT replaces PN in the VIN number) so the car is not a US spec GTS. Also, true US spec GTS's do not have any deTomaso badges anywhere on the car. If the car were a European GTS, it will not have the "L" front bumper. Unless it was added later to legalize its sale in the US. In that case, the speedo should read in KPH, not MPH.

By the way, the last Pantera built during the Ford era & shipped to the US by Ford is chassis number 7380, built in July 1974 I believe. Ford continued building Panteras beyond chassis #7380, but they were all built for European destinations.

I can think of two scenarios that could validate a 1976 date and the owner's claim that the car is a GTS:

One, the car is a '74 L that was not registered until 1976, it sat on a dealer's lot through 1975 without being sold. In which case the owner is wrong about the car being a GTS. It could be an honest mistake for an owner to be mislead about the car having been built as an L model instead of a GTS, because some Ford dealers had '74 L model Panteras repainted and sold them as GTS models.

A second explanation, the coach for this car was set to the side with a defect and sat around Modena unassembled, until Ford sold deTomaso all of their unassembled coaches circa late 1974 or early 1975, the coach was then assembled as a Euro spec GTS, and later imported into the US.

I hope I haven't added to your confusion!

Your friend on the DTBB

Hi George

Thanks for that.

It is a European car (Well, English at least! Not the same thing as far as us English types are concerned ).

I have done a little more research and the car was first registered in the UK in 1976 and Roger Brotton, the DeTomaso guru (for want of a better word!) in the UK confirms it is a 76 GTS BUT thinks the reason it has such a chassis number is because it was probably built/ordered at the time of the Ford abandonment of De Tomaso and as a consequence the chassis may have sat about in the factory for a bit before being shoved back on the assembly line.

Here's the car anyway:


Sorry about the quality! I took a foto of a foto in the latest UK De Tomaso owner's club magazine!

Not overly concerned about the chassis number confusion as the registration documents show it was first registered here in 1976. Owned by a genuine English Lord, no less!!!

It is beutiful. I would say it is a euro GTS made after Ford quit. Doesn't look to me to be a US spec. Side markers are wrong for US spec, as well as the antenna. Although the fender flairs are absent. Definetly a later style habachi grill hood and it had chin spoiler. So I would say later seventies, after the Ford pullout. It looks authentic to me. But not a US spec. Definetly not.

For whatever it's worth, the factory began to refer to any "regular" Panteras as a GTS roughly the same time as the Ford breakup.

We tend to think of the GTS as having the two-tone paint job, rivetted fender flares, in the case of the Euro-GTS's a little more power, and so forth. However the factory soon forgot about this definition and any narrow body Pantera was called a Pantera GTS.

This practice carried on until the end. For example, see the 1989 Pantera GTS that was a PI magazine cover car about 2 years ago. It's looks visually identical to, say, a pre-L from the front (because of the bumperettes) and an L from the inside (because of the one-pod instrument panel). Actually more like a GT5-S from the inside, because it has the leather interior and late-model heater controls.

I like the color.... Looks like a nice car!

JB,

I apologize, I banged out my reply to you so quickly that I didn't stop to notice you were located in Britain. I was in a US state of conciousness.

Well, the coach or the whole car was built in November 1973, and as Roger Brotton has deduced, it sat around somewhere for a couple of years before being first sold in 1976.

Its a beautiful car, looks like a GTS to me.

Historically, Ford produced both L and GTS models for European delivery through about August 1974, then stopped production entirely and shut down the Fossalta assembly plant. Afterwards deTomaso opened the Brusciata assembly plant and resumed Pantera production under the name of deTomaso Modena. All of the Panteras to emerge from that plant were GTS models, until the GT5 & GT5-S came along. No L model Panteras were assembled by deTomaso Modena.

your friend on the DTBB

Thanks for the info George! Yup, it's a RHD number. It has a good history and VERY well documented from 1981. It had a complete rebuild about 12 years ago, so I am hoping that the body work & chassis are in good condition. They are my main criteria. The current owner did give it a full body respray about 2 years ago, but I don't know whether it was a good one or not. Roll on Wednesday is all I can say!