Euro specs

Wrong, as a blanket statement. The very rare Gr-3 Panteras built for street AND lower-echelon racing could be ordered with more powerful engines, upgraded brakes etc, but early so-called 'Euro-GTS' cars were less capable cars than US-spec machines IMHO. All US machines included undercoating, extra bracing developed by Bill Stropp (West Coast) and Holman-Moody (East Coast), safety glass etc which made them heavier, while some Euro countries did not require these and thus were a 150-or-so pounds lighter but with std engines, brakes etc. Then, when Ford took over complete mfg responsibilty for Panteras in mid-'72, ALL non-racing Panteras were identical, as far as we know. Finally, the post-74 Panteras (GTS, GT5, GT5-S) could be custom-ordered with literally anything you wanted, so they were potentially more performance-oriented. But once imported to the US, they required aftermarket smog controls, cat-converters etc, etc before they could be reistered. Rust is a MAJOR problem in such private-import cars; if they could pass the countriy's yearly inspections (which make CA smog checks look like a joke!) they must be exported or scrapped. Guess where a number of such decaying cars wound up, sporting new paint & undercoating? My advice- be very careful in inspecting such machines before laying out cash. Horror stories abound....

I somewhat disagree with Jack on this one... US Panteras became saddled with emissions and smog stuff and watched their horsepower get choked off in the process. I think by 1974 it was down to 248 or 268 or something like that. Euro-Panteras had none of this anti-smog junk on it, and remained at a nominal 300 or 330hp.

If you want to talk GTS cars, the difference is even greater. The US-spec GTS cars got a cosmetic only package, while the Euro-GTS cars got an upgraded engine (330hp), upgraded brakes and suspension, as well as the cosmetic stuff. Perhaps this is what you are thinking of.

Jack is correct in that this is all academic now, as most US-spec cars have been rebuild (at least once, if not more) as have the Euro cars. So neither one conforms to the original specs.

But if the question was which model, Euro or US, had higher performance as new, then the answer is undoubtedly the Euro-cars.

There is no advantage or disadvantage to parts availability for Euro or US cars. I also don't think that the prices are affected at all by the country of origin. Post 1974 is a different story...

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Charlie McCall
1985 DeTomaso Pantera GT5-S #9375
"Raising Pantera Awareness across Europe"
http://briefcase.yahoo.com/gt5s_1985