Factory bumpers for a 1975 Pantera Lusso from Europe

Hi Steve -

I'm sure you have seen the paperwork at the bottom of the ProvaMo listing.....  calling out the car specifically as a "Lusso"....  I would take it to mean the car came out of the factory like that.....  But that's just an assumption....

But it sure wouldn't make sense that Claude would convert the car to an "L" model prior to the sale unless it came out of the factory like that.

But that's just my wild speculation.

Rocky

Is Claude still around?  If he is, I bet there are a few people here who might be able to get contact information.

Yes, Claude is still around and he reached out to me about this car a while back.   I sent him a message today asking if he remembers how it arrived at his distributorship in context to the bumper.  I feel like I am kind of asking a lot of him because it was more than 45 years ago and he sold a bunch of DeTomaso cars.

But Claude did not export the car to the US.  He sold it to a European owner.  The car was later sold to someone in the US and the bumper could have been retrofitted for DOT compliance.

Don't place too much emphasis on the factory stamped holes in the fenders. For his Euro sold models, DeTomaso wholesaled Ford-built Panteras- maybe semi-stripped models- and used those to 'build' his Euro GTS cars. For instance, rear side markers were not required in Europe nor Asia at the time but all Panteras of the period had the stamped holes for them, sometimes covered by a body colored plate.