First ever Pantera

According to really sketchy 44-yr-old info, the 1st five Panteras, all pushbutton prototypes built in 1970, were the ones used for crash testing (2 were actually crash-tested, and one more was wrecked by the young son of a Ford exec in Detroit) and for prototype development. Some may not even had serial numbers. The earliest one known to be in private hands was #1006, running ZF # 0004- but the owner had an unlisted address. The 1st dozen or so cars had unusual badges, some with only one, in different locations than we're used to, and the badge sizes were different. Bjorn Carlsson in Sweden still owns #1014. I'd ask Steve Wilkinson or Santiago what their opinion is on your London car.

The Provamo registry claims the original prototypo was sold by the factory and is in a collection, has a few pics but short of details beyond that.

From what I heard, the widow of Guerino Bertocchi still has the first Pantera prototype #1001 stored somewhere in Italy.

Thanks for the info guys, I spoke to the guy who was supposed to have this car but it was nowhere near the first production or prototype but it doesn't matter.

From what I have seen and read, the vin / records and the fact that Detmaso would build cars line them up and sort of pick one for a vin plate, and not starting in any order leaves one thinking, its possible you could have the first one built and they just pulled it out from the back of the factory at a later date and slapped a vin on it.

Who'd have thought it, Italians unorganized! Huh

I wonder if the son of a Ford Exec was Steve Wiiliams. I worked with him. He told me he rolled one that his dad brought home.

quote:

Originally posted by Detonator:
From what I have seen and read, the vin / records and the fact that Detmaso would build cars line them up and sort of pick one for a vin plate, and not starting in any order leaves one thinking, its possible you could have the first one built and they just pulled it out from the back of the factory at a later date and slapped a vin on it.

What's the difference? Numbering them is just an accounting thing. It's just relatively recently that the first or last was marketable because of selling techniques of promoting individual cars.

Everybody acts like DT never made cars before the Pantera.

What changed were the volumes of cars that needed to be produced.

That's really where Ford entered into the picture with their expertise and their financing.

I think it was Vignale (coach) that they bought who had an assembly line.

I do find it interesting that Ford just walked away from everything when the project ended and as far as I know they still own Vignale which is now just a company that exists only on paper...somewhere in a void in cyberspace?