GTS question

The serial# must start with THGT..... the car only came from the factory in silver,maroon, and a goldrod yellow. It has fender mldgs that were rivited on, clock over the glove box,black metallic hood and decklid,pantera scrip down the sides,ghia emblem on front bumper,notched out chrome exhaust tips, steering wheel with the ghia emblem in the center and black gts wheel emblems.hope this helps.

There are two models referred to as GTS, you have to be careful to specify which model you are referring to.

There was the European spec GTS manufactured from 1971 to ~1984. This car was designed to incorporate improvements beyond Ford's specification, for DeTomaso to offer customers in international markets. This model became the base model after August 1974. When you mention GTS, this is the version that will come to many people's minds.

Then there was a North American GTS. North American enthusiasts hounded Ford to import the GTS (i.e. the European GTS). Instead of giving the North American enthusiasts what they wanted, Ford specified a model for North America they would call GTS that incorporated no improvements, it was merely a Pantera L with a paint and badge job. They were manufactured only in 1974 (i.e. all have chassis numbers greater than 5900) but those with California destinations were redocumented as 1973 models. Bill Van Ess claimed there were 138 of these Panteras manufactured. These are the models Mike described, with THGT in the VIN number.

There are many Euro spec GTS Panteras in North America, so we North American enthusiasts normally differentiate between the two models by referring to one as the Euro GTS, the other as the North American or Ford GTS. Tom Edds and Tony Blevins are two members who own Euro GTS Panteras, Kelly Coffield (Panterror) owns a Ford GTS.

-G

The later EURO GTS Serial # started with THPNUD ... no GT .... The EUROS has no marker light, bumperettes, rear window defrost EURO tail light on the drivers side, most later had dropped floors and material interior panels and some other small features... and white and black ...LOL

Ron

So would that mean that this car on e-bay THPNMSO4903 is not a true GTS?

It would be better to use the terms Euro GTS or Ford GTS because I'm not sure which is the "TRUE" GTS in your mind.

The car on eBay is Tom Edds GTS, it is an authentic European GTS Pantera. Tom Edds' forum member name is DeTom.

-G

I believe that car to be a true Euro GTS, it has the original Euro mouse hair covered dash. Isn't it DETOM's car?

Interesting I see that the side decals seem to be in reverse to all other GTS cars I've seen.

Julian

quote:

Originally posted by accobra:
The later EURO GTS Serial # started with THPNUD ... no GT .... The EUROS has no marker light, bumperettes, rear window defrost EURO tail light on the drivers side, most later had dropped floors and material interior panels and some other small features... and white and black ...LOL

Ron

Ron, I think you'll find the 'UD' is a year/month date code, not letters signifying a GTS, albeit it may be a GTS. Most later cars left the factory as GTS or GT5 until introduction of the GT5-S.

Julian

This is Tony Blevins so I'll weigh in with my opinion. The pics are so small I can't make a definitive statement as to whether its a true Euro GTS or not but have the following thoughts.

- The S/N of Euro GTS cars do not contain GT so this is not of concern.

- The dash appears to be Mousehair (e.g. Alcantara). This could be duplicated on a non-GT car but it would be quite expensive.

- As a counterpoint to above, I'm surprised by the in-dash clock as neither my car or any other true Euro GTS that I've seen have this.

- Similarly, the seats are not original for Euro GTS and it also has a space saver spare (these were US req'd only).

- The striping (DeTomaso vs Pantera) is reversed from my car but maybe there were 2 different schemes ?

- The gauges should be in Italian - I can't see the pics well enough to know if thats the case here.

Finally, the sway bars should be 7/8" not 3/4 so this could be a tell-tale sign if its genuine or a copy. Unless someone were very detailed about the repro/scam, they would not bother with this upgrade.

Most/all mods to the EURO GTS cars could be duplicated so a decision in this case would probably need to be made by a preponderance of the evidence (IMHO). If the pics were of higher quality I could also provide more feedback

Tony

Maybe it was not fair of me to use this car as a example. I do not mean to cast any doubt on weather Detoms car is a true GT, based on its history and who owns it, I believe it to be a GT with out any question.
My question was if there was a way through the vin number to identify a GT, it appears that US cars had GT in the vin, Euro cars did not. Atleast that is my current understanding.
Tony, thank you for helping me with the finer points of being able to identify a Euro GT.