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Auction says "passed in", I guess that is Australian for "withdrawn"?

I'm not sure where the LHD reference came from, the registry shows this car as only RHD? The center console is probably correct, the heater controls and handbrake location didn't change until late 9200 numbers.

That all said given the write up it is very possible this car came into Australia new as a LHD roller and was immediately converted by Metro Cars Pty.

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  • 9250c
Last edited by George P
Unfortunately, Domenic could not provide any information on the car's past other than that it had previously belonged to a De Tomaso importer/dealership called The Toy Shop, which was owned by Paul Halstead. Paul owns, and has very successfully campaigned, #9242. I wrote to Paul in 2016 to see if he could shed some light on #9250, but he did not reply.

If someone in Australia feels like helping to unravel this, here is a link to Paul Halstead’s web site:

http://www.go2hal.com/pantera/bio.html

A video of #9242:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOS0_btUjfI

A video of Kevin Bartlett outclassing the competition in #9242 (really worth watching):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE3yVGtt1YU

An Interview with Bartlett:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMjz_D3GVkc
According to Matt Stone and Rob de la Rive Box, the first “factory-noted” GT5 is #9250. Matt and Rob state, in their book Pantera Buyers Guide, that prior GT5s were "probably recorded as modified GTS units from about late 1980".

Bill Van Ess, who created the first De Tomaso registry, wrote of this car “This is supposed to be the start of the GT5 version. Birthdate 1/1/80”.

Franz Krump who really knows his stuff, wrote here on the PIBB back in 2005, “The First GT5 was shown at the Turin Motor Show in 1980. It was a white car and had chassis number 9250.”

We know the Turin Motor Show car was white, left hand drive and had no wing because we have photos of it. Here is the photo from the Wallace Wyss book:

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  • wallace_wyss
The problem I have with all this is that, based on its VIN sequence, #9250 is a 1982 or 1983 model. It is possible that it was repainted, converted to right hand drive, and had a wing added, all this I can believe, but I can’t get past the VIN sequence problem and the fact that there are some 36 GT5 Panteras with a lower VIN in the registry.

So, unless someone can get a hold of Paul Halstead and ask about the provenance of #9250, we will probably never know whether it is in fact the Turin car and the first true GT5.

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  • 9250b
Last edited by George P
Philippe:

Can you please confirm the build date, date it was sold by the factory, original colour, RHD vs LHD and whether it came with a wing?

Answers to these questions would help confirm whether this could be the Turin GT5.

Ideally, if your records contain some kind of notation of this being the first true GT5, it would solve a big mystery and finally enable us to pin down how many GT5 Panteras could have been built.

- Peter

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