So I see Super Panteras around and while I will admit I have not really studied them, they seem a bit different? Is there a Hall Super Pantera jedi master? I think there was 19 cars, did they all have the same motor? Were they built to what the owners wanted? I see some had Gurney parts? did all of them?
Are there any qualifying features or components that are common to all Hall Super Panteras?
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The Hall site says 19 built…
Mecum says 33…
https://www.mecum.com/lots/321...73-detomaso-pantera/
An owner said that he has #20 (VIN 2388).
Maybe the Hall Pantera team has info….
There’s a brochure floating around for a Hall “Ultra Pantera”!
Rocky
Ok, so already some inconsistency... 19 of 19 or 1 of 33?... 19 purple cars?...lol...
Gary offered to build anyone who wanted one of his creations for quite a high price back in the late 80's, early 90's. I have all his catalogs from the time and the Super P's were a nut and bolt new build starting with an original car. He would put all the parts he sold on the cars. They followed his original build GP IV car which is called "Big Red". I have pictures of several of the Super P's that I have collected since the early 90's. I post a few here for your enjoyment. The first is of Big Red. The yellow car is #12. The white is #18.
Thank you PanteraPat... So, I see the wheels are two out of three cars.
Some had Gp IV campi's and the rest Gary's Ultra wheels. Styles varied by the build and at the time.
Thank you Rocky and Pat !...
Here’s the specs from a previous post on this forum.
I tried to search on a list of VINs, but came up empty…
We've worked on a few of the over the years, 2 in particular had Joe Fontana monster race motors. No on left to ask about details, the two main builders that worked for Gary have passed away, one recently one couple years back. They opened their own shops after leaving him.
Hey, Jack. Even at 90+ years old, engine builder Joe Fontana is still around in Gardena, CA, at least a couple of years ago. He still has records. Trivia: Fontanas, were serialized on the main bearing caps, not on the block so you can't tell when the block was cast unless you pull the pan. Plus, there were two series, two bore sizes and two deck heights before he sold the design to Shelby Enterprises.
More Fontana Trivia: The aluminum blocks save about 50 lbs over a cast iron Cleveland (or Windsor). They were a composite design, using both 9.2" (Cleveland) and 9.5" (Windsor) deck heights, with a Windsor-type front cover, water pump and fuel pump, and a Cleveland crank, cam, oil pump and oil pan. They could be had with either a 4.060" bore or a 4.125" bore from Fontana. The popular 410" class WOO racers used a 4.125" bore, a 3.83" forged steel crank, Carillo rods (Carillo bought Arias a few years ago), a single Holley carb & put out around 900 bhp @9000 rpm all day long on methanol.
The actual block design was done by Nick Arias for drag racing in the lower size classes, then Don Madden and Joe Fontana bought it from Arias (Don passed away not too long afterwards) and made changes over the years. The engines were also popular (in So-Cal anyway) in street Mustangs. There is one in Norway in a street Pantera, not built by Hall! When the design was sold to Shelby Enterprises in Las Vegas, they dropped the 9.2" deck height option. It may still available from them as the 3rd iteration of Arias' successful early '70s design.
WHOA Kool info! Plus he's still with us? Unreal. Thanks Brother. Shark
As far as I know Hall made 28 Super Panteras and then went to the next level later on with 18 Ultra GT5S Panteras. His purple one is a Ultra GT5S targa. I have a black Ultra that he customized even further as you can see in the link: Hall Ultra Pantera GT5S | Flickr
Here is a photo from his brochure on the Ultra although I don't have info on the earlier Super Pantera builds. I have his books in the attic, would need to dig them out someday in less heat.
I stumbled on this Hall Super Pantera for sale on Hemmings. Looks kind of "rough" for that price. Was a no sale at Mecum 2 years ago - stalled at $65K
Our very own Leslie (Les) Gray had a hand in building some of the Super Panteras for Gary back in the 80's.
