The Egyptian Survivor #6960

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Great to see this car - I am working on 6997 only 37 cars later than this one ,  also sold out of Rome.

Pantera Vin Code breakdown

Vin is THPNNE06960 .

VIN decoder breaks down is as follows

T =DeTomaso
H= Modena Italy
PN= Pantera
N= 1973
E= December
06960= 6960th unit built except the factory started with 1001 so the car is likely  around the 5,959th unit built.

If the build date is December its likely the sale date was slightly later than 1973. Are you able to confirm the 1973 Rome sale date ? It would be a record to make it and sell it so fast. Despite the actual built of December 1973 it likely would be titled as a 1974 and probable it was initially sold in 1974.

Ford usually introduces the new model year around September of each year so this likely would have fallen into the 1974 model run.

Highly appreciate your detailed information Percy. You might be correct. It is registered here in Egypt as a 1975 though.

Could it have been a specifically ordered car, knowing the first owner might have had some strings to pull?

@Percy posted:

Great to see this car - I am working on 6997 only 37 cars later than this one ,  also sold out of Rome.

Pantera Vin Code breakdown

Vin is THPNNE06960 .

VIN decoder breaks down is as follows

T =DeTomaso
H= Modena Italy
PN= Pantera
N= 1973
E= December
06960= 6960th unit built except the factory started with 1001 so the car is likely  around the 5,959th unit built.

If the build date is December its likely the sale date was slightly later than 1973. Are you able to confirm the 1973 Rome sale date ? It would be a record to make it and sell it so fast. Despite the actual built of December 1973 it likely would be titled as a 1974 and probable it was initially sold in 1974.

Ford usually introduces the new model year around September of each year so this likely would have fallen into the 1974 model run.

Yes, all true, BUT this a Euro car. Your rules apply to North American marketed cars.

This one could have been fresh off the presses?

Marti won't even have records of this one. He only has the US Ford records. Detomaso could do whatever he wanted outside of North America as far as Ford was concerned.

CIA maybe but a little too conspicuous for those guys.

@panteradoug posted:

Yes, all true, BUT this a Euro car. Your rules apply to North American marketed cars.

This one could have been fresh off the presses?

Marti won't even have records of this one. He only has the US Ford records. Detomaso could do whatever he wanted outside of North America as far as Ford was concerned.

CIA maybe but a little too conspicuous for those guys.

What was intriguing to me, is why would a sane diplomat leave his brand new Pantera behind and not take it home to USA after having served in Europe and North Africa, and specially after having driven it 4500KM across Africa with one wooden leg. I am certain the memories compiled in that trip alone was worth it.

To my humble automotive brain, something does not add up. Or was it some sort of toy that cant be under his name back home... ? Kind of odd that he left it behind and sold it in Egypt in my humble opinion. 

@M.Ezzeldin posted:

To my humble automotive brain, something does not add up. Or was it some sort of toy that cant be under his name back home... ? Kind of odd that he left it behind and sold it in Egypt in my humble opinion.

At that time Pantera values were pretty low, perhaps the hassle and cost of shipping, importation etc. simply wasn't deemed cost effective, if he could just replace it in the US upon arriving home?

Many cars that fetch multi millions of dollars today, like GT40's were simply abandoned or sold dirt cheap in France after a Le Mans race as the cost of transport back was deemed too high for a used up race car!

@joules posted:

At that time Pantera values were pretty low, perhaps the hassle and cost of shipping, importation etc. simply wasn't deemed cost effective, if he could just replace it in the US upon arriving home?

Many cars that fetch multi millions of dollars today, like GT40's were simply abandoned or sold dirt cheap in France after a Le Mans race as the cost of transport back was deemed too high for a used up race car!

Yep. It was said that Shelby didn't want to pay for bringing back the Comp Cobras from Europe because of the cost.

There is an interesting scene in Ford v. Ferrari where Remington asks Shelby to come and say hello to a new 427 purchaser.

Shelby says "they're just cars Phil. That's what they get for the money". Now where that scene is likely fictional, Shelby was quoted as saying about the Daytona Coupes when he turned a cold shoulder to them, "they're just cars".

I agree with Joules here. It probably just wasn't worth bringing the car back to the US, unless of course you could get the "Company" to do it for free?

It would probably cost more then the car was worth at the time?

If I recall correctly Egypt is RHD. Is it RHD? If so that could be the reason it was not brought back to the USA.

@Percy posted:

If I recall correctly Egypt is RHD. Is it RHD? If so that could be the reason it was not brought back to the USA.

Egypt has always been LHD

@panteradoug posted:

Yep. It was said that Shelby didn't want to pay for bringing back the Comp Cobras from Europe because of the cost.

There is an interesting scene in Ford v. Ferrari where Remington asks Shelby to come and say hello to a new 427 purchaser.

Shelby says "they're just cars Phil. That's what they get for the money". Now where that scene is likely fictional, Shelby was quoted as saying about the Daytona Coupes when he turned a cold shoulder to them, "they're just cars".

I agree with Joules here. It probably just wasn't worth bringing the car back to the US, unless of course you could get the "Company" to do it for free?

It would probably cost more then the car was worth at the time?

Thank you Joules and Doug, makes sense. Must have cost an arm and a leg to ship a car from Egypt to USA in the late 70s.

I would think Carol Shelby must have slowly turned what began as pure passion into figures and losses back in the day, when sales are on the rise, one can always build a new one the next day, though they turned out to be very limited by today's standards.

Some additional images of #6960
Less than 48K km.

This is a nice looking car.

It's definitely valuable enough to export from Egypt now to anywhere in the world. That's a very good turn of events for Panteras.

I see it has the second generation dash in it. The US versions are molded plastic. I've heard that the Euro cars had leather covered fiberglass versions of the same dash.

Do you happen to know what is in this car?

@panteradoug posted:

This is a nice looking car.

It's definitely valuable enough to export from Egypt now to anywhere in the world. That's a very good turn of events for Panteras.

I see it has the second generation dash in it. The US versions are molded plastic. I've heard that the Euro cars had leather covered fiberglass versions of the same dash.

Do you happen to know what is in this car?

To answer your question Doug, #6960 Has the leather covered dashboard.

@M.Ezzeldin posted:

To answer your question Doug, #6960 Has the leather covered dashboard.

That is consistent with what I was told about Euro delivered cars. Leather on fiberglass.

As far as Shelby goes, the comment explains a lot of his perspective at the time.

It is said that the Coupes "languished out back" at the LA facility at LAX for quite a while. You could buy any one for $2,500. The number three GT40, a team car, had the same fate. Wound up here in NY licensed for the street. "They were just VERY USED cars"!

Phil Specter wound up with one and was often seen driving around LA in it. He wound up giving it to one of his security guards and put in storage in a container for 30 years.

His wacky daughter winding up with it and eventually commuting suicide over the pressure of selling it.

Of the "Fords", other then maybe the Mk II's that won at Lemans, there isn't a more valuable car in existence.

Things change but sometimes take time. Christianity took over 400 years to be accepted in Rome. Things move a little faster now...but not by much sometimes?