Vehicle Suspension

No. For instance, early '71 Panteras had slightly longer a-arms than later ones, and the width between the bushings was bigger. On such cars, the front spindle bolted into the upright and was removeable. Cars running 7" Campy wheels have a poorer scrub radius relative to the optional 8" Campys or most aftermarket wheels. If the US-only spring-spacers are still in a car, the geometry is quite screwed-up from what Dallara intended, and in late '73, the factory added spacers under the steering rack to partially correct a bump-steer problem. I think the GT5 and -5S cars had further geometry changes, and the 90-up Pantera 200 had 4" longer front & rear a-arms with radically negative-offset wheels etc. Finally, some undamaged original Panteras seem to have a symmetry problem in their construction: for instance a 9" wide front wheel will fit flush to the outside of the left fender while on the right side, the same wheel will protrude up to 3/4". I've also seen differences in the position of the rear wheels relative to the fender opening; some cars cannot use big 17" tires without the tread getting VERY close to the front/rear edges of the opening. These variations IMHO could only come from the suspension attach-points being welded in a little different side-to-side. In the back of the TSPs there are measurements for frame alignment, but Italian engineers apparently are allowed to use imaginary points as references, while in the US, engineers must use "hard points" for reference. Reference points out in space make it very difficult to actually USE them for frame alignment.... I'm no expert and this is a complex subject, so inputs are welcome

Jack, thanks for your comments. I am in the process of rebuilding the rear sustpension, and have abunch of questions, but I will post them as seperate questions in the form.

Hard Points are nice, to bad we don't have them.
CAB

You're right- there aren't many 'hard points' documented, and few straight lines on the body. In the January '03 POCA newsletter, Ted Mitchell published some 5 pages of actual measurements on the entire stock suspension of a '71 Pantera. Ted acquired a fairly expensive computer program used by race teams and really documented the Pantera geometry. This was about 2 years work; hopefully, he will continue by inputting more modern wheel sizes, the later-model factory bump-steer bracketry etc. and later this year we might see a 'phase 2' article.