Equipment
Ford 351 Cleveland V-8, 5-speed, Campagnolo alloy wheels, Pirelli Cinturato tires, wing, flares, Alpine cassette, power windows, air conditioning, books, tools, fire extinguisher.
Condition
One of 182 built in this trim. Good, lightly aged paint. Beautiful restored wheels. Lightly worn leather but mostly lovely interior. A rare, later Euro spec Pantera that has gotten major mechanical and cosmetic attention when necessary, and carefully driven for 12,508 km (7772 miles).
Market commentary
In this country, the Pantera was a fondly remembered but short-lived Anglo-American exotic sold at Lincoln-Mercury dealers from 1972-75. But while Ford held the rights to the car in the U.S., DeTomaso retained them in Europe, and kept on building the car, albeit in small numbers, up until the early 1990s. Panteras got a little better, a little faster, and more aggressively styled during that time, and the small numbers that have made their way over here on an individual basis are quite desirable to American buyers. This one was a $120,000 no-sale at Mecum's Kissimmee summer sale in 2020 and then sold for $172,000 on Bring a Trailer later that year. Inflation since then has been bad but it hasn't been that bad, and there hasn't been the kind of explosion in the Pantera market that the difference between those numbers might suggest. There were nine Panteras at Mecum Monterey this year, which surely drew, but this result defies logic. It's the most expensive of the group by nearly a factor of two over the next most expensive, another GT5-S sold for $180K. It's very nearly the all-time record auction price for a Pantera, just a few grand shy of a later, rarer 90 Si model that sold for $357K a few years back.