Barrett-Jackson has been coming to Palm Beach (technically, West Palm Beach) at the South Florida Fairgrounds since the mid-2000s, making this the auction house’s most enduring auction that’s not in Arizona. B-J’s sale here consistently brings over 600 vehicles and dozens of vendors to the venue for a smaller version of the collector car fanfare we’re used to seeing in and around Scottsdale. This year, total sales were a solid $45M and average price was rather high at more than $74,000, but there were plenty of budget-friendly four-figure classics as well.

Indeed, Palm Beach usually offers a wide range of vehicles at a wide range of prices, and this year was no different, although offerings at the top end were less diverse. Five of the top 10 sales were a Ford GT of some sort, and eight of the top 10 were built after the year 2000. Only a 1966 Corvette restomod and the replica Dodge Daytona from Joe Dirt brought some American muscle into the top 10.

We examined some of the more interesting cars and significant sales in detail below.

Lot 692: 1972 DeTomaso Pantera

Sold for $176,000

Chassis no. THPNMB02424. Red over black vinyl. Visually maintained, largely original, #2 condition.

Equipment: 351/330hp, 5-speed, Campagnolo wheels, Becker Europa radio, power windows, air conditioning.

Condition: Represented with 1592 actual miles and its preservation is impressive. It shows careful ownership and only light age inside and out, although the paint does not look original.

Bottom line: An early Pantera that hasn’t been cut up or modified is already impressive, doubly so when it is as well preserved as this. The car has been to auction a few times, and bidders have always appropriately recognized its originality by paying a premium price for it. Its auction history also does a good job of tracing the market for these Italo-American sports cars over time. At Mecum Indy in 2014, it sold for $86,400. At Indy again six years later and in a hot 2020 market, it sold for $148,500. At Kissimmee 2022 and in an even hotter market, it brought $181,500, while in 2024 among softer but still high prices it took a small step back in price.

Lot 677: 1987 Buick Regal GNX

Sold for $156,200

Chassis no. 1G4GJ1174HP451735. Black over black and gray cloth. Unrestored original, #2 condition.

Equipment: 231/276hp, automatic, Goodyear Eagle tires.

Condition: Number 438 of 547 built. Showing 1309 miles and the tires are represented as original. Very well kept and preserved.

Bottom line: The GNX was one of the fastest and most desirable American cars of the 1980s. They’ve never really fallen out of favor, but it wasn’t until the last few years that they became six-figure modern collector cars. Way back in 2000, this one sold at RM’s Phoenix auction for just $30,800. Its odometer showed 534 miles and it was in essentially the same condition as it is today. It really is worth five times as much as it was 24 years ago.

Lot 745: 2005 Ford GT Twin-Turbo by Hefner Performance

Sold for $374,000

Chassis no. 1FAFP90SX5Y400061. Midnight Blue with white stripes over black.

Equipment: Twin-turbocharged, Ford Performance exhaust, shorty headers, Penske shocks, transmission oil cooler, removed rear bumper, 6-speed, painted calipers, McIntosh stereo, BBS wheels.

Condition: Paint shows some swirling and scratching but no major issues. Oddly, neither the mileage nor the horsepower numbers are represented.

Bottom line: This is an early production GT modified by an outfit in Florida, and although there are no dyno sheets, it is surely very fast. To drive, it’s probably a blast. As a collector car, though, the mods and the signs of use are knocks against it, and there are cleaner 2005-06 GTs to choose from that hit the auction block every month. Or even the same day, as the 597-mile car Barrett-Jackson sold 20 lots earlier than this brought $451,000.

Lot 440: 1990 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet by Gemballa

Sold for $110,000

Chassis no. WP0CB2965LS472097. Black over black leather. Original, #3+

Equipment: 3.6, 5-speed, whale tail, Gemballa wheels, Michelin Pilot Sport tires, white gauges, Pioneer stereo, carbon fiber dash.

Condition: Showing 75,514 miles. Some minor paint blemishes on the nose and mirrors. A few small cracks in the headlight covers. Clean wheels. Clean, straight top. Good interior with stretched upholstery on the driver’s side. Pretty understated for a Gemballa.

Bottom line: Uwe Gemballa founded a tuning company in 1981 and became a big name in modern coachbuilding, at least until he was murdered in South Africa in 2010. Gemballa-modified cars (mostly Porsches) are distinctive at best and ugly at worst, but they’ve never been boring, even if this is one of the more understated body kits they ever did. Body-kitted and tuned exotics like Gemballas, Koenigs, early AMGs, etc. were a bit passé for a while but collectors of a certain age are coming around to them. The bidders recognized this one for what it is, and that it isn’t just a 911 with a kit slapped on at the local body shop. Despite its use, the car sold for a big price. A regular 964-generation Carrera 4 cabriolet would never sell for this much, even in perfect condition.

Lot 356: 1979 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II

Sold for $27,500

Chassis no. SRK38123. Chestnut over biscuit leather. Visually maintained, largely underneath.

Equipment: Automatic, wheel covers, narrow whitewalls, power windows, air conditioning, original AM/FM.

Condition: Supposedly bought “nearly new” for talk show host Jack Paar as a gift from his wife. Represented with $30,000 worth of work over the past six months. Old repaint with a few blemishes but nothing serious. Lightly aged bumpers. Excellent interior. Tidy underneath. The recent mechanical work is very reassuring on any old Rolls-Royce, and the celebrity connection, while not super-relevant, is a nice bonus.

Bottom line: Jack Paar was a TV pioneer, but the number of people who really remember his tenure at The Tonight Show (1957-62) can’t be big. He also wasn’t known as a big car person (at least not the way later host Jay Leno is), and he owned this Rolls well past the peak of his career. The celebrity appeal here, then, is limited. The price, however, is on the high side for a Silver Shadow—one of the avenues to getting a true Spirit of Ecstasy on your hood. Credit the $30,000 worth of recent service, which isn’t usually lavished on affordable Rolls-Royces like this one.

Lot 675.1: 1999 Shelby Series 1

Sold for $165,000

Chassis no. 5CXSA1817XL000039. Silver with blue stripes over black and gray. Original, #2- condition.

Equipment: 244/320hp Oldsmobile V8, 6-speed, Nitto tires.

Condition: Some chips on the nose and dirt behind the headlight covers. Paint crack behind the left headlight. Very light wear on the driver’s seat. Showing 1360 miles and showing very light signs of age.

Bottom line: Despite its looks, the Series I wasn’t quite the Cobra successor it could have been, and people have been holding that against it ever since it came out. Original specifications called for a carbon-fiber body, Corvette transaxle, and 500 horsepower, but the reality was more modest. It got heavier, and the Olds V8 offered up less power, and the price climbed higher than anticipated. Objectively, it’s a great-looking car that’s plenty fast, but it’s always been undervalued relative to its rarity (249 built) and the famous name attached to it. Only in the past 10 years or so have prices really started to climb. In Palm Beach two years ago, this one sold for $126,500, which was on the modest side. The 2024 price is a better match for its mileage and condition.

Lot 788: 1961 Renault 4CV Jolly Beach Wagon

Sold for $36,300

Chassis no. 3607757. Cream yellow with yellow and white cloth top over wicker seats. Older restoration, #3+ condition.

Equipment: 747/21hp four-cylinder, 3-speed, hub caps.

Condition: Represented as one of 50 exported to the U.S. and Caribbean, and bought new by the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas. With the same family for the past 40 years and restored 10 years ago. Good paint. Light pitting on the chrome, including on the edges of the exterior grab bars. The wicker is all original and in solid shape aside from a few cracks. The dash and steering wheel are mostly clean, but the ignition around the keyhole is pitted. The top is a little dirty and aged. A perfect beach car with all the charm of a Fiat Jolly but for a lower cost.

Bottom line: Most of coachbuilder Ghia’s beach car, aka “Jolly”, bodies were on Fiats. The Italian cars are better known and more highly prized. Well-restored ones have sold for well over $100,000. But this Renault has all the charm and similar performance, or lack thereof, for a much lower cost. Are there cheaper ways to hit the beach in style? Certainly, but this is still so much charm and fun per dollar.

Lot 767.1: 2020 Porsche Boxster 718 Spyder

Sold for $126,500

Chassis no. WP0CC2A8XLS240606. Chalk with red top over red and gray. Original, #2 condition.

Equipment: 4.0/414hp, 6-speed, black wheels, red calipers, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires.

Condition: Showing 8086 miles and no real age or wear.

Bottom line: Six figures for a Boxster just sounds wrong, but the 718 Spyder is not your hairdresser’s Boxster. Essentially an open version of the Cayman GT4, it has aero bits on the body, suspension bits and brakes from a 911 GT3, and a much more powerful engine than the base car. It can hit nearly 190 mph. A 2020 718 Spyder started at a little over $97K, so with options this has always been a six-figure car, and the fact that a high-performance Porsche didn’t depreciate after four years and 8000 miles isn’t really surprising.

Lot 370.1: 1970 AMC Rebel Machine

Sold for $69,300

Chassis no. A0M190Y171202. White, blue and red over black vinyl. Older restoration, #3+ condition.

Equipment: 390/340hp, 4-speed with Hurst T-handle shifter, limited-slip and Detroit Locker, Magnum 500-style wheels, BFG Radial T/A tires, high-back bucket seats, console.

Condition: Decent paint with some scratches and touch-ups on the nose and a spot of surface rust under one of the headlights. Decent chrome, but the rest of the brightwork is original and tired. Clean wheels and tires. Upholstery looks newer while the dash and switchgear looks original, and overall the interior looks good. Inconsistent presentation, but a rare piece of AMC muscle that always makes a statement, and a patriotic one at that.

Bottom line: The Rebel was a short-lived model, only lasting from 1967 to 1970, and for its final year Hurst developed a high-performance version called the Rebel Machine. Based on a Rebel SST, it had the most powerful engine available in an AMC product and was dressed up with red, white, and blue reflective stripes. For 2326 buyers, it was an economical way to get in on the peak of the muscle car craze. They’re still economical, at least relative to their style, performance, and rarity. This result is realistic for the condition of this example.

Lot 791.1: 1996 Nissan Skyline GT-R LM Limited

Sold for $105,600

Chassis no. BCNR33023215. Championship Blue over gray cloth. Original, #2- condition.

Equipment: RHD. 2568/276hp, 5-speed with aftermarket shift knob, alloy wheels, Brembo brakes, aftermarket radio, aftermarket exhaust.

Condition: One of 188 LM Limited GT-Rs. Showing 118,190 km (73,440 miles) but recently serviced and looks quite good with a recent detailing. The paint and wheels are blemish-free. It’s clean underneath and the interior looks great as well.

Bottom line: Built briefly in the spring of 1996, the LM Limited was built to celebrate Nissan’s efforts at Le Mans with the R33-generation GT-R, even though those efforts were unsuccessful after four tries at La Sarthe. All 188 cars got Championship Blue paint, special decals, a carbon spoiler blade, different cooling ducts, and a bonnet lip. This is one of the more valuable variants of the R33 (1995-98). The price here seems a bit modest given the mileage and condition, but this auction was also very light on JDM favorites and the right bidders may just not have been in the room.

Lot 731: 1966 Aston Martin DB6 Mk I Vantage Coupe

Sold for $238,700

Chassis no. DB62805R. Fiesta Red over gray leather. Older restoration, #3+ condition.

Equipment: RHD. 3995/325hp, 5-speed, wire wheels, Vredestein tires, wood rim steering wheel, radio.

Condition: Restored in the late 1990s in the UK by RS Williams. Good older paint and chrome. Tidy, visibly but lightly run engine. Lightly aged and wrinkled leather. Older paint. Grimy underbody. Lightly aged restoration on a well-equipped Aston.

Bottom line: This DB6 isn’t perfect and the RHD is a knock to its desirability, but it’s a genuine Vantage wearing a high-quality (if older) restoration by a well-known specialist. It sold for $240,00 on Bring a Trailer just a few months ago in February, with unanswered questions and a lien on the car putting off bidders there. A $240K sale price is very low, low enough that taking it straight to Barrett-Jackson for a flip probably seemed like easy money. But it wasn’t, and given the fee structure of Bring a Trailer vs. B-J, the seller actually lost quite a bit of money here.

Lot 742: 2022 Ford GT Alan Mann Heritage Edition

Sold for $1,292,500

Chassis no. 2FAGP9EW4NH200027. Alan Mann Red, gold and white over black. Original, #2 condition.

Equipment: 213/660hp V6, paddle-shift 7-speed.

Condition: 16 miles, looks new, and pretty much is.

Bottom line: Ford spun off 10 different special editions of the 2016-22 GT, many of them playing on the theme of “Heritage.” The Alan Mann version is a tribute to Alan Mann Racing, the English team that raced GT40s in the ’60s as well as other Ford products like the Falcon, Lotus Cortina, and Escort. Alan Mann also gave the Mustang its first race victory in 1964. Just 30 examples of this special edition GT were produced for 2022. There were seven different Heritage Edition GTs, and whereas base cars typically sell for just under $1M these days, somewhere around $1.2M is more the norm for the Heritage cars.

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The post 12 Cars That Caught Our Eye at Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach 2024 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Unless you’re rolling it out of a trailer for two car shows a year, the life of your hobby car is probably going to involve some tough run-ins with dirt, grime, and other detritus that are all but inescapable in everyday life. Add in nearly four decades of slumber in a dusty barn, and things go to a whole other level.

The barn-find DeTomaso Pantera that Tom Cotter discovered in North Carolina a while back has been getting quite the second shot at life. Davin and his merry band of wizards breathed new life into the Ford 351 Cleveland V-8 in the latest edition of our famous Redline Rebuild series, but the goal was never just to freshen up the motor. We wanted to put this Pantera back on the road, looking as good as it did the day it rolled off the assembly line.

That’s where cryoblasting (the cool-kid term for dry-ice blasting) comes in. The relatively new method of car detailing involves using little pellets of dry ice to blast away debris and dirt that have been caked on over years of use. Think of the materials that even the best power washers can’t touch without risking the finish of what’s underneath.

Tom takes the engineless Pantera to Jared Friends of Merritt Motors, a specialty dealer out of Kannapolis, North Carolina, that offers dry-ice blasting as well. As Jared explains it, despite being relatively new to the automotive world, cryoblasting has been around for a few decades in the manufacturing and food service industries. “[It’s used] to clean any surface where you don’t want to damage the substrate underneath,” explains Friends.

Dry-ice blasting has a far more exacting level of cleaning capability than blasting with another media like sand or walnut shells would, he says. In the case of the Pantera, Tom is hoping to see the original undercoating remain intact, but also to see all of the dirt and grime that’s worked its way into said undercoating removed. As Jared shows Tom, the pressure and particle size are both highly customizable, depending on the application and the desired outcome.

Watching Jared and his colleagues work is downright mesmerizing. You can see the gun turn the surface white temporarily, as the dry ice freezes everything it touches. Then, as it evaporates, what’s left is a dirt-free surface that still has the factory undercoating intact—just like Tom had hoped.

Perhaps most impressively, the process seems relatively surface-agnostic. Whether Jared and his crew were spraying steel on the frame, body panels, exposed mechanical components, or wires and rubber grommets, the cryoblasting has no trouble removing half a century of build-up.

Just before the halfway point in the video, the team pauses to do a side-by-side comparison between the treated areas and the untreated areas. The difference is astonishing; Tom is completely blown away. By the time the crew is finished, the Pantera looks nearly as good as new. In fact, the finish is so solid that Tom and Kyle, Jared’s associate, are analyzing the quality of the application of the original factory undercoating in areas, noticing inconsistencies with the way the Italian assembly workers treated areas on the Pantera.

On the second day, Tom and the car’s owner, Brian Cotter, get a chance to try their hand at the cryoblasting process. Both are amazed at how straightforward the application is. Before long, they’re both having a great time blasting away at the built-up grime. Eventually the transmission gets the same treatment, taking the gearbox back to near-as-new. Even the interior panels get touched up.

“It’s going to be so nice to work on,” says Tom. “It’s oddly satisfying to use the machine,” agrees Brian. “It’s remarkable the amount of different materials you can clean up with this process.”

We couldn’t agree more. Check out the full transformation by watching the video below.

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The post Cryoblasting Our Barn-Find Pantera Made It Look Like New appeared first on Hagerty Media.

The latest rendition of Hagerty’s timeless Redline Rebuild video series has arrived, and it might just be our favorite one ever. The lucky engine in question is a Ford 351 cubic-inch Cleveland V-8, pulled from a 1972 DeTomaso Pantera that Tom Cotter and the Barn Find Hunter crew rescued from a four-plus-decade slumber a while back.

While the crossover nature of how this engine came to find its way into our shop is as serendipitous as it comes, the romance didn’t last long when it came time to get down to business. “We know the motor’s stuck,” says Davin Reckow, the greasy knuckles behind the Redline Rebuild series. This one was always going to be a bit of a battle to make happen. But seized engines are no match for Davin and the crew. (Remember that Buick Nailhead revival? That thing was a doozy.)

With the engine removed from its dusty resting place, it was time to make the trek north to our shop and begin the teardown process. Almost immediately, Davin and the team identified what they thought was a blown head gasket, an ailment that would quickly prolong how much time it would take to bring the Cleveland back to life. Deeper into the teardown, their prognosis changes a bit, and they theorize that at one point, the engine suffered an overheating event that caused damage to multiple cylinders. Ruh-roh.

Concerned but not flummoxed, the team pressed on. No amount of slime nor sludge—and as you’ll see, there was plenty to go around—was going to halt this rebuild. With everything apart, it was time to send the parts through the washer and get to work rebuilding the block. After a trip to the machine shop to ensure healthy mating surfaces for the heads and clean cylinder walls, the team decided to sleeve one of the gnarliest cylinders. “We’re only sleeving one, so that’s a good sign,” notes Davin.

Davin and the team decided to make a few modifications to the Clevland in the interest of performance and durability, including new ARP main bolts and an adjustable valvetrain for the cylinder heads. They also made a tweak to the way the lubrication system functions. “Cleveland blocks had a tendency to over-oil the valvetrain and starve the rods,” explains Davin. The fix, as you’ll see in the video, was to install a “bushing” in the oil passageways that reduces the flow rate for the oil headed to the valvetrain, ensuring that plenty of lubrication remains available for the rods. Davin and the crew also increased the oil pan size, upping the engine’s oil capacity from six quarts to nine.

With durability modifications complete, it was time to send the Cleveland off to the salon for a glow-up. Sit back, grab a cup of eggnog, enjoy the time-lapse rebuild, and be sure to stick around to hear this engine roar back to life for the first time in more than four decades—of course, not without a little drama first.

What engine do you want to see Davin work his magic on next? Let us know in the comments below.

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The post Watch us bless this barn-find Ford 351 Cleveland V-8 with new life appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Half a century ago, a Michigan racer remanufactured at least four very special DeTomaso Panteras. This one has survived virtually untouched.

As Panteras tend to do, when it rumbled into the parking lot of Pasteiner’s AutoZone hobbies on a Saturday morning in August 2023, the car drew a crowd. But this Pantera sports car, a mid-engine mid-century classic, was far from an ordinary example of the breed, as it had the flared wide body of the marque’s GT race cars, along with their loping idle and throaty exhaust note. At the wheel was David Nikolas, of Nikolas Motorsport, in Pontiac, Michigan. David is an automotive technician, businessman, and race car driver. He has achieved much in motorsports, including a 1998 Thundersports Cup series championship at the wheel of an ex-Paul Newman March 817.

Before he had wormed his way out of the low-slung sports car’s tight cockpit, Nikolas was barraged with questions like, what the heck is that? “A long-ago abandoned Tope Pantera that I dragged out of a storage shed,” was his answer.

Warren Tope was a Michigan car guy and the son of a senior Ford powertrain executive. A Ford fanatic by birthright, Tope had a five-year fling with auto racing, from 1970 to 1975, competing mostly in SCCA Trans Am with Mustangs and Panteras while dabbling in IMSA GT and even NASCAR Winston cup. His successes were few but significant, with Trans Am wins at Sanair and Road America in ’72. Both came at the wheel of his Trans Am Mustang. Although Mustangs seem to have been Tope’s main crush, Ford’s purchase of DeTomaso and its Pantera sports car in 1971 gave him another racing brand to play with. Sadly, Tope was killed on July 5, 1975, when the McLaren Can Am car he was driving went under the Armco guardrail at speed in the run-what-ya-brung Wide Trak II road race in Pontiac.

Tope’s competition record isn’t the only thing for which he’s remembered. The extensively modified Panteras that he remanufactured and sold in the mid ’70s are among those automotive curiosities that pique the interest of enthusiasts intrigued by unique, limited-run remakes of production automobiles. While Tope raced a GT4 Pantera several times, he didn’t see much success with it, but he apparently decided there was money to be made upgrading standard Panteras to near-GT specs. Tope is said to have purchased five ’73 and ’74 Panteras at the $11,000 sticker price, with a plan to upgrade them significantly and sell them for $18,000 each. Because Ford was winding down racing activity at the time, his father’s connections enabled him to secure Ford performance parts at reasonable cost while drawing on the expertise of the Ford racing community.

Tom Hill, who worked for Tope at the time and bought the third of the four Tope Panteras that are known to have been sold, said that the cars were very much like the GT version but with slightly detuned engines. His recollection of the days in Tope’s shop isn’t perfect, but he believes that the first car they completed went to a doctor in LA, the second went to Don Funk of Funk Seeds, the third became his, and the fourth went to Sonny Tindall of Detroit. As far as Hill can recall, the fifth car was never completed, because production was halted after Tope’s death.

According to Hill, the Tope Pantera body was mocked up in clay by a skilled Detroit modeler prior to production, then built in Tope’s shop. Modifications to the original Ghia-styled sheet metal included 6-inch fender flares on the rear quarters and 4-inch extensions up front. They were made of fiberglass and riveted to the body, then molded in. All cars were fitted with custom-built silver-soldered double crossflow radiators, Schaefer aluminum flywheels, Weber pressure plates, custom clutch discs, Koni shocks, revised springs, new rear control arms, a Recaro driver’s seat, a Momo steering wheel, and a variety of other add-on goodies.

The engines were built on Ford Cleveland 5.8-liter blocks, sourced from Australia. Cleveland engine production had been discontinued in the U.S. in 1974, but they were still being produced down under. Hill said that Tope became the sole U.S. distributor for the desirable 4-bolt-main block and derived substantial income from sales of the bare blocks.

The Tope Pantera engines feature Ford pistons and Ford racing heads that combine for a 13:1 compression ratio, a General Kinetics solid lifter cam, Crane roller rocker arms, a valve-train stud girdle, ported steel cylinder heads, Manley stainless steel valves, and Ford racing valve springs. A double-pumper Holley 850 cfm 4-barrel sits atop a hi-rise Edelbrock intake manifold. Stainless steel exhaust headers direct gases to a pair of dual pipes. Hill recalls that dyno tests pegged rear-wheel horsepower at well over 400.

Hill purchased 15-inch Stirling racing wheels from a Brazilian manufacturer for his Tope Pantera. They appear to be identical to those used on Greenwood Corvettes. The rears are 13 inches wide, and the fronts measure 10 inches across. He drove the car exclusively on the street, running it on aviation gas or high-octane racing gas (which was available on Woodward back in the day). Hill put only 4400 miles on the car before he became absorbed in motorcycles, lost interest in the Pantera, and put it in a storage shed where it remained for 40 years.

Nikolas first laid eyes on the Tope Pantera in that storage shed. “It was filthy dirty and covered with surface rust but seemingly well stored and up on jack stands. After dragging it out of there and trailering it back to my place, I power washed it three or four times, scrubbed it with a wash mitt, clay barred it, and rubbed it out with an orbital polisher.”

Accompanying the car were a trailer full of spare parts and some of the original equipment that was removed when the car was modified. That sweetened the deal. Nikolas also recalls that when he first inspected the car and peered through a dusty window, he thought the odometer read 44,000. When he later discovered that it read 4400, the buy became better yet.

After the car was cleaned, Nikolas tried to fire it up, only to discover that it would only run on four cylinders—one bank of the V-8 engine. That pointed to an exhaust obstruction. Further detective work discovered a family of mice and their nest clogging one exhaust pipe.

But the makings of a very interesting and powerful automobile were all there, and Nikolas and the crew at his Nikolas Motorsport auto repair business soon had it sorted out.

“At first I thought I would just buy a Roush crate engine to drop in there, bolt on some 17-inch wheels and a few other new components,” said Nikolas, “but then I realized that this car is a survivor, a fine example of a custom-built sports car and in very good condition under all the grime and dirt. I’m not changing a thing.”

And he hasn’t changed a thing. The gleaming silver paint and black pinstripes are original, as is every inch of the interior, including a factory “radio delete” block-off plate, the mid ’70s Recaro driver’s seat, and a full complement of gauges.

Original as well are the Pirelli P7 tires—345/35 VR 15s in the rear and 285/40 VR 15s up front. Of course, the half-century-old tires will have to go, but to be honest they look brand new, and Nikolas has put a few miles on them. Determined to keep the car original, Nikolas wants to replace the tires with a faithful match. Unfortunately, Pirelli halted production of that tire in the correct size for the rear some time ago. But Nikolas said that some Lamborghinis require the same size tire and Pirelli has indicated that it will resume production.

Nikolas was more than happy to let me take the Tope Pantera for a spin on Woodward, where his shop is located. I was a little leery of driving a valuable machine on those tires but was willing to give it a go. A septuagenarian with arthritis in every joint and two artificial knees, I’m far from nimble but can still hit the apex once situated comfortably behind the wheel. But in this case getting situated was a problem. The seat is far below the sill, so upon entering backside first, I had to sort of drop into the seat, which led to me banging my head hard on the door frame. “I’ve done worse,” I thought as I attempted to swing my left leg into the car. “Let’s do this.” But given the limited flexibility of my titanium knee joint, I couldn’t quite bend my leg enough to get it through the door opening, which was narrow even with the seat as far back as it could go. With those tires on my mind, I aborted the effort.

Of course, Nikolas is a much more astute evaluator of hot sports cars than I, and he said the car drives as nice as his 2004 Ferrari 360. It’s smooth, powerful, and very neutral when driven briskly but cautiously. Analysis of how it performs at the limit will have to come after the car has been reshod with new rubber.

Nikolas’ assessment differs from Car & Driver‘s road test of a Pantera in 1971. The C&D boys found their test car had a bad habit of oversteering abruptly when lifting off the throttle. That tail wagging was made all the more dangerous due to the car’s normal understeer. Nikolas, in his limited time behind the wheel, has experienced no such behavior. That can probably be attributed to the revised rear control arms and greatly improved damping. The front suspension geometry may have been revised as well. With new rubber under the car, Nikolas will undoubtedly beat it into some corners on the test track at M1 Concourse, which is conveniently right across Woodward from his shop. We will be there to watch.

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The post Among the fire-breathing Panteras produced by DeTomaso, this one may Tope them all appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Having recently covered the DeTomaso Deauville, in which we dangled the same company’s Longchamp under your nose, we thought we had better tell you the story of this vanishingly rare coupe, because it stands to reason that you’re now desperate to know more.

Had it not been for the Deauville, the 1972 Longchamp would never have been created, because the two vehicles shared the same platform and running gear. That meant there was a 351-cubic-inch Ford Cleveland V-8 up front, which drove the rear wheels via a three-speed Ford automatic transmission. But whereas that V-8 was tuned to produce 275 hp in the Deauville, this was upped to 330 in the more sporting Longchamp.

DeTomaso unveiled the four-door, four-seat Deauville at the 1970 Turin Salon; the encore came two years later at the same show. The Longchamp name was shared with the famous Parisian horse-racing course. As with the sedan, the new 2+2 coupe was designed by Tom Tjaarda while he was working with Ghia, the Italian design consultancy. His start point was a defunct concept that he had designed for Ghia back in 1969: the Marica, which was based on a Lancia Flaminia.

Tjaarda’s brief had been to come up with something that would take on the Aston Martin DBS V8, Jensen Interceptor, Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2, Lamborghini Jarama, and Iso Lele. However, by the time the Longchamp was unveiled, the Mercedes 450SLC had become a reality, and the Benz looked more like the DeTomaso than any of those more exclusive alternatives.

Exclusive they all were, because within a year of the Longchamp’s arrival, the luxury car market would be thrown into disarray as the oil crisis hit. Petrol prices quadrupled and the idea of running a 12-mpg car wasn’t so appealing.

Underpinning the Longchamp was a monocoque chassis developed by ex-Lamborghini supremo Gian Paolo Dallara. As with the Deauville, there was independent suspension front and rear, a Salisbury axle, and inboard rear brakes (discs all round). The rack-and-pinion steering was power-assisted.

Doug Blain was one of the few, if not only, British journalists to drive the Longchamps in period, for CAR magazine.

He wrote: ‘The Longchamp may not feel like a sports car, but it certainly goes like one […] It accelerates strongly to well over 100 mph and was by no means flat-out at an indicated 125 mph, which was the highest figure I saw. In fact, though, there were only about 500 rpm in hand, which indicates that the true maximum is probably well short of the claimed 150.”

Blain continued: “It’s a professional piece of work alright, soaking up even bad bumps without undue noise or disturbance, while getting on with its primary job of covering the ground quickly. It feels less like a Merc than a GT car in the Modenese tradition. This is to say that it is cruder, but also more sporting, in the accepted sense.”

The conclusion came: “Judged by the kind of yardstick real-life owners are likely to apply, the Longchamp is a hard car to fault. It is undoubtedly safe to drive fast, and considering some of the limited resources of the manufacturer, it is surprisingly well sorted in areas such as ride and noise suppression.

“Even more important, it is essentially strong and well balanced and honestly made, and because of its relative simplicity it is the kind of car you can expect to go on running with minimal attention even in the virtual absence of any kind of service facilities outside the main import centers, which of course means London.’

Longchamp sales continued throughout the ’70s at a trickle, before a facelifted car was unveiled. Most of those Series 1 editions were fitted with a three-speed Ford automatic transmission, but 17 left the factory with a ZF five-speed manual gearbox.

The Longchamp Series 2 was launched at the 1980 Turin Motor show. Now called the Longchamp GTS-E, there were now Campagnolo wheels—the same as on the Pantera GT5—plus flared wheel arches. The suspension was also slightly revised. The quad headlights were now Audi Quattro items, in place of the previous dual Ford Consul/Granada ones. A convertible concept was also shown, produced by Milanese coachbuilder Carrozzerria Pavesi, and this would eventually go into limited production.

Longchamp production limped on until 1989, by which point just one or two were being made each year. In 1986, none were made at all, so production was incredibly sporadic. By the time the last Longchamp was made in 1989, its list price had risen to £41,500, although the convertible was a hefty £75,000. At that time an Aston Martin V8 cost £92,000, a Bentley Continental R was £106,000, a Ferrari 412 was £82,000 and a Mercedes 560 SEC was £63,000, so the DeTomaso wasn’t insanely priced—just a left-field choice.

DeTomaso claims that 410 Longchamps were made in all; 394 coupes and 16 convertibles, but how reliable such numbers are is open to conjecture, because as with the Deauville, there are gaps in the chassis number sequences.

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Many people think that DeTomaso was a one-hit wonder, and that the only car the company produced was the Pantera. But not only was there the Vallelunga, which we’ve covered here, there was also the Deauville and the Longchamps.

We’ll save the latter for another day, because this week’s oddball classic is a four-door saloon that looks suspiciously like a Jaguar XJ40, a car which made its debut just as the Deauville’s 15-year production run was coming to an end.

When laying out its case for the Deauville, DeTomaso’s aim was to deliver the world’s most opulent saloon and draw clients away from the luxury big-hitters such as the Jensen Interceptor, Lamborghini Espada, Aston Martin DBS V8, and the Ferrari 365 GTC/4. The Deauville was unique in this company in having a quartet of doors, so that those in the back seats could get in and out more easily. It’s a formula that Monteverdi would follow with its 375 saloon.

The man behind the Deauville was Lee Iacocca, the charismatic Ford boss who had started to work with Alejandro DeTomaso on the Pantera project. During a visit to the design studios, Iacocca got chatting to stylist Tom Tjaarda, making it clear that he was a great fan of the Jaguar XJ.

When he next visited, this time with Henry Ford II, the die was cast for DeTomaso to build its own luxury four-door saloon, which Tjaarda also designed.

Appearing just a few months after the Pantera, the DeTomaso Deauville burst onto the scene in 1970 at the Turin Salon. Both cars used the same Ford-sourced “Cleveland” pushrod cast-iron 5763-cc V-8, which in the Deauville was rated at 275 hp. However, the Pantera’s powerplant was mounted in the middle; the Deauville’s was in its nose. A Ford three-speed Cruise-O-Matic automatic transmission channelled 314 lb-ft of torque to the back wheels—via a Salisbury diff, just as in the XJ6.

There was independent suspension all round, with unequal length wishbones and coil springs up front. At the back there were coil springs and radius arms with lower wishbones, with the driveshafts providing an upper link. The steering was a power-assisted rack-and-pinion setup, while there was a Girling disc brake at each corner.

By 1971 the first press reviews were appearing and the understated DeTomaso was generally well received. As the world’s fastest four-door saloon there was plenty to like in terms of performance, because the Deauville also handled impressively for such a hefty car—it tipped the scales at more than 4188 pounds—while that fully independent suspension ensured a supple ride.

The problem was that this was an eye-wateringly expensive car. It wasn’t as pricy as a Lamborghini or Ferrari, but it was nearly four times as expensive as a Jaguar XJ6. That Brit was swift, refined and supremely comfortable, which made it the ultimate cruiser; several magazines claimed that the XJ was the world’s best car. Nobody ever said that about the Deauville.

Of course, the DeTomaso was perfect for those who wanted to flaunt their wealth, since turning up to a society event in a Jag wasn’t going to draw a crowd. Then again, if you turned up in a Deauville, chances were nobody would have known what it was.

Things got even harder for DeTomaso in 1972, when Jaguar shoehorned its V-12 engine into the XJ’s nose to create the XJ12. Faster and even smoother than the XJ6, the 12-pot saloon cost little more than half as much as DeTomaso’s V-8-powered alternative.

What caused the biggest headache was the arrival of Mercedes’ 450 SEL 6.9 in 1976. Astonishingly fast, superbly built, and significantly more frugal at a time when there were still fuel shortages, the 450 SEL put the writing on the wall for the Deauville.

Ford had lost interest long before ’76. Within months of the car’s unveiling back in 1970, Ford had looked at fitting Maverick running gear to the Deauville, hoping to sell a cheaper variation to American buyers. The plan was to ship bare bodies from Ghia’s factory in Italy to the U.S., where the Maverick engines would be fitted, but when the first body shells arrived in the U.S. and Ford saw how poorly constructed they were, all such notions were abandoned.

Production continued until the mid-’80s, although after 1981 the Deauville was available to special order only. Officially 240 or so Deauvilles were built, but it’s reckoned that half this was closer to the truth because there are so many gaps between cars’ chassis numbers. Whichever way you look at it, the Deauville is now vanishingly rare, with few survivors left.

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De Tomaso’s 12,300-rpm V-12 drinks synthetic fuel

Intake: De Tomaso’s take on eco-friendly Italian design is a 900-hp track-only hypercar that runs on synthetic fuel. The two-seater, $3 million P900 is “in essence, the world’s first carbon-neutral V-12,” claims De Tomaso. There’s no electrification to boost performance or environmental credentials, but the 6.2-liter V-12 is claimed to be the shortest and lightest ever constructed, weighing in at 485 lbs, and has been designed to run on e-fuel. The whole car is just 1984 lbs (900 kg) thanks to its all-carbon construction, and its aero-enhanced body features a drag reduction system and has been developed with Capricorn, which also worked on the Porsche 919 Evo Le Mans car. No performance figures or price have been revealed, but just 18 will be built, so if this kind of environmentally-conscious motoring appeals to you, get ready to act fast.

Exhaust: It’s excessive and exclusive and would probably be irrelevant if it wasn’t for the additional attention that De Tomosa is drawing to synthetic fuels. “As a passionate automotive enthusiast, it is difficult for me to accept a silent EV-driven future,” said Norman Choi, De Tomaso CEO. “We believe that alternatives do exist, and the development of our new platform, driven by synthetic fuels, is our solution for keeping this shared passion for the theatre of combustion engines alive. This venture into synthetic fuels represents our commitment to the pursuit of a zero-emissions mobility future without sacrificing the crucial element which we all hold so dear— the soul and symphony of an engine.”  That’s something we can all get behind. –Nik Berg

Hyundai taps SK On Co. to skirt U.S. EV tax credit woes

Intake: Just months after announcing plans for a dedicated EV manufacturing plant and a battery plant in Georgia, Hyundai has now announced that it has entered into an agreement with South Korean battery maker SK On Co. to supply the battery packs for its future run of U.S.-built EVs. When the Ellabell, Georgia, plant was first announced, Hyundai declined to name the battery supplier, but SK Innovation, who is the parent company of SK On Co., already had a $2.5 billion battery manufacturing facility in Georgia, and it was expected that SK would be the partner of choice. Yesterday’s announcement formalizes that plan. Hyundai’s new plant is expected to start commercial production in the first half of 2025, and the automaker is targeting some 300,000 units annually—a big chunk of the Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis family’s goal to reach annual global EV sales of 3.23 million by 2030. The plant could produce as many as six EV nameplates for the Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis brands, according to a report from Automotive News.

Exhaust: The SK partnership moves Hyundai one step closer to potentially regaining eligibility for the $7500 EV tax credit, which under the new rules laid out in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, requires a hefty chunk (50 percent in 2023, 60 percent each year beyond) of battery components to be made or assembled here in the United States. Hyundai, who has quietly become the second-largest EV seller in the U.S.—lamented the new rules when they were announced, lamenting that the more stringent rules were detrimental to the automaker’s bottom line. — Nathan Petroelje

F1 boss Binotto resigns from Ferrari

Intake: Ferrari Formula 1 team principal Mattia Binotto has announced his resignation from the team, effective December 31. The Italian assumed the reins in 2019. “With the regret that this entails, I have decided to conclude my collaboration with Ferrari,” said Binotto. “I am leaving a company that I love, which I have been part of for 28 years, with the serenity that comes from the conviction that I have made every effort to achieve the objectives set.”

Exhaust: The news of Binotto’s departure is one part surprising, one part expected. The 58-year-old was expected to stay with the team for 2023. Ferrari dismissed rumors of Binotto’s resignation at the season finale Abu Dhabi. Still, F1 fanatics know that the Prancing Horse doesn’t wait for ships to right themselves. Under his signal calling, Ferrari went winless in the final 11 races of the season, as the team’s pit strategy became the subject of memes. Now that the decision has been made, fans will turn their internet musings to who may assume the ultimate F1 hot seat. Could it be Benz boss Toto Wolff or Red Bull man Christian Horner? Probably not. It is rumored that Alfa Romeo F1 team leader Fred Vassuer may assume the red throne. — Cameron Neveu

Lancia plans for the next century with “Pure and Radical” design

Intake: Italian legend Lancia is headed out of the doldrums and into a new era, boldly defining its design language for the next 100 years. That’s the message from Lancia Design Day, which showcased a weird, wheel-less concept that previews three Lancias to be launched between 2024 and 2028. The brand also unveiled a new logo, the eighth iteration since Lancia was founded 116 years ago, and says that its Pu+Ra (Pure and Radical) design motif will direct the company’s design for the next century. Lancia hasn’t forgotten its glorious history as it looks to the future, claiming that “the soft, pure and sensual shapes of the Aurelia and Flaminia will be found in the future Lancia vehicles, combined with the most modern expressions of radicality and simplicity, inspired by the language of furniture, architecture, and fashion, as well as by the brand’s sports history embodied in the famous Stratos and Delta.” The Pu+Ra Zero concept is “a three-dimensional manifesto” which will influence the upcoming Ypsilon city car, the next Delta, and a yet-to-be-named flagship. All three will be pure electric vehicles, to rebuild Lancia’s reputation in Europe. “Lancia will once again be a desirable, respected, and reliable brand in the European premium market. Today is the beginning of the new Lancia!,” heralded CEO Lica Napolitano.

Exhaust: In recent years Lancia has struggled on with a single model, sold only in its home market, but this announcement puts the company back on the world stage. “Today is the beginning of our Renaissance that will amaze Lancia fans all over the world,” said Napolitano, while confirming plans for new-look European dealerships. Sadly, the U.S.A. doesn’t look likely to feature in the Lancia’s plans for the time being. — NB

VW eyeing manufacturing partnership for Scout EV brand

Intake: VW is courting a builder for EV trucks and SUVs for their Scout brand in the United States, eyeing partnerships with their strategic partner Magna Steyr and manufacturing juggernaut Foxconn. Automotive News cites discussions with VW employees regarding the possible tie-up with Foxconn, a Taiwanese manufacturing company that recently took over production for Lordstown Motors in Ohio. That factory will also make the Fisker Pear, but Foxconn was previously teasing a second plant in Wisconsin for a yet-to-be determined vehicle, perhaps for Volkswagen/Scout or for their prototype electric Model B crossover and their Model V pickup.

Exhaust: Only time will tell how VW proceeds, be it with a trusted partner or a tech company: both suppliers are looking to increase their footprint in the United States presumably because of the incentives set in place with the Inflation Reduction Act. VW’s Chattanooga assembly plant likely isn’t suitable for a dedicated EV platform (yet), so working with a third party will quickly secure a foothold in America’s growing EV market. Will Foxconn’s recent missteps with iPhone production in China have any impact on VW’s decision? Corporations usually look beyond the news cycle when hooking up with a partner, so don’t bet on it. — Sajeev Mehta

California earmarks $1B for medium- and heavy-duty vehicle charging

Intake: We told you yesterday that Tesla is ready to deliver its first electric 18-wheeler tractors later this week: Now comes word from the Los Angeles Times that California Public Utilities (CPU) is dropping $1 billion on a vehicle electrification charging project, with most of the money earmarked to accelerate the number of midsize and heavy-duty trucks on the state’s roads. The Times says that about 70 percent of the funds “will go to charging medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, which combine to account for a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gas emissions” in the transportation sector. “It’s the highest priority,” (CPU) Commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen said. “We have very stringent state goals established by the Air Resources Board to electrify medium- and heavy-duty trucks and they need charging infrastructure in order to electrify their fleets.”

Exhaust: Rechtschaffen is correct, but depending on who you listen to, $1B is a ways off from the sort of monetary investment that will make a real difference in the near-term. Without a way to recharge on the road, the electric semi-truck market will be confined to routes that bring the trucks home every night to recharge. – Steven Cole Smith

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In the early hours of November 28, 1981, a crimson wedge flitted along the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. At a late-night cafe, a reporter sat nursing a coffee, nerves still jangling from the high-speed shotgun ride along the Tomei expressway. He could still hear the thunderous howl of the big-block V-8 behind driver and passenger, inches from the base of his skull. He sipped his coffee with shaking hands. It had felt like riding with the devil at your heels. Some distance away, at approximately 1:40 a.m., that devil caught up with Garry Mitsunaga and his red Pantera.

That’s how the story goes, anyway. Like most street racing myths, the facts are colored with embellishments and hyperbole.

At the moment of his death, Garry Arran Mitsunaga was already a legend in the Japanese dragstrip and top-speed racing scene. He was an American, born in Hawaii and employed by the Harman Kardon audio group. The company sent him to Tokyo in 1975 to work for one of its Japanese divisions, in sales. Then thirty years old, Mitsunaga was affable and shrewd enough to be a leading salesman at the branch—this despite his limited knowledge of Japanese.

Students of Japanese car culture likely have a particular image in their head of what midnight looks like on the elevated highways of Tokyo. In our Initial D-fueled dreams, Nissan Skylines, and Toyota Supras go door to door on smooth and empty roads, the overhead lights strobing like the pulse of a Eurobeat track. Whether it’s the fictional hill racing of the anime genre or the very real underground top speed contests of Racing Team Mid Night, nighttime in one of the biggest metropolises in the world is the setting for Japanese car culture in the same way that Bonneville is for the American Southwest.

But before the Porsche-vs-Skyline dreams of the 1990s, the streets of Japan were ruled by American V-8s. Even the Japanese automakers themselves couldn’t resist the lure of a small-block Chevy. At the 1968 running of the Japanese Grand Prix—in a deal set up by former U.S. intelligence agent and founder of the Shadow racing team, Don Nichols—Nissan equipped its victorious R381 racing car with a 5.5-liter V-8 specially tuned by MOON speed equipment. The partnership included ex-Prince employee and “father of the Skyline” Shinichiro Sakurai flying to California to sit down with Dean Moon, the guy who helped Carroll Shelby stuff a V-8 in an AC to create the first Cobra.

By the 1970s, the Japanese economy was booming. A culture of speed wasn’t far behind. On this side of the Pacific, the Datsun 240Z and 510 had proved the Japanese could build sporting coupes and sedans capable of winning race trophies. Performance enthusiasts in Japan snapped up imported Mustangs, and Camaros, and even pickup trucks. Such cross-pollination between SoCal car culture and Yokohama street-rodding continues even today; show up on Sunday morning at Daikoku Parking Area, off the highway in Yokohama bay, and there’ll be some American iron in attendance at Japan’s informal congregation of speed.

Thanks to the research of Charles Smart, who has pored through dozens of magazines, photos, and rare videos of the period, we have some idea of the arc of the Mitsunaga Pantera. Smart runs the Auto Team Retro page on Facebook, which has many gems from the golden age of Japanese street racing.

At first, Mitsunaga embraced Japanese performance. He purchased a rotary-powered RX-3, and had it modified. While purchasing tires at a local shop, he ran into a young mechanic named Masaru Hosoki. The two men would form the most unlikely of friendships. According to numerous reports, Hosoki was an ex-bosozuku gang member, one of the motorcycle-riding delinquents who terrorized Japan’s highways at the time. Mitsunaga was a sansei, a third-generation American of Japanese ancestry, and an established company man. What would such a pair have to talk about? Going as fast as possible.

Hosoki got Mitsunaga’s RX-3 running well enough to take a few wins in local drag races. These were mostly run on the airstrips at US airbases, and there was some friendly rivalry between the servicemen and the locals. Later, Hosoki and Mitsunaga created a V-8-powered Nissan Fairlady, equipped with a 327 small-block Chevy engine. At roughly about 2400 pounds and approximately 300 hp, the pan-Pacific Frankenstein’s monster was a beast at the track. It wasn’t remotely street-legal—not with Japan’s strict shaken safety inspections—but Mitsunaga took it to the Tomei anyway.

The Tomei Expressway links Tokyo to the major port city of Nagoya, to the east. It was fully completed in 1969 and remains today one of Japan’s busiest roads. The section most popular with Japanese street racers in the late 1970s and early 1980s ran from the Ebina service area to the toll gate just before Tokyo. In the day, traffic thronged the road. Late at night, you’d only see those obsessed with speed. Mitsunaga is said to have covered the seventeen mile section in his V8-Fairlady in about six and a half minutes at an average speed of above 160 mph.

Japan had another, less illicit outlet for top-speed jousting. Also built in the 1960s, for use by the rising Japanese car industry, the Yatabe banked oval was early on used by Toyota to set several speed records with the graceful 2000GT. By the 1980s, it became the place where tuners established their bona fides, with the winners able to brag that they had the fastest car in Japan.

Mitsunaga’s Fairlady fell afoul of increasingly more rigorous regulatory inspections, so he traded it in at a used car dealership. The Fairlady wasn’t worth much, but the car he bought was a little down at heel too: an early De Tomaso Pantera, used hard and put away wet. It was originally black, but the paint was weathered and flecked with chips. The cosmetics didn’t matter. Mitsunaga and Hosoki had plans.

Argentinian-born Alejandro De Tomaso built a number of models bearing his name, but the Pantera is certainly the most famous Designed by U.S.-born Tom Tjaarda, it was made in Modena but had an American heart; namely, a 351-cubic-inch Ford “Cleveland” V-8. De Tomaso produced approximately 7000 Panteras between 1971 and 1992, and the car developed a bit of a reputation in Japan.

Mitsunaga’s De Tomaso wasn’t the only famous Pantera in Japan, by the way. TOPS, a tuner specializing in V-8 builds, fettled a number of Panteras for high-speed running through the early 1980s. It was common to swap out the Ford engine for more powerful Chevy V-8s and, with experience gained modifying Camaros or Pontiac Firebirds, tuners built some real monsters. Before the racers moved to the longer Wangan highways, which favored the endurance capabilities of the Porsche 930, packs of Panteras owned the midnight on the Tomei.

Mitsunaga took this even further with his Pantera. Instead of a small-block Chevy, it had a NASCAR-tuned 454 LS7 big-block. He reportedly paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $80,000 for the engine alone; it had been sourced by Mario Rossi, NASCAR crew chief for the likes of Bobby Allison and Glenn “Fireball” Roberts. Rossi developed several safety innovations in his time, along with perfecting the still-used method of gluing lug nuts onto wheels to speed up pitstop times. Then he disappeared.

Indeed, no-one knows what happened to the mechanic who built this Pantera’s engine. After the huge drug smuggling scandal that rocked NASCAR in 1982, Rossi vanished from the face of the earth, never to be seen again. He supposedly died in a plane crash off the Bahamas … but the plane in question never crashed.

Rossi’s V-8 punched out over 600 hp in the back of the Mitsunaga Pantera. That would be impressive today, and by the standard of 1981 (a contemporary Countach made do with just 375 hp) it’s insane. In early November of 1981, Mitsunaga took his Pantera, newly painted red, to a Yatabe circuit high-speed shoot-out. It emerged triumphant.

Figuring Yatabe was too dangerous for civilian drivers, and wanting to take the human element of unpredictability out of things, driving duties at this event were performed by professional racers. In the case of the Mitsunaga Pantera, none other than Kunimitsu Takahashi took the wheel. Considered the father of drifting, Takahashi raced in F1, Le Mans, and gave the original hakosuka Skyline GT-R its vaunted fiftieth win.

The Pantera smashed previous records with a decisive 307 km/h (190 mph) showing, making it the then-fastest street car in Japan, and the first to crack the 300 km/h mark at Yatabe. But Mitsunaga was not fully satisfied. Nothing less than above 320 km/h (200 mph) would do. Takahashi is said to have warned him to never drive the Pantera outside of a race track setting. Mitsunaga didn’t listen.

The obsession ended in tragedy. Not long after dropping off that rattled journalist, on a night when it seems like he couldn’t quite hit his goal, Mitsunaga lost control of his Pantera. Perhaps the tires were greasy with heat from the sustained high speeds. Perhaps the engine was just too powerful and unpredictable. Whatever the case, the Pantera spun into a pole, and Garry Mitsunaga was killed instantly.

In death he became a sort of venerated ancestor to the street racing scene. Despite not being born in Japan, he was a hero to many locals, someone who never stopped chasing ever higher speeds. The Mitsunaga Pantera would go on to inspire many, and it would also become a symbol of the danger of this pursuit. A part of it, the five-sped transaxle, made it into one of the TOPS Panteras. The car itself would go on to inspire the “Devil Z” of Wangan Midnight anime fame.

What’s legend and what’s fact we are unlikely to ever know for certain. What we do know, however, is that Garry Mitsunaga and his Pantera dared to dance with the devil in the witching hour.

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Think DeTomaso and you probably think V-8, with a fabulous exhaust note and huge reserves of performance. But that’s not how things began for this enigmatic Italian brand, because its first car featured nothing more glorious than a Ford Cortina‘s four-cylinder. Sure, the Kent lump was mounted in the middle and the Vallelunga looked exotic, but this was still a car with a mere 104 hp on tap. However, the Valleunga was compact (149 inches long and 43 tall) and weighed just 1543 pounds. Plus it was fabulously slippery, so it was still capable of a claimed (but perhaps optimistic) 130 mph.

Born in Argentina in 1928, Alejandro DeTomaso started out racing Maseratis and OSCAs in the 1950s, before moving into building single-seater racing cars in 1959; he would go on to try his hand at making F1, F3 and even Indianapolis racers. Then, in 1962, he decided that it was time to move into road-car production, and his first effort was a car that could have laid claim to being the first mid-engined production sports car, if it hadn’t been for the arrival of the Bonnet Djet in autumn 1962.

Named after the Rome-based circuit at which DeTomaso did much of his testing, the Vallelunga arrived in ’63 and, in some respects, was advanced in its design. The four-cylinder engine and four-speed gearbox (soon upgraded to a five-speeder) acted as load bearers for the whole of the back end of the car. Bolted to the engine was an upturned U-section chassis, which opened out at the front of the car to carry the suspension.

Borrowed from the Cortina 1500GT, the 1498-cc four-cylinder engine sported a pair of Weber 40 DCOE carburetors, and for those who wanted some extra pep there was a 133-hp option. That power was sent to the back wheels via a modified Volkswagen gearbox fitted with Hewland gears. Across the top of the transmission sat a crossmember which carried the top mounts for the rear suspension; this wasn’t a car over-endowed with refinement.

There were disc brakes and independent suspension fitted front and rear, along with rack-and-pinion steering. The suspension was by unequal-length wishbones and coil springs with telescopic dampers, with an antiroll bar at each end. Everything was rose-jointed and, to top things off, DeTomaso even commissioned Campagnolo to cast some magnesium alloy wheels specially for the Vallelunga.

Making its debut in open-topped form at the 1963 Turin Salon, the Vallelunga roadster would remain a one-off. The next year a coupé made its debut, and it was this body style that would account for all of the cars made apart from that initial prototype. While the roadster and first three (some claim five) coupés were bodied in aluminum, most Vallelungas featured a one-piece fiberglass body shell which was made by Ghia. Engine access was via a lift-up Perspex rear window and a removable plywood decklid.

In this definitive production form, the Vallelunga’s dry weight distribution was 47/53 front/rear, but once the aluminum fuel tank in the nose was filled and two occupants sat in the cabin, the weight distribution was a perfect 50/50. This, allied to its advanced mechanical specification, ensured that the tiny DeTomaso was a blast to drive, if unrelentingly noisy.

It was almost inevitable that the DeTomaso Vallelunga would be built in small numbers, since it was a costly and compromised machine from an unknown brand. By the time the final Vallelunga was made in 1965, just 50 had been made by Ghia along with three aluminum-bodied protoypes and five alloy-bodied competition cars.

Just one of the Vallelungas made was right-hand drive and it was produced for Colonel Ronnie Hoare, Ferrari importer for the U.K. His plan was to fit a 148-hp Lotus twin-cam engine to create a true pocket-sized road rocket, but he found the Vallelunga simply too under-developed to be viable. He then sold the car on in 1970, by which point DeTomaso was on the verge of unveiling his best-known car, the Pantera.

Rare and obscure, Vallelungas are the most valuable vehicles in the DeTomaso legacy. Though a museum-grade (#1 condition) Mangusta specced with the higher-output engine and built between 1967 and 1970 tops out at $325,000, a Vallelunga in such better-than-factory condition is worth $390,000. For a driver-quality example with a few scuffs and bruises, you’re looking at $245,000—more than $80K more than the most valuable Pantera (a 1988 GT model in #1 condition). The first of the DeTomaso road cars hardly ever pop up for sale, either.

While imperfect at its debut, the Vallelunga established the formula of mid-engine Ford power under striking Ghia body work that the later Mangusta and Pantera would render in greater size and production count. Four years after the roadster debuted at Turin, DeTomaso would attract the eye of Lee Iacocca, then Ford’s executive vice president, and leverage its Lincoln-Mercury dealer network for less delicate, more accessible offerings. As a statement of DeTomaso’s wild, original vision, however, the Vallelunga will always stand apart.

Via Hagerty UK

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