Classic Italian-American Muscle: 1971 De Tomaso Pantera

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The Great Continental Divide is a line riding across the spines of mountains all the way from the northern tip of Alaska right down through the sweltering straits of Panama. If you were to pour out a glass of water precisely on the top of this ridge then half of it would flow west to the Pacific Ocean and half of it would flow eastwards all the way to the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean. The continental divide is a place where a small influence one way or another can make a massive difference.

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Mark Charlton was, I assume, a fairly well-balanced child enjoying a family vacation outside of Chicago one summer evening many years ago. That balance was disturbed when the parking lot of the hotel they were staying in happened to have a bright red Pantera parked in it. Suddenly, everything was going to go a certain direction.

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Ford had always argued it didn’t need to build a Corvette because it already had the Mustang. And while the Mustang is many things, exotic it isn’t. At the end of 1967, the AC/Shelby/Ford Cobra was phased out and the hunt began for a new “Ford” excitement car. Historically, Ford is very keen on having someone else build its two-seat dream machines, and this tradition holds true even to the latest Ford GT. I digress.

Argentinian-born Alejandro De Tomaso had been building cars in Modena, Italy since 1959, and by the middle ’60s, he caught Ford’s attention with the impossibly striking Mangusta. The Mangusta was beautiful but hardly a production-ready item. The Pantera, meanwhile, was almost ready for the spotlight, and in that car, Ford saw its next excitement vehicle. The Pantera was sold by Ford in North America through Lincoln/Mercury dealers from 1971 to 1974. The Pantera had a much longer run in Europe, where it was modified into various incarnations and sold until 1993.

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Today that small cup of interest in a rakish and red Italian supercar has flowed its course all the way to its ultimate destination. Multiple De Tomasos have flowed into Charlton’s garage over the years, and some get swept out with the tides as the inventory changes. But one car inside his aptly named Big Cat Garage has remained the same, constant as his childhood picture of the red one in a parking lot.

Charlton’s 1971 De Tomaso Pantera is a stunner. I can see why it took such a hold over a defenseless child decades ago. Painted white, it looks like a supercar carved out of marble. Every taut line looks like it could cut you right open, and the profile is low like speedboat. For 1970s supercar standards, Panteras were affordable for a very long time, and as such they often suffered the ravages of ill-conceived modifications. “There is a growing desire for original and unmolested cars,” Charlton says. He bought his white Pantera with just 13,000 miles on it, and while he’s added plenty to the odometer since then, it remains stock right down to the blue-painted air cleaner.

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It’s easy to see why so many found the Pantera a suitable canvas for their go-fast dreams. Unlike many other supercars of the period, which featured DOHC heads, aluminum blocks, and exotic cylinder counts, the heart of the Pantera (and most De Tomaso cars) is a familiar Ford V8.

Nestled deep inside the “trunk,” crammed against the passenger bulkhead, is a 351-cubic-inch (5.8L) Ford “Cleveland” V8 making around 330 horsepower. It’s the exact same engine that in 1971 could be ordered in a Mustang. Everything around that V8 is exotica, including the ZF five-speed manual transaxle and Ghia-styled body. But that mighty Cleveland will take the same performance heads you’d buy for a 1976 Ford F100 and you can basically choose your desired power level in multiples of 100.

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Realizing that he couldn’t really alter an original 13,000-mile Pantera, he bought a second from a good friend in Oakville, Ontario, which had already been modified. The black car is opposite the white car in both color and intent. Whereas the stock white Pantera is a great and civilized long-distance cruiser, the fiendish black one sounds like it’s ready for the Le Mans starting gun. The car has a heavily modified Ford 351 Cleveland engine, larger wheels and tires, upgraded brakes, and a luxurious leather interior from a later model. Mark frequently takes this beast to a charity event called Race the Runway, where the mighty Pantera holds its own against V8 and V12 supercars some 40 years its junior. What a ride that must be.

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Though it’s supercar-fast, the maintenance isn’t supercar-scary. Charlton does all of his own maintenance on these cars, with some occasional help from friends in the De Tomaso community. “A high-flow aluminum water pump for one of these cars is $200,” he says. “Try that with a Ferrari!”

In addition to the “Jekyll and Hyde” Panteras, Charlton has two other cars wearing the De Tomaso badge. (The crest is the family brand of De Tomaso’s ranch, superimposed over a stylized Argentinian flag.) Also in the Big Cat garage is a Longchamp, one of 10 ever made with a factory manual transmission; and a Mangusta, currently undergoing restoration. Who knows what would be in his garage today if he hadn’t seen that red Pantera to kick it all off? Just goes to show that a little interest can go a long way.