Tech Specs

HIGHEST REPORTED SALE

$320,000

Past / Present

1973 De Tomaso Pantera L

1973 De Tomaso Pantera L

 The ‘Lusso’ or luxury model

     De Tomaso Automobili began its 66-year lifespan in Modena, Italy, the heart of automotive design and manufacturing. While somewhat lesser known than its neighbors Lamborghini and Ferrari, it still made its mark on the world of Italian performance cars.

 The most notable among these cars was the Pantera. With a relatively long production date range of 21 years (1971-1992) they produced a comparatively small number of units, with only 7,260 Panteras across all models and trim levels. With the word Pantera meaning ‘Panther’ in Italian, one can easily imagine the lines of the car being reminiscent of a crouching predatory cat, coiled to pounce.

The Pantera L was specifically the ‘Lusso’ or luxury model, featuring numerous improvements over the previous models including a built in airfoil and redesigned gauge cluster, as well as various factory upgrades and improvements that fixed flaws in the original design. In fact, it featured so many improvements that in 1973 it was tested by Road and Track Magazine against a comparable Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, and Porsche and was reported to have beaten them all.

The Marconi Museum’s Pantera L, however, is far from stock. Featuring a stunning custom purple paint job, dubbed Disco-Tech Purple, with hand rolled steel fender flares, its appearance sets it apart from any other Pantera L out there today.

This Pantera is more than just a pretty kitty with wide hips; it has a drivetrain to match. This big cat has a massive 427 side-oiler engine, transplanted out of a Cobra that is juiced to the max, with a 50 lb. Nitrous bottle capable of delivering a 300 shot of NOS. While never dyno tested, it is alleged to make nearly 1000hp.

This car was so powerful in fact, that our founder, Dick, made the mistake of underestimating this caged animal on the very first day he drove it. After pulling out onto Jamboree to see what it could do, he laid it down in second gear, and the engine made so much raw power and torque that it broke the bell housing in two. Not at the mounting bolts, but directly through the cast housing itself, which had to subsequently be replaced in its entirety. Dick was quoted as saying ‘The damn transmission repair cost more than I paid for the car!’ A lesson learned to never let your guard down around this Panther.