Tom Tjaarda was born to design automobiles. His father John Tjaarda developed a concept car for the Ford Motor Company. It was called the “Briggs Dream Car” and it was a streamlined, rear-engined creation based on some of his earlier designs. It was eventually reworked to have the engine up front and became the design basis for the 1936 Lincoln Zephyr.
Tjaarda studied architecture, not automotive design, at the University of Michigan. However, as his senior thesis, he didn’t deliver a design for a building, he delivered a design for an automobile. This won him an internship at Carrozzeria Ghia. So it was off to Turin, Italy, where he began his career and continued to live and work.
His first piece for Ghia was the Innocenti 950 S Spider. In 1961, he moved to Pininfarina, where he penned the Corvette Rondine, the Fiat 124 Spider, and the Ferrari 365 California.
After some time he made his way back to Ghia, doing work for Isuzu, Lancia and De Tomaso. For De Tomaso, he created the Deauville, the Longchamp and the Pantera.
The Pantera had Italian flair backed up by Detroit muscle. The Pantera replaced the Mangusta’s steel backbone chassis with a steel monocoque design, using this technique was a first for De Tomaso.
The Pantera made its debut, in Modena, in March of 1970 and was presented to the world at the 1970 New York Auto Show. A year later the first of the production cars was sold to the public.
De Tomaso sold the rights to the Pantera to Ford, who would sell the cars in the U.S. but retained the rights to market the car in Europe.
In 1971, Ford started importing the Pantera and sold them through Lincoln-Mercury dealerships. Ford stopped the importation of the Pantera in 1975—at that time they had sold nearly 5,500 cars. De Tomaso forged on building Panteras for the rest of the world, though they became a parody of the original. Small numbers of grey market cars arrived in the U.S. in the ’80s with their Miami Vice style.
Like many automotive designs the first is the purest and cleanest of line. There are no added wings, bulging fenders or federally mandated bumpers.
The 1972 Pantera is a sharp-edged, elegant creation. Small, chromed bumpers will do their best to protect the bodywork, but when push comes to shove they will quickly surrender, though they sure look nice. Inside, if you want to be comfortable it’s best to be under 6ft. tall. Even then the cabin is a tight space to be in, the windshield feels like it is right in front of your face. In fact, lean forward in the passenger seat and your forehead is almost touching the top edge of the glass.
The dashboard has segregated the VDO speedometer and tachometer in two separate binnacles on either side of the steering wheel. The secondary gauges cascade down a central binnacle with the oil pressure gauge looking straight at the gated 5-speed, dogleg shifter from there the ZF transaxle does its business with a 351 four-bolt main Clevland V8 engine.
All this adds up to shove in the clutch, stick it in first, foot on the gas, lift your left foot and all hell breaks loose. The 310 HP pushes the 2859-pound car to 60 in around 5 seconds. Not crazy fast nowadays, but remember this was 1972. One way or another it’s still pretty damn quick, with plenty of neck-snapping torque stirred into the witches brew. The steering is nicely balanced and the car feels firmly planted and with its mid-engined layout goes around corners like no one’s business.
A luxury model came out a year later with some changes to the aerodynamics and dash, along with more plush seats, but it is the original that stands the test of time, and who needs luxury in a sports car? This is a die-hard sports car fanatic’s ride. It will take a passenger, if they are willing and strong of constitution. It will be hard pressed to carry a weekend getaway’s worth of luggage, but it would get baked anyway. It’s not a grocery-getter and it’s not a car you would ever call practical. But…it’s loud, it’s fast, it looks sexy-mean from every angle, so it checks all the important boxes, what more do you need?
SPECIFICATIONS
| Length | 4242 mm / 167 in |
| Width | 1702 mm / 67 in |
| Height | 1102 mm / 43.4 in |
| Wheelbase | 2500 mm / 98.4 in |
| Front track | 1448 mm / 57 in |
| Rear track | 1473 mm / 58 in |
| Engine manufacturer | Ford Cleveland 335-series 351C V-8 |
| Cylinders alignment | V 8 |
| Displacement | 5766 cm3 / 351.9 cui |
| Bore | 101.6 mm / 4 in |
| Stroke | 88.9 mm / 3.5 in |
| Compression ratio | 11 : 1 |
| Horsepower gross | 310 hp (SAE gross) / 5400 |
| Torque gross | 380 ft-lb / 3400 |
Price when new: $10,000
Current Value: $63,200- $122,000
