1973 DE TOMASO PANTERA CUSTOM 2 DOOR COUPE

Details

A custom restoration with a stock 351cid engine, 5-speed and ZF transaxle. A rust-free car. Restored to original Grabber Orange color with carbon fiber design changes penned by the original Pantera designer, Tom Tjaarda. After 35 years, he decided to buy another 1973 Pantera, an idea he had been toying with for some time. When new, back in the early 1970's, the build quality was marginal at best. Today most Panteras have been rebuilt with fantastic results. The car Tjaarda bought was red but the

original color was Grabber Orange, which was his favorite color on the Pantera. He went about to design a new front and rear fascia incorporating the necessary aerodynamic spoilers and sculptured these forms to mate on to the body. He created a new look in these areas and integrated contemporary forms into the 35-year-old car. Grey satin finish paint, like the center of the new wheels, integrates these new touches and defines their functional characteristics. Wheels, spoilers and air intakes need to function while being an attractive addition to the fascination of the vehicle design. The interior of the Pantera was always somewhat modest, in the sense that in the 1970's interior design was not given the importance that it receives today. Back then, poor quality was an issue, even with Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati. While today this has all changed, Tjaarda designed a new and high quality interior. Just the right amount of orange stitching integrates the interior to the exterior. The usage of finer materials like leather, suede and hand-laid carbon fiber offer the quality not seen in the original interior. New seats using the same methods and materials have transformed a modest interior of the Pantera into a luxurious and pleasing interior, like a Jaguar or Aston Martin.