De Tomaso

The Pantera was designed by Carrozzeria Ghia's American-born designer Tom Tjaarda and replaced the Mangusta. The car debuted in Modena in March 1970 and was presented at the 1970 New York Motor Show a few weeks later. Approximately a year later the first production cars were sold, and production was increased to three per day. The car featured a 5.8 litre V8 Ford engine, having a power output of 335 hp. In the spring of 1972, De Tomaso introduced the more sporting GTS model for the European market. It was developed for Group 3 racing and received an even more powerful engine with 350 hp. The GTS also has considerably wider wheels, a more aggressive steering rack setup, ventilated disc brakes, adjusted spring rates and gear ratios, and conspicuous matte black body elements.

Late in 1971, Ford began importing the Pantera for the American market to be sold through its Lincoln-Mercury dealers. The first 75 cars were simply European imports and are known for their hand-built Carrozzeria Vignale bodies. Alejandro De Tomaso sold the US rights to the Pantera to Ford, while he retained the rights to market the Pantera in Europe. As with most Italian cars of the day, rust-proofing was minimal and the quality of fit and finish on these early models was poor with large amounts of body solder being used to cover body panel flaws. Subsequently, Ford increased their involvement in the production of the later cars with the introduction of precision stampings for body panels which resulted in improved overall quality. The luxury Pantera L was introduced in August 1972 for the US market. It featured a large black single front bumper that incorporated a built-in airfoil to reduce front end lift at high speeds, rather than the separate bumperettes still used in Europe. The "L" model featured many factory upgrades and updates that fixed most of the problems and issues the earlier cars experienced. Ford stopped importing the Pantera to the US in 1975, having sold around 5,500 cars. De Tomaso continued to build the car for almost two decades for sale in the rest of the world.