The rest of the story...

I was so happy each month when one of my magazines would arrive. I would devour the contents skipping, of course the requisite articles on Ford Escorts or Honda Civics were skipped. My passion lied in the performance of these awesome street machines. I wanted to know three things. What is it's top speed? What is it's 0-60 time? What was it's quarter mile speed? Then I would look at the car. What does it look like? Is is sexy? Do the body lines flow?

My Favorite cars were the usual ones. Basically, all of the Italian cars struck a chord with me. Ferrari for it's graceful elegant lines, Lamborghini, for it's bold and brute styling can only be outdone by the sheer brute strength of its V-12 powerplant, The Maserati Merak SS with those unusual buttresses from the roof to the rear deck and finally, there was the Pantera. My only issue with the Pantera was that it was "powered by Ford. Somehow, this just didn't seem exotic, so although I loved the body, I loathed it's heart.

I was fortunate enough as a kid, to have parents who were involved in skeet shooting. Shotgun sports are not for the "faint of wallet", as my dad likes to say. Therefore, I was able to be around many different economic classes of people. I remember one man who had quite a car collection. Various Mercedes, including a 300SL Gull wing, a supercharged, customized Chevy Blazer, and the best car(in my then naive eyes)a Ferrari BB512. He used to let me sit in those cars, give me rides and let me ogle the engines and such.

 Another guy had a silver Ferrari 308, but he was a jerk and I only admired it from a distance. Then there were quite a few Porsche 911's, Alfa Romeos, BMW's and   Mercedes. My Pantera experience was limited to an unknown year bright yellow one, driven by a family friend.

so, what's the point of all this story telling? Well, here I am. It's 20 years later and I'm not the multi millionaire I swore I would be. Therefore, I figured my hopes for a sexy exotic car were all but dashed. I could go buy a Ferrari 308, but now I look at them and think, "what was I thinking?!" Now, nothing less than a 348 would do. But a "regular guy" may be able to "afford" to buy the car, but maintenance is a very different thing.

So here I am, thinking I want a sexy exotic sports car. I started looking at the Lotus Esprit. Acquisition costs are bearable, so the high maintenance wouldn't be that difficult to keep up with, given the limited driving it would see. Yep. There's my car.

Cut to today. My house has been sold. It sold fast.My new house, complete with a three car garage, is under construction and won't be done until late spring. So, although I am on the hunt for a car, I can't really buy one right now, because I don't have a comfortable place for it to sleep. Never the less, I am still constantly on the search  for that special deal.

So, one day after dropping my daughter off at school I am motoring up my temporary street when I notice a bright red car parked in the driveway of a neighbor that just moved in.  Immediately, I recognized it as a Pantera. I slowed down and stared at it for a minute. Damn that really is a sexy car.  But, it's still Ford  powered.

I pulled in my driveway and thought about that car. I kind of forgot about those cars. After all, you don't see them all that often. Hmmm...why would I want an exotic car? Because you don't see them that often. I  wonder how much those cost? But it's Ford powered. Then, the light went on. OF COURSE! How much more simple could it be?! Here is a genuine Italian exotic, that I could tune up! It suddenly struck me how beautiful this was! I was jacked!

I hopped on the internet and did some searching around. Wow! I can get one of these cars for a good deal! I can sink some cash into it and make it look like it rolled off the assembly line yesterday. I can add new fenders, and make it look like a late model Pantera 200. This is brilliant! I was going to buy myself a Harley, but I just found a new adult toy that I had to have.

So, after this sudden epiphany, I walk down to my new neighbors house. He was tinkering in his garage when I walked up.   I had met him before, but today was the first day I noticed his car. I asked him about it. Turns out he bought it as a project in 1989 and spent the next 7 years restoring it. Everything is new. Top to bottom, front to back. Then, he tells me he wants to sell it. We talk about the price. I tell him my time line. He tells me he's in no big hurry. I offer him a deposit to keep the car for me. He agrees. Long story short. As soon as my house is done, I am gonna put cash in this mans hand, and drive away in my first exotic car. I think it should look great in my garage with my BMW and my wife's Expedition. I can't wait!

In the meantime, I decided I would find the best Pantera web sites, information, parts suppliers, and pictures on the net and compile them in one place, so you don't have to track down all these great places like I did. I hope you enjoy!

By the way, if I used your images and you want me to remove them, please let me know here. I tried to give proper credit or actual links to the sites where I found the pictures. I'm just trying to make it easy for a Pantera enthusiast to get as much information as possible.

John Fountaine(I think I found my car).