The vast majority of Panteras were imported by Ford from 1971 to 1974
and were fitted with 351C-4V's. DeTomaso continued to produce Panteras
into the early 1990's and many of the later Panteras were imported by
third parties. After the supply of U.S. built 351C's dried up,
DeTomaso sourced 351C's from Australia. These were open chamber 2V
engines and did not use the Aussie closed chamber 2V heads (those were
actually from Aussie 302C's). After those engines dried up, DeTomaso
switched to 351W's and some very late Panteras got fuel injected 5.0's.
A number of Panteras were also gray-market imported without engines and
fitted with rebuilt 351C's.

A number of other engines have been swapped into Panteras including
4.6L, 400, 427, 429, and 460 Fords, 340 Chrysler (by the Chrysler company),
426 Chrysler Hemi, Mercedes V8, and SBC and BBC (ugh). There was even a
tube frame Pantera replica that used a 2.8L chevy V6.

A really good site for Panteras is Mike Dailey's Pantera Place: http://www.PanteraPlace.com/ Also good is Shane Ingate's site: http://www.geocities.com/hottr6/pantera/

Some of these cars had bad rust problems - they were painted without much prep and the steel is Russian (cheap) - so if you're considering one check for signs of rot repair.

I'm also 6'4" and 275 lbs. I've been in Panteras that were almost spacious.
Those cars had the dropped floor pans (provides an additional 2 1/2 inches of
headroom) and a slightly smaller steering wheel. I've also been in some I
could barely wedge myself in. Those cars had taller aftermarket seats. Mine's
somewhere in between. At first I thought it was a little tight but now it's
fine. I'll do the dropped floor pans some day but it's not really a priority.
You can also gain headroom by removing the spacers under the seats and thinning
the bottom cushion.

Mike Dailey's probably the tallest Pantera owner I know. He's at least 6' 6"
with size 15 feet.

>very noisy, and not too comfortable - but fun - to drive.

Mine's not quiet but you can have a conversation at 100 mph without having to
raise you voice. I wouldn't want it too quiet. Some of the aftermarket exhausts
are really loud though and, if the rubber seals between the engine compartment
are shot, you'll get a lot of noise.

The ride of my '74L is quite comfortable. Much better than either of my Mustangs
but it depends on the spring rates, shocks, and bushings.

>I've seen one with four Weber 48 IDAs, and it looked neat with the engine cover open.

The hot ticket now are the Weber look-alike fuel injections sytems. There are ones
that fit under the stock screen and others that pop through it (and look awesome).
The IR manifolding works great too.

>Some of these cars had bad rust problems - they were painted without much prep and
>the steel is Russian (cheap) - so if you're considering one check for signs of rot
>repair.

Yes, the worst ones were the early cars before Ford got involved.

>Personally I'd rather have an Italia roadster with the tubular steel chassis, 351,
>toploader, 9" Ford rear axle, and four wheel disk brakes. They had their share of
>rust problems, too.

When I looked into Italias, they didn't seem to have much in the way of support.
That's not the case for Panteras. Everything about the cars is well documented
and on-line (email archives). Pantera owners tend to be gearheads and do their
own work and there's a very active owner's club. The factory is still in business
and you can get every part you need from one 10 or so DeTomaso vendors. Plus,
owners still actively race them. Team Pantera recently entered and finished 10
Panteras in the Silver State Classic race.

Still, I wouldn't mind having an Italia or a GT40...

One was copper colored and looked pretty original, albeit filthy. The other was chrome yellow, had ground effects, and was immaculate. Lots of chrome on the motor and transaxle. It also had a set of aluminum heads. Very nice unit!