TOUGH ENOUGH - After thirty-five years, the star-crossed, down and dirty. De Tomaso Pantera is finally getting a little respect

摘要

If you've ever wondered why Chevrolet has never built a production mid-engine Corvette, you don't have to look much farther than the De Tomaso Pantera to understand why. Think about every error in design, engineering, and marketing associated with the mid-engine sports car, and the Pantera is its poster child. It's hard to believe that we're observing the Pantera's thirty-fifth anniversary. Some 7260 examples were built between 1971 and 1991, making it one of the most popular mid-engine exotics in history, and yet schoolkids don't have posters of the Pantera hanging in their bedrooms. A Ferrari inspires a certain kind of reverence, but a Pantera just makes you want to fix die thing - make the air-conditioning work, keep stuff glued in place, and sort out die blood-curdling driving dynamics. Yet somehow the Pantera has triumphed.