Jon Spencer was the first to be right, though Greg was the first with the link.
Yesterday’s International Car of Mystery was the Pontiac Banshee XP-833 coupe concept from 1964. Though that design was from John DeLorean, I was really hoping that someone would bring up Zora Arkus-Duntov so that we could talk about the XP-882.
Oh well. I suppose not everyone is as enthused about mid-engined Corvettes as I am.
I like to think if GM had gone with the XP-882 that Ford would have actually gotten behind the Pantera instead of just supplying parts.
(sigh)
Di Thomaso, the Italian outfit that made the Pantera, was an old-school performance-car nameplate. I bet if you scratch the surface, you will find that all of Ford’s bucks couldn’t have bought them outright, nor convinced the Dons who owned the factory to go to large-production work, or even license their design to Ford.
I have a brother-in-law who tried to get some (cough) “San Francisco Italian” money involved in importing just a few dozen Ferrari 512 bi-turbos into the US for the movie moguls.
He paid almost a half-million vig just to get into Enzo’s office to talk to him, but the deal, which would have involved Ferrari complying with the then-hated US smog and door-strength standards for the eggshell speedster, never got to first base.
I suspect that the Di Thomaso deal would have met the same fate.