De Tomaso Pantera: Buy This and Maybe Save the World
Why should you let your dream car rot in someone else’s garage?
The DeTomaso Pantera is a car of childhood dreams. Italian design, raucous American heart, and enough panache for Don Johnson to take a second look. So it should basically be a crime to find this 1985 Pantera GT-5 hitting the internet with a paltry 25,000 miles on the odometer.
The car is currently listed for sale on ClassicCars.com with a price of $275,000. That price feels fair for a car of this lineage. It’s one of only 262 GT-5s ever made, and one of only 30 that ever hit U.S. shores. The condition of the exterior looks exquisite, and the acres of ruched leather in the interior are basically new. And that’s exactly why we hate this car and everything it stands for.
Cars are meant to be driven, and we don’t give a damn how collectible or rare your machine is, you should drive it. This is a car with a 401 cubic-inch Ford V8, and somehow it was only moved around an average of 780 miles a year. That’s about three tanks of gas. Maybe four if you drive it “properly.”
Please, buy this thing and drive the hell out of it. Too often we see complaints that Millennials hate cars, and that car culture is dying off. This car is the exact reason why. How many of you have stories about seeing that one incredible machine that forever changed your view of the automobile? That one moment that made you a “car person.” It’s really hard for a kid to fall in love with a supercar driving down the road if you keep the car stashed in your garage hoping one day it makes you a profit.
Don’t kill car culture. Buy this Pantera, put 20,000 miles on in a year, and put smiles on faces of children all over the world. If that plea still won’t convince you, please look at the gallery of photos below while playing Sarah McLachlan in the background. Please. Do it for the kids.
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