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FEATURE

De Tomaso Pantera Nuova SI

A few weeks ago ItalianCar was invited up to the Sunshine Coast to photograph and drive a very exotic beast - the De Tomaso Pantera Nuova SI. Rare on two counts - firstly it's a De Tomaso. Of course everybody knows Ferrari and Lamborghini - those up on these things also know Maserati… but De Tomaso - you have to be a real car buff - and an Italian car buff at that to know about De Tomaso.

A few years ago we were lucky enough to visit the De Tomaso factory when the ItalianCar team made a pilgrimage to Modena. At the time De Tomaso had had an injection of adrenaline as the founder and owner - Alejandro De Tomaso - had recovered from illness and was taking the company forward. Unfortunately he died not that much later (see ItalianCar article here) and the last we heard De Tomaso the company was either in mothballs or had been bought up by MG Rover (and we know what happened to MG). We were met at the factory by a young man who explained that DT was proud to be the last remaining independent car manufacturer in Italy - all the more famous brands of course now owned by either Fiat or Audi (Lamborghini). As we were taken on a guided tour of the factory we visited the museum - which had one of every DT model - and we saw a couple of De Tomaso Guaras in production (see our previous feature).

The most common - or well-known - model from DT is the Pantera. But we had not been invited to see just 'any old Pantera' - no. We had been invited to see the De Tomaso Pantera Nuova SI - the last variant of this model. Variant is probably the wrong word since almost the only thing this car shares with its predecessors is the name. The Nuova SI has an awesome specification - equipped with a Mustang 5.0l V8 (tweaked by DT to 305bhp) and a very lightweight body it is a real muscle car. DT only made 41 of them: two of these were crash tested - leaving 39 - and only two of these were converted into right-hand drive. So we were privileged indeed.

So what is the Nuova SI like to drive? The seats - as you would expect - are very low to the ground and the interior is - like many supercars - pretty minimal. No radio, some aircon and that's it. No other 'driver aids' either - forget power steering or ABS - what you see is what you get - and what you get is the ride of your life! We went for a quick spin, with Werner - the owner of the beast - driving and putting the Nuova SI through its paces for us. The acceleration - and the engine sound is really amazing. The huge V8 that sits right behind your ears just goes and goes and thanks to the huge torque you don't need to pay much attention to which gear you're in - the car will go in any gear at almost any speed. The Nuova SI also stops pretty quickly as well - thanks to the big drilled disc brakes that bring you quickly - if somewhat noisily - to a stop. After the quick demo Werner offered a drive - an experience not to be passed up.

There is a v-shaped insert that goes in here so you can put some luggage in over the engine

Buckled in and ready to go the first thing you notice is the Italian style position of the footpedals - close together and all offset to the left. As we mentioned earlier - this is not a car for creature comforts and the clutch and the gearshift are both pretty 'hard'. But once you are driving you forget about that (you don't have to change gear much after all) and just enjoy the ride. As with all powerful cars you just don't feel the speed you are doing - a quick look down at the speedo confirmed that we were going pretty fast. Visibility is also reasonably good for such a low slung car and - as we drove through Noosa we had first-hand evidence of what a head-turner this car is - even if no-one knew what it was! What made this all the more impressive was that the Noosa Beach Classic car show was in train with all sorts of exotic cars on show - and the Pantera was still turning heads.

The spartan interior

If you are looking for a practical car with room for the luggage then this is definitely not it. If you want an out and out classic sportscar brute that will give you a good workout as you tear around the countryside turning heads - you might want to consider a De Tomaso Pantera Nuova SI.

There are some great resources - including detailed specs - on this model on the web, particularly these two

Auto Italia/Classic Driver article
QV500.com article

PS and if you're interested in becoming the next owner of this rare beast see the Buy-Sell section

Oh dear - just stalled That's better

©ItalianCar 06/11/05