This Forgotten Ford Sports Car Is Raising $40,000 for Diabetes Research

If there was a sequel to the 2019 film “Ford v Ferrari,” the De Tomaso Pantera would have a starring role. Ford only sold the Pantera for a few years in the early 1970s, but the Italian-designed and built Ferrari fighter remains a popular collector’s item. This weekend, more than 50 Pantera owners from all over North America are gathering for Motor City Mayhem, a memorable Ford experience that includes a visit to the test track at Michigan Proving Grounds. The event is expected to raise more than $40,000 for Breakthrough T1D, the charitable organization formerly known as JDRF.

Ford sold roughly 9,000 of the two-seat, mid-engine sports coupes globally in the early 1970s through a partnership with Ghia Studios and De Tomaso Automobili. Ford supplied the 351-cubic-inch V8 engine for the Pantera, Italian for panther, which was introduced in 1971. Earlier this year, Ford CEO Jim Farley sold his 1972 Pantera model, which had originally been used as a pool car in the Aeronutronic Division of Ford Aerospace before being sold to a private owner. 

Now in its fourth installment, the Pantera celebration has grown from just 20 cars at Ford’s Windsor site in 2017. Other iterations were held at Romeo Engine Plant in 2020 and at the Rouge complex in 2022. This year’s level of participation is by far the most the event has seen since its inception. 

A Picture-Perfect Weekend 

This year’s event kicks off Friday with a visit to Michigan Assembly Plant, courtesy of Plant Manager Ron Prahin, where Pantera owners will tour the plant while their vehicles are on display for employees outside the facility. The three-day get-together concludes with a tour of the Fair Lane Estate in Dearborn. 

Gary Patterson, president of Shelby American, will reprise his role as the event’s guest speaker during a Saturday night banquet dinner. One of the weekend’s final items on the itinerary is photos in front of the Glass House for each attendee. The photo op is intended to re-create a picture of de Tomaso namesake, Alejandro de Tomaso, outside of what was then Ford’s World Headquarters in the 1970s.

Bryan Hollister, tooling engineer at Windsor Engine, is helping with administrative tasks for the event, including scheduling and distributing event info to attendees. He is also one of five volunteers helping to shepherd the Pantera owners and their classic cars to the Ford track located in the town of Romeo, 35 miles north of Detroit. 

“I haven’t really seen a Pantera before, so to be around 60 of them for a weekend and listening to all the cool stories that their owners have is going to be a unique experience,” said Hollister, who has been very active in volunteering since joining Ford in 2017 following a career in the military. 

The Last Dance

A niche, Ford sports car from the 1970s might seem like an unusual centerpiece for a large gathering of enthusiasts. Cantagallo, who had recently completed a restoration of a 1973 Pantera, was looking for a way to support Breakthrough T1D when he helped establish the event in 2017. The gatherings have raised a combined total of $100,000 for the organization. 

Pantera owners, Cantagallo said, are a close-knit and Ford-loyal bunch akin to the community of Mustang fans that pack countless summertime events. Their bond sustains multiple Pantera parts stores, a website, and a monthly magazine, and it even includes celebrity owners like comedian and auto enthusiast Jay Leno, Hockey legend and donut maker Tim Horton and entertainer Elvis Presley.

“They look out for each other. … It’s a very vibrant community,” Cantagallo said. “It parallels the Mustang but on a smaller, more intimate scale.” Plant tours with the Pantera group have even led to sales of current Ford products, he added. 

With his typical co-organizer, Team Manager Mario Hindi, unavailable to plan this year’s event, Cantagallo thinks this is likely the last such gathering. 

“This one took a lot of time, a lot of phone calls, more than normal,” he said. “I’ve been selling it as the last one, trying to generate a lot of interest. And believe me, it generated a ton of interest — more than any of the other three that we did. … So, the way it picked up and had legs of its own just amazed me.”