ACL Detomaso Pantera

With Alejandro De Tomaso's deeply ingrained love for racing, it was no surprise when a competizione Pantera was unveiled in late 1971. Built to contest the FIA's now legendary Group 4 category, it would most notably go up against factory-built race cars from Ferrari, Porsche and Chevrolet. The starting point was a lightweight Tipo 874A chassis, almost every part of which had been extensively drilled. This was equipped with shorter suspension uprights, solid bronze bushes and adjustable Koni shock absorbers. Ride-height was thus totally variable as were the larger diameter anti-roll bars front and rear.While a projected weight of around 1100kg had originally been targeted, Porsche were so concerned about the Pantera's arrival that they forced the FIA into homologating the Group 4 version (or GT4) at 1250kg. To overcome this, the car needed a race-spec engine of the highest order. It was eventually decided that Bud Moore-prepared Boss 351 motors would be flown over and installed at Modena. Although De Tomaso quoted around 500bhp for these engines, early cars were typically producing around 440bhp at 7000rpm. This was soon upped to 470bhp for the 1972 Le Mans race.