There's an 800hp Mopar-powered Pantera, and you need to see it!

The De Tomaso Pantera is a sports car for people who want to trap you for twenty minutes to chat about their sports car, but 572 cube Hemi engine in this one takes it straight from ‘What car is that?’ to ‘How cool is that?!’

I didn’t know what a De Tomaso Pantera was until a few years ago. I’d seen the shape, but to
be honest, they never interested me enough both investigating any further. Their sultry body
lines dripped with the rich stench of the halcyon days of Italian sports cars, but the brand never
quite made it to household name status like the other big Italian marques.

Boasting a mid-mounted Ford Cleveland V8 engine, the Pantera ran a ZF transaxle and over
5,000 of the 7,260 units produced were sold in America through a distribution deal with Ford,
which wrapped up after only five years, severely stunting the reach and popularity of the cars.
Some cars thrive on unattainability, but for the Pantera, the throttled supply chain didn’t drive
demand.

You’ve probably seen a Pantera at your local Cars and Coffee event, but we can guarantee you
there’s nothing quite like this De Tomaso anywhere on the planet.

Owner Goran Malmberg has held many jobs over his near eight decades on earth, but the one
most pertinent to the Hemi-powered Pantera was his stint on a Top Fuel team, fabricating
various bits and pieces. It no doubt fostered his love of the Hemi V8 engines, and is why the
hunk of Hemi in the ‘Hemipanter’ is a bad arse, all alloy 572 cube sucker that punches out
800hp thanks to the 13:1 compression ratio and diet of E85!

Amazingly, it’s not the first fat block that the Pantera has tried on for size, and before settling on
the monster Mopar, Goran had briefly mucked around with a Ford big block in homage to the
cars original Ford powerplant.

Along with shaking off the dorky 300hp Clevo engine, Goran gave the car a thorough facelift,
taking it from a clapped out beater to a remarkably tougher, modern looking version of the
unsung Italian sports car.