Book VI · Apocrypha Entry 35 of 55
De Tomaso Pantera
The mongoose gave up and became a cat
Having named one car after the cobra’s natural predator, Alejandro de Tomaso named the next one after a big cat and sold it through Lincoln-Mercury dealerships in America for twenty-two years.
- Book
- Book VI — Apocrypha
- Marque
- De Tomaso
- Model
- Pantera
- Years
- 1971–1993
- Origin
- Italy
- Namesake
- Panther
- Binomial
- Panthera modenensis
- Verdict
- DENIED — mammal, and it knows
Sigil generated from the entry's own name. Every coil, hue and scale in this plate is a function of the string “de-tomaso-pantera”, and of nothing else.
The Pantera is in this Ophidiary for one reason: it is the sequel to Book V’s central entry, and sequels are informative.
The Mangusta was a statement. It was named at somebody. It was beautiful and difficult and 401 were built. The Pantera was a business: steel monocoque, Ford Cleveland V8, sold through American dealer networks with a warranty, and produced in the thousands over two decades. The animal changed from a small furious carnivore that picks specific fights to a large indifferent one that does not need to.
The most famous fact about the Pantera concerns Elvis Presley, who shot his when it would not start. This is documented, the car survives with the bullet holes, and the Ophidiary notes that no one has ever shot a Mangusta, because a Mangusta breaking down was understood by all parties to be the arrangement.
Denied as a mammal. Filed here because you cannot understand the mongoose without knowing what it became.
First he named it at somebody. Then he named it for the market. That is the whole history of the motor industry in two model names.
Questions people actually ask
What replaced the De Tomaso Mangusta?
The Pantera, from 1971. It swapped the Mangusta’s backbone chassis for a steel monocoque, used a Ford Cleveland V8, and was sold in far greater numbers through Lincoln-Mercury dealers in the United States.
Provenance of claims
This is a satire with a research habit. Every load-bearing statement above is listed here and labelled, so you can tell which sentences would survive a librarian.
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Documented
The Pantera used a mid-mounted Ford Cleveland V8 and was sold in the US via Lincoln-Mercury.
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Documented
Elvis Presley shot his Pantera when it failed to start.