--Lime Green with Cognac ruffled leather interior Black carpeting, Restored, Powered by its 351ci Ford Cleveland (5.7 liter) V8 engine with Single Holley 4-Barrel Downdraft Carburetor producing 350 BHP at 6,000 RPM, 5-speed ZF manual gated-shift transmission, Campagnolo wheels, Tuned suspension and Quad exhaust, European specifications.&nbsp; With a sumptuous leather interior, wood veneer dash, gated shifter (an iconic feature of the Pantera) as well as factory air conditioning, the Pantera GT5 produces a comfortable yet performance-focused cockpit.<br />&nbsp;<br />Alejandro De Tomaso founded his auto building firm, De Tomaso Automobili, in Modena, Italy in 1959.&nbsp; Like many race car builders, he hoped to emulate Ferrari and build road cars that would embody the qualities of his racing cars and be fast, good handling cars.<br />&nbsp;<br />His first effort at a road car, introduced in 1963, was the Vallelunga, a small fastback coupe named after a racetrack near Rome.&nbsp; It was powered by a practical four cylinder Ford Cortina engine.&nbsp; This became a De Tomaso hallmark--to feature exotic styling on the outside but always using an off-the-shelf production engine under the engine lid.<br />&nbsp;<br />After 52 Vallelunga coupes were made, DeTomaso received some investment capital and decided to build the bigger Ford V8-powered mid-engined Mangusta (Mongoose).&nbsp; Having established himself as a serious automobile manufacturer with the Mangusta coupe, Alejandro De Tomaso commissioned Lamborghini designer, Gianpaolo Dallara, to produce the chassis for his new mid-engined supercar, the Pantera.&nbsp; Styled by Tom Tjaarda at Carrozzeria Ghia, the stunning coupe body was in fact built by Vignale, both companies being part of De Tomaso's empire in the early 1970s.&nbsp; Visually, it was a match for Lamborghini's Miura and later Countach, though its Ford V8 was not high-tuned as the engines in purebred foreign exotics.&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />In 1969, Ford Motor Company in Dearborn happened to be looking for an Italian exotic car company to buy.&nbsp; Fortunately, De Tomaso gave Ford an advance peek at models for his new car, the Pantera. Today, Panteras are among the most bulletproof of exotic Italian cars on the road and, as a result, they are far cheaper to run and own than Ferraris, Maseratis and Lamborghinis.&nbsp; This, due to De Tomaso and Ford's choice of an off-the-shelf Mustang engine, the 351-C, as the powerplant.<br />&nbsp;<br />Even though Ford canceled importation of the Pantera to the U.S. in 1974, De Tomaso had retained the right to market the car in the rest of the world.&nbsp; Therefore, several thousand Panteras were manufactured in the next two decades.&nbsp; This included the rare and exciting GT-5, with its "running boards," deep front spoiler and optional tall Countach-style rear wing-on-stilts.&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />One of Approximately 250 GT5 Variants Built Between 1980 and 1988, this stunning blend of classic mid-eighties Italian exotica with American V8 muscle.&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />This is an excellent example of a highly rare and collectable Italian supercar that has enjoyed previous long-term European collector ownership as well as a recent restoration.&nbsp; This rare GT5 is one of only a handful of Pantera GT5's imported to the United States, this particular example only recently imported by Autosport Designs, Inc.&nbsp;