Pantera by De Tamaso Mug Collection

Pantera - Fantastic Italian  Sports Car by De Tamaso

The De Tomaso Pantera is a mid-engined sports car produced by Italian automobile manufacturer De Tomaso from 1971 to 1992. Italian for "Panther", the Pantera was the automaker's most popular model, with over 7,000 manufactured over its twenty-year production run. More than three-quarters of the production was sold by American Lincoln-Mercury dealers from 1972 to 1975; after this agreement ended De Tomaso kept manufacturing the car in ever smaller numbers into the early 1990s.

The car debuted in Modena in March 1970 and was presented at the 1970 New York Auto Show a few weeks later. De Tomaso sold the rights to the Pantera to Ford, who were to distribute the cars in the United States,  The first 1971 Pantera models were powered by a 5.8 L (351 cu in) Ford Cleveland V8 having a power output of 330 hp.  Power-assisted four-wheel disc brakes and rack and pinion steering were all standard equipment on the Pantera. The 1971 Pantera could accelerate to 97 km/h (60 mph) in 5.5 seconds according to Car and Driver.