W2 Shelby Pantera

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gregcon

gregcon

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Watching that 'Car Kings' show last night...aside from the usual sexy-hair-black-clothes dopes...they were restoring Carroll Shelby's Pantera that had been powered by...a turbo'd SB Mopar of all things. Most interesting was you could see it had W2 heads. Vintage Mopar muscle, for sure.
 
I always like Pantera's. I'm a Ford guy too. There was a local one I saw when I was 15 in the early 90's at the machine shop that did my first 440. It was black and had two very large blue bottles of NOS sitting where the passenger seat would be. They said something about the front spoiler needing put back on as the nose would lift at 160mph on the freeway.
 
Man we are going to have to demand photos. I still vaguely remember the first Pantera I ran across when they first came out. At the time I had the 440-6 '70 Roadrunner, and I guess I was fairly full of myself. It DID run good, tho LOL

Anyhow, I was motorin' along on the San Diego freeway one day and here it is. I don't know what I was thinkin. I gave it a little jab and HE gave it a little jab, and hell, I didn't even really get a very good look at the damn thing!!
 
Elvis had one, put a bullet in the seat back when it wouldn't start, and in the steering wheel and even a shotgun blast. . So they say.......They were also poorly built, but went like hell.
 
abodyjoe said:
Carroll Shelby's Pantera Used for Dodge Testing Gets Restored
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I had the somewhat unique opportunity when I was an apprentice to remove the 351C from a Pantera-rebuild/hopup the 351C and reinstall it and then test drive it!

The ZF transmission is a notchy but positive beast--the thing I remember most is having the waterpump pulley about an inch from my right elbow (separated by a thin type of carboard) and having to drive in my running shoes because my work shoes (CSA) were too wide for the narrow footwells. And even then footspace was a serious problem. Panteras are cool but wow were they not well thought out-even for the '70's. J.Rob
 
A little trivia for those that might not know.

The Z in ZF transmissions stands for Zeppelin as in the Nazi Dirigible builders .

Actually I should have said German... not Necessarily Nazi...
 
dano said:
I always like Pantera's. I'm a Ford guy too. There was a local one I saw when I was 15 in the early 90's at the machine shop that did my first 440. It was black and had two very large blue bottles of NOS sitting where the passenger seat would be. They said something about the front spoiler needing put back on as the nose would lift at 160mph on the freeway.
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Me too. 135 mph in 3rd with 4th and 5th left to go. A 351 C in the back seat.
 
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Cool car, but lots of fake Hollywood in the story. A 340-360? Nascar motor just sitting in a SOCAL junkyard for years? HUH? Yea, that happens.
 
When I was a kid in the 70s my friend and I would ride our bikes In to Minneapolis and I remember a speed shop on Hennepin Ave that had a Pantera on the floor. So cool !

I am trying to remember the name of the shop ? My memory keeps saying PAW but I am not sure that is correct.
 
Hyper_pak said:
Cool car, but lots of fake Hollywood in the story. A 340-360? Nascar motor just sitting in a SOCAL junkyard for years? HUH? Yea, that happens.
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I agree, I read a Hot Rod article where they pulled a 340 out of a junkyard and built a 11 second Dart, Yeah...sure. Although I did (once in 30 years) spot a 340 in a pick-a-part Dart about 3 years ago. I was so mad I couldn't grab it for myself that I put it out here and 2 people were interested locally. I think one guy was gonna drive 90 miles to check it out. Never heard how it went. Should have paid the local labor guys $100 to pull it and rent a Home Depot truck to get it home but it just wasn't a good time for me.
 
mbaird said:
When I was a kid in the 70s my friend and I would ride our bikes In to Minneapolis and I remember a speed shop on Hennepin Ave that had a Pantera on the floor. So cool !

I am trying to remember the name of the shop ? My memory keeps saying PAW but I am not sure that is correct.
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PAW was in Chatsworth, CA. I drove the 70 miles once to get a stocked (!) Predator carb rebuild kit.
 
Hyper_pak said:
Cool car, but lots of fake Hollywood in the story. A 340-360? Nascar motor just sitting in a SOCAL junkyard for years? HUH? Yea, that happens.
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But did you see the hair on that rascal? Rich, luxurious, devilish even.
 
Did you see Gale Banks was involved with both projects? He worked with Shelby originally and you could tell he really loved being involved with the rebuild.
 
Yea, he knows his turbos!

But kinda lame how they didn't go into the engine and just painted it. On the other hand, maybe it's better they didn't...
 
Hyper_pak said:
Cool car, but lots of fake Hollywood in the story. A 340-360? Nascar motor just sitting in a SOCAL junkyard for years? HUH? Yea, that happens.
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Reminds me of a Dukes of Hazard I happen to see a few years ago, they needed to win a race for some reason and there happen to be an "old Richard Petty race car" under an oak to "use its race car parts on the General Lee to win".......corny, even for the 80's!
 
mbaird said:
A little trivia for those that might not know.

The Z in ZF transmissions stands for Zeppelin as in the Nazi Dirigible builders .
Click to expand...

I guess I need to correct you on that... ZF stands for Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen, meaning gear factory F. (which is the town at the lake Constance).

The Zeppelin factory was in fact in the same town IIRC (about 120 miles from here :)), they started building Zeppelins as early as 1898 so had nothing to do
with Nazis (at first). They took command in 1933 until the story ended in Lakehurst 1939. But you know that. ;)
 
340? pshaw. Why not just "go all the way?"

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stixx said:
I guess I need to correct you on that... ZF stands for Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen, meaning gear factory F. (which is the town at the lake Constance).

The Zeppelin factory was in fact in the same town IIRC (about 120 miles from here :)), they started building Zeppelins as early as 1898 so had nothing to do
with Nazis (at first). They took command in 1933 until the story ended in Lakehurst 1939. But you know that. ;)
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Might be just as well. All lighter than air ships were literally sitting ducks in combat by that time as aircraft advanced. Even though the U.S. Navy used them for observation patrol and anti submarines, they were relatively safe from attack as they were mostly on "this end" of the pond And then of course, there was that little hydrogen thing............
 
stixx said:
I guess I need to correct you on that... ZF stands for Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen, meaning gear factory F. (which is the town at the lake Constance).

The Zeppelin factory was in fact in the same town IIRC (about 120 miles from here :)), they started building Zeppelins as early as 1898 so had nothing to do
with Nazis (at first). They took command in 1933 until the story ended in Lakehurst 1939. But you know that. ;)
Click to expand...

I believe you are correct in that the name is not exactly Zeppelin but the company does have the heritage of the original Zeppelin Co.
 
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