I received a decent amount of smiles from well dressed women back when I had a 996. My wide body Pantera only attracts dudes and strippers.

Maybe they will be new cars, therefore will not meet modern safety standards since they will be built to original spec?

I park WAY out. The downside to that is the car becomes more accessible to people who want pictures. I have zero problems with people taking pics of my car, but they constantly sit on it. The nerve.

Serious question: you mention using the car as a marketing expense. Do you pay yourself a marketing fee? This would be an expense for the business, but you still need to declare it as income on your personal taxes, right?

It seems incredibly disingenuous to make it look like all the things he expresses in past tense are his current beliefs, and then later “in the interest of fairness” you post the Clarkson’s conclusion, which reflects what he actually thinks.

1. The cars are stickered for a rally, not to be written off as a business expense.

These people don’t sticker their car because of bad taste, they do it for rallies. The rally will have sponsors and all cars participating must use the official sticker set.

Ah...understood. I have noticed mid engine cars in any given era have a certain sameness to them. The Countach came out a couple of years after the Pantera - they started selling in the final year of US Pantera sales, so I was thinking your statement was more present tense than back in the day

Pantetas are notoriously bad at auction. They are a very much a niche car and the odds of there being multiple, aggressive bidders at an auction is poor. Because the prices were higher on both ends of your date, the auction prices for them five years ago probably WAS closer to $20k than $34k, right? I never think of…

Ahhh, yes. Those. Heh.

Are you talking about the wing? Because that is from the 80s. I don't understand why people bolt them on the earlier, narrow cars.

Ha! Totally not true. Five years ago the car market was in the crapper, but even then you would maybe be able to get a doner parts car for under $20k.

I don’t think any car where a run down example goes for $50 or $60k is the poor man’s anything. Or, maybe it is the rich man’s Corvette?

Yeah, heat comes through the glass. Sometimes it feels like the sun is shining on your neck. The big, laid back windshield lets in a ton of heat too. Maybe I sun roof would have been a good idea from the factory. Heh.

The 1971 Pantera did not have that wing. It came on the GT5 Pantera which was released in 1980. Legend has it that the wing was included specifically to piss of Lamborghini. Many people add them to the earlier narrow body cars which I think looks horrible and adds nothing but useless weight.

Aha, got it. I would rather have a Mangusta than a Pantera too, and would spend much more to get one. That is, if I had that kind of money.

I agree. Did it seem like I was bashing the ZF, because that wasn’t my intention. I love the ZF...because I own a 55ohp Pantera.

They have never been my style, but they are staring to get “classic enough” and I am starting to check them out. Heh.

The Pantera uses off the shelf parts from other vehicles that were manufactured 40 years ago. Finding NOS tail lights, door handles, whatever from a Lamborghini Espada, or old Maserati isn’t cheap and it is my belief that whatever is made up for in direct cost is lost in the odds that more will need to be fix or…

Here is the difference, buying a $60k F355 gets you a nice car that needs maintenance. Buying a $60k Pantera (low miles, all original) buys you a car that needs a lot of work. I suppose you would eventually replace everything so you could really be in the same sort of maintenance mode that Ferrari needs, but it will…