February 2023 Featured Car

Published on 1 February 2023 at 07:30

DeTomaso Pantera GT5-S that was owned by Carroll Shelby.

Panteras came from the factory with a small-block Ford V8 under the hood, but Shelby ripped the engine out of this GT5-S, installing a handful of different engines over the years. The most important of those transplanted engines was the twin turbocharged small block that was being considered for the Dodge Viper.

When this 1987 DeTomaso Pantera GT5-S rolled out of the factory, it was powered by a small block Ford, but at some point, Shelby and Lee Iacocca decided to replace that engine with a twin turbocharged Dodge V8.

This is a particularly odd choice, seeing as how the Viper has the engine mounted in front of the driver while the Pantera puts the power behind the driver. However, it may have simply been a test of how the Dodge V8 performed with the forced induction setup.

In any case, a naturally aspirated V10 from Lamborghini was chosen to power the Viper and the twin turbo V8 was removed from this Pantera.

https://dodgeforum.com/articles/carroll-shelby-pantera-dodge-testing-restored/

https://teamspeed.com/articles/resurrecting-carroll-shelbys-secret-detomaso-pantera-project/

https://www.motorious.com/articles/news/driven-restores-carroll-shelbys-detomaso-pantera/