This is an original De Tomaso Pantera 90 Si, just 38 of these would be offered for sale to the general public, and it’s rare to see one come up for sale as owners have a habit of hanging onto them for decades.
The Pantera 90 Si was based on the De Tomaso Pantera but given a series of major upgrades including a new body design by the great Marcello Gandini – the man who had previously penned the Lamborghini Miura and Countach, the Lancia Stratos, Alfa Romeo Carabo, and countless others.
Fast Facts – The De Tomaso Pantera 90 Si
- The De Tomaso Pantera 90 Si represents the final iteration of the Pantera series, with only 38 examples sold to the public. Redesigned by Marcello Gandini (known for the Lamborghini Miura and Countach), it featured significant upgrades including a revised 5.0 liter Ford V8 producing 305 bhp.
- The original Pantera, launched in 1971, established itself as the affordable mid-engine supercar, priced at $10,000 (equivalent to $75,000 in 2025). Sold through Lincoln-Mercury dealerships in the US, it offered Ferrari-like performance with reliable Ford V8 power.
- Development of the Pantera focused on improved handling compared to its predecessor, the Mangusta. The new design featured a steel unibody shell and balanced 44/56 front/rear weight distribution, making it more manageable.
- The featured 1991 example, finished in Giallo over Nero leather, has covered just 18,763 kilometers since new. Recently imported to the US in 2020, it has undergone maintenance including a carburetor replacement and is expected to fetch $150,000-$200,000 at auction.
The De Tomaso Pantera
If any car from the 20th century has the right to call itself a blue-collar supercar, it’s the De Tomaso Pantera. It’s a mid-engined vehicle designed by American designer Tom Tjaarda for Carrozzeria Ghia in Italy, built by De Tomaso Automobili, and powered by a Ford V8.
The first Pantera had been styled by American designer Tom Tjaarda for Carrozzeria Ghia in Italy. The Pantera 90 Si would have its styling significantly updated by Marcello Gandini, the man who designed the Miura, Countach, Stratos, and countless others.
The Pantera had been developed as a replacement for the outgoing De Tomaso Mangusta, another mid-engined Italian supercar with an American V8, though this time with styling by Giorgetto Giugiaro then working at Ghia.
The Mangusta had an unusual steel backbone chassis and 32/68 front/rear weight distribution that could make it tricky to handle at the edge of the performance envelope. The Pantera on the other hand, was designed from the get-go to be mass-produced, and to have more forgiving handling.
The wedge-shaped body was penned by Tom Tjaarda and a new steel unibody shell was designed to match. The Pantera would have a much easier to handle 44/56 front/rear weight distribution but it would still make use of an affordable (and reliable) American V8 from Ford.
De Tomaso Automobili owner Alejandro de Tomaso sold the rights to sell the Pantera in the United States to Ford, who would sell the vehicle through their Lincoln-Mercury dealerships. This was a major win for De Tomaso, and the company retained the rights to sell the car themselves in Europe.
At launch in 1971 the price of the Pantera was approximately $10,000 USD, or roughly $75,000 USD in 2025 money. This was around the same as the cost of a new Porsche 911 at the time, and less than half the price of a comparable Ferrari or Lamborghini.
It was the most affordable mass-produced mid-engined supercar in the world at the time, and it quickly became an icon in its own right. A number of Pantera models would be made over the course of the long 1971 to 1992 production run including the Pantera L, Pantera GTS, Pantera GT5 and GT5-S, and finally, the Pantera 90 Si.
The interior of the Pantera 90 Si was the best-appointed of any of the Panteras, with leather, wood trim, air-conditioning, electric windows, and more.
A total of 7,260 Panteras would be built by the time the factory shut down and today they’re prized by collectors and enthusiasts, they still offer excellent value for money and unlike the costly maintenance of an Italian V12, they’re powered by simple Ford V8s.
The De Tomaso Pantera 90 Si
The De Tomaso Pantera 90 Si would be the final iteration of the venerable Pantera model series, it made its debut in the 1990, 19 years after the first Pantera had been released back in 1971.
90 Si was a significant upgrade over the earlier cars, the 351 cubic inch (5.8 liter) Ford V8 was swapped out for the more advanced 305 bhp 5.0 liter (302 cubic inch) engine with electronic fuel injection, as well as uprated cylinder heads, intake manifolds, camshafts, valves, and pistons.
The suspension was completely revised, the chassis was moderately revised, and a set of four-wheel ventilated and drilled disc brakes were added, with the same Brembo calipers used on the Ferrari F40.
Just 41 examples of the Pantera 90 Si would be made, though two of these would be destroyed during crash testing and another was sent directly to the De Tomaso Museum, so there were only 38 available to the general public and none were ever sold new in the United States.
The 1991 De Tomaso Pantera 90 Si Shown Here
The car you see here is one of the original examples of the De Tomaso Pantera 90 Si, it’s finished in Giallo (Yellow) over a Nero (Black) leather interior and was delivered new to Germany. It spent most of its life in Europe, and was then bought by the current owner and imported to the United States in 2020.
The original car used a fuel-injected 5.0 liter Ford V8, but this car has had the fuel injection system replaced with a more traditional carburetor.
The car now has 18,763 kilometers (~11,659 miles) on the odometer and it’s had some recent maintenance work done including the fitment of a new carburetor (the fuel injection system was removed under previous ownership), a new distributor, and other ignition components.
It’s now due to roll across the auction block with RM Sotheby’s in late February with a price guide of $150,000 – $200,000 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images: Jorge Guasso ©2025 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
