When I was young, my father was a manager at the local Chrysler plant. He was in charge of facilities and part of his task was to ensure company vehicles were properly repaired. The local body shop that had the Chrysler contract was the Carlini Brothers Body shop.
One day when my father stopped off at the shop with me at hand. He asked me if I wanted to see a really nice car and he pulled the cover off of a sparkling new De Tomaso Pantera. I said one day I would own that car.
Move ahead 40 years and I was hooked up wtih a guy in Bath, New York, a small town nine hours away from where I reside. This guy had 12 beautiful cars stored in his garage. One of them was a beautiful Pantera ,which we spent a few hours talking about.
The owner finally broke down and I made a cash offer. He accepted and I became a proud owner of a beautiful barn-find Pantera.
To close the loop, 40 years after my dad showed me Hank Carlini’s Pantea at his cousin’s body shop, dad and I drove nine hours to pick up my Pantera.
The circle of automotive life.
— David Cantagallo, La Salle, Ontario, Canada
Nice car. Always one of my favorites. Enjoy it.
David, what colour was Tim’s?
My true dream car!