He’s selling his Ferrari V8 to restore this De Tomaso with a Ford V8 engine—but with some upgrades: «This car is incredibly fast.»

Sell a Ferrari to buy a De Tomaso Pantera. To many people, this sounds almost like heresy. Yet that is exactly what Jack Pegoraro, a collector and enthusiast of classic cars, did. After owning a Ferrari 308, the famous Ferrari made iconic by the series Magnum, he decided to sell it to buy a 1973 De Tomaso Pantera. A choice he sums up himself with a simple question: «Have I lost my mind?»

To many, trading in a Ferrari V8 for a model powered by a Ford V8 might seem irrational. Yet, after three years of restoration, Jack is convinced he has found something even rarer: a car with a unique personality.

An Italian supercar like no other

The De Tomaso Pantera holds a special place in automotive history. Designed by Tom Tjaarda for Ghia at the instigation of Alejandro De Tomaso, it combines spectacular Italian styling with rugged American engineering. Compared to a Ferrari 308, the Pantera strikes a completely different note. Wider, lower, and more aggressive, it features a wedge-shaped silhouette typical of the 1970s. For Jack, it’s precisely this look that made all the difference. «It seems alive,» he explains. «I could look at it all day.»

During the restoration, he even abandoned the original silver-gray color in favor of a much bolder shade: a very rare Lime Green, which was only available early in the model’s production run. In his view, repainting this Pantera gray would have been «like buying a lion or a panther just to feed it salad.».

A 420-horsepower Ford V8 that makes you forget about the Ferrari

Under the rear hood lies one of the Pantera’s most controversial features: its 5.8-liter Ford Cleveland V8 engine. Far from viewing this American engine as a flaw, Jack sees it, on the contrary, as one of his car’s greatest strengths. While the engine originally produced around 330 hp, his Pantera has benefited from several mechanical upgrades, including a sportier camshaft, Edelbrock cylinder heads, and high-compression pistons. The result: power now reaches 420 hp on the dyno.

On the small English roads he frequents, the owner even feels that this power is excessive. Every time he accelerates, he’s reminded why he made this choice. «This car is incredibly fast,» he says. «I feel the G-forces like in almost no other car I’ve driven.» The impressive grip provided by the modern Pirelli P7 tires allows all that power to be transferred to the road without any major difficulty.

Three years of restoration and a few sacrifices

The restoration, however, was not a smooth ride. Jack spent nearly three years getting his Pantera back on the road. Some details proved costly, such as the original Ansa mufflers, which were specially remanufactured and cost around 2,500 pounds (about 3,000 euros). Even today, not everything is perfect. The V8 continues to guzzle fuel despite numerous attempts to tune the carburetor. According to him, the car gets only between 8 and 10 miles per gallon, or about 24 to 29 liters per 100 kilometers. But this flaw seems almost trivial to him as soon as the road opens up before him.

The real problem: the driving position

Paradoxically, the biggest flaw with this Pantera isn’t its fuel consumption or its particularly heavy clutch. The real problem is far more unexpected: its ergonomics. Standing nearly 6 feet tall, Jack explains that his head almost touches the roof and that his legs are constantly in the way of the controls. Another issue is that the seats cause him severe back pain after just forty minutes of driving.

Of the hundreds of cars he has test-driven, he even ranks the Pantera among his «top 10 worst driving positions.» It’s a problem serious enough to call into question his future with the car.

A car that’s far from perfect… but irresistible

Despite all its flaws, Jack no longer considers parting with it. The Pantera is heavier than his Ferrari 308, less refined, less comfortable, and far more demanding to drive on a daily basis. Yet it has something few cars can offer: character. Every time he admires it from the side, every time the Ford V8 roars behind him, all the drawbacks seem to disappear. «I’m going to keep it […] This car has to stay with me forever, or as long as possible.»

So, did he lose his mind by trading in his Ferrari for a De Tomaso Pantera? If you ask him, the answer is no. He simply realized that a car is more than just a prestigious badge. Sometimes, an imperfect but endearing car can stir up more emotions than an icon from Maranello. And that’s exactly what makes this Pantera so special.