The 1970′s Ford Lincoln Mercury Division De Tomaso Pantera might well be seen as an early example of design and marketing synergy between a US automaker and an Italian design classic studio. A shade of what was to come in the global auto industries and also of “lean manufacturing” where smaller volumes of kitsch or niche market boutique marketing and manufacturing replaced the old models of mass market high volumes per model run production runs and US auto manufacturing practices.

Indeed the humor was that the name (in the Italian language) was Mangusta translated as “Mongoose” whom eat Cobras (that was the Cobra as in the model name “Shelby Cobra”) which was the greatest inspiration for the De Tomaso Pantera mid engined sports auto which was designed and built expressly in Italy by De Tomaso in the 1970s’ and sold and marketed by the Mercury Lincoln Division of the US Ford Motor Company.

Yet the interesting synergy between the two widely different corporate structures of an Italian studio and a firmly based Detroit auto monolith was the use of a widely used what might be called run of the mill American engine remodeled and presented as a 1960s’ muscle car power plant powering a mid-engined Italian sports car down the road. In sum total somewhere under the range of 8,000 units were produced between the years of 1970 to 1991.

There was a lot to said for the choice of the Ford “Cleveland” V8s as the engine choice. It was relatively inexpensive – due to mass production, ultra reliable and could always be counted on, as well as powerful and even hearty. True it had to be as it was fitted into the original Ford Mustangs in the hundreds of thousands. It was also naturally enough, fairly heavy and substantial, even though Ford engineers at the time had already brought “thin walled casting” to a fine art.

De Tomaso experimented with alloy components to replace the cast iron but he most that he saves reportedly was 55 lbs (25 kg), though networked porting. In addition other changes were supposed to have resulted in a power output of 437 bhp compared with the claimed 305 bhp (at 6200 rpm) in standard form and formats.

Because the engine was bulky whichever way you chose to look at it, even without the encumbrance of overhead camshafts, it was mounted low in relation to the rest of the chassis, and the quill input shaft to the gearbox passed under the final drive rather than above it as in most road-going transaxles. As a result the center of gravity as usefully lowered but the ground clearance was much less usefully reduced. Clearance beneath the vital shaft was also restricted, the possible clutch size forcing De Tomaso to use a three-plate clutch which turned out to be extremely heavy in operation.

It might well be noted and remembered that this setup between an Italian design studio and a US automaker – the Ford Motor Company in this case, which used both design facilities and in addition product components which instilled great merit and a set of values not available on the other side represented what became later known as global or world cars. Previously it was a case where cars might be made offshore – basically lock stock and barrel. True Japanese cars or European cars or trucks might be made offshore and imported yet they were domestic products made elsewhere and then imported into the large and lucrative North American auto market. These products were essentially auto products designed and developed for a domestic foreign market that a US automaker either did not want to design or produce for or perhaps an automotive product had been developed and manufactured elsewhere and home office in Detroit though might have a use and market here.

There had not been a fusion and integration of basic automotive components and parts to the benefit of a final product previously. Shades of what was to come in the global auto industry and industries.