Pre-Pantera

Having never had the opportunity to drive a DeTomaso Mangusta I am not in a position to comment on their reputed idiosyncrasies. As my sense of sight is still functioning I can give you my visual two cents worth. The Mangusta, despite its shapely silhouette, still manages to impart an elegantly menacing presence. The same cannot be said of its angular successor, the Pantera, which succumbed to the prevailing winds of change and eliminated practically every curve. Where Guigiaro had penned a voluptuously inspiring design, Tom Tjaarda canned the french curves and headed straight for the straight edge. The same happened at Lamborghini where Marcello Gandini's stunning Miura was superseded by his wedge-like Countach. I don't really connect with the oblique supercar and my design preferences would have bankrupted both DeTomaso and Lamborghini.