Pantera GT5-S targa by Pavesi: how rare and is this one still for sale in U.S.?

The Most Valuable Pantera
The car Ford should have made...

Writing about DeTomaso is perilous for historians because the company's history is full of dark secrets (one great rumor is that DeTomaso bought Ghia for peaanuts from a dictator's son when said son was in jail).
The DeTomaso Pantera's production numbers are not so cut and dried, like Ferraris. There is no expert the equal of the Ferrari world's Marcel Massini.

It is known there were factory targas made from GT5-S coupes, a car model
made after DeTomaso and Ford parted ways. The advertiser of this open car, in Connecticut, says only about 40 of the GT5-S coupes made it to the US. That was the "gray market" era when private conversion shops would add what was needed to meet US laws.
Ironically today you don't have to have it converted due to the so-called "Bill Gates law" where Bill Gates, coveting a non-conforming Porsche 959, got a law passed giving exemptions to imported non-conforming cars made in small numbers.
The car shown in Connecticut with lettering but no stripes on the side has about 26k miles on it. It is
basically stock, except for just the wheels, which are Kinesis 18x11 front and 19x13 rear. The tires are Michelin Pilot Sports, 285/30 front, and 345/30 rear.
When DeTomaso began offering the Si, they had had Windsors because they ran out of Clevelands,. All of the 41 Si Panteras had 5.0L fuel injected Mustang motors in them. One expert says, of those 41, 4 were Pavesi Targas Of those four, 2 had the only 6 speed (Getrag) transaxles that came in a Pantera from the factory.
Pavesi is a well known coachbuilder in Italy though mostly they build commercial vehicles.
What's the Pantera GT5-S targa in Connecticut worth? I say it partly depends on how many were made
some reports say six but others say four. If four is a number that compares with Iso Grifo targas.Only fourteen Series I (open headlamp) Iso Grifo Targas were made and only four series II (closed headlamp) Targas were built. Of course over 7000 Panteras were made compared to only 401 Iso Grifos so overall Isos are a rarer brand. An Iso targa could bring $500,000 or twice the price of a Pantera targa.
There's also the preference of Giugaro over Tjaarda as the designer, most people agree Giugiaor, who did the Grifo, is far more celebrated.
The Pantera targa seller in the US reports regular GT5-S Pantera coupes are fast approaching the 200k mark, and one just sold in the UK for 240k! He is estimating his Pantera is worth 250k.
He did not date his offering of his car on the Pantera International website so I wrote him but he hasn't
answered if it's still on the market.
If you can't afford a Pantera targa but still love the car, I am humbly listing a canvas giclee print from my original painting of one for $600 on the net. Info at [email protected]

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