There are cars that need no introduction. There De Tomaso Pantera it’s one of them. In the Seventies it represented a different way of understanding the sports car: the Italian design, the American character of a Ford V8 and the centrally positioned engine. A recipe that has spanned the decades and which lives on today ARES Panther ProgettoUnothe modern reinterpretation signed by the Modena-based body shop ARES.
The project was born in 2018 with a specific objective: to recover the spirit of the Pantera without limiting itself to reproducing its forms. Not a simple exercise in style, therefore, but a true restomod, a term used to indicate historic cars or those inspired by models of the past updated with contemporary technologies and mechanical solutions. The Panther ProgettoUno was presented in its definitive guise in 2019, at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, on the shores of Lake Como.
What is striking first and foremost is the bodywork. The proportions immediately recall the original Panther, but every element has been revised. The carbon fiber allows for weight reduction, while the air intakes, LED headlights and aerodynamic details convey a decidedly modern design sensibility. The result does not try to hide the link with the past, but neither does it try to live only on nostalgia.
The real surprise, however, is under the hood. Or rather, behind the passenger compartment, where the 5.2-liter naturally aspirated V10 of the Lamborghini Huracán is located. Power reaches 650 horsepower at 8,250 rpm, with a maximum torque of 600 Nm. The gearbox is a seven-speed dual clutch, the traction is all-wheel drive and the performance is that of a contemporary supercar: 3.1 seconds to go from zero to 100 km/h and over 325 km/h top speed.
This is where the ARES project distances itself from a simple nostalgic operation. The Pantera of the 1970s relied on the temperament of an American V8; ProgettoUno instead chooses a Naturally aspirated V10 from the Italian schoolcapable of revving at high rpm and offering a completely different character. Two eras, two interpretations of sportiness, united by the same idea of a car: low, wide, aggressive and built to excite.
The interior also follows this logic. Nappa leather, Alcantara and carbon fiber coexist with modern solutions, while the gear selector recalls the traditional mechanical grille of the sports cars of the past. It’s a detail that speaks well of the car’s philosophy: giving technology everything it needs, without erasing the charm of objects built to be looked at and driven.
Production is limited to 21 specimensaimed at customers looking for something different from mass-produced supercars. Each car thus becomes the result of work that brings together engineering, craftsmanship and customization.
Third place in the Restomod category at the fourth edition of Villa La Massa Excellence adds a new recognition to the Panther ProgettoUno journey. But the value of the project goes beyond the result obtained in Florence. In a market where performance is increasingly measured through numbers, acceleration and power, ARES tries to demonstrate that a car can still have a story to tell.
And that, sometimes, to look forward it is not necessary to forget where we started from.
