It's been several months since I went to Circuit Paul Ricard last year for the Dix Mille Tours by Peter Auto and I completely forgot to put together a video fully focused on one of my personal highlights of the 2022 edition: the De Tomaso Pantera Group 5 chassis 001, freshly restored by Braun Motorsport Germany to its original 1979 specs and tested for the occasion by German race driver Ralf Kelleners.

De Tomaso initially built some lightweight Group 4 and GT4 cars in early 70s but none of the Group 5 or IMSA GTX Panteras were ever designed and campaigned by the factory itself. In fact most of these cars were converted from Group 3 or 4 Panteras, adding wider body panels but without the major redesign and chassis modifications on the level of those undertaken by the direct rivals (Porsche with their 935 or the Zakspeed Capri for example).

However two chassis (001 and 1603) were built specifically to try to raise the bar and be competitive in this top tier class. Both of them were private efforts and both cars continued to be developed over time through the end of the Group 5 and IMSA GTX eras.

Chassis 001 is the one you saw in this video and started its life as a brand new chassis provided by De Tomaso to William Sala and Giovanni Marverti, racing car builders who already developed a Group 5 Pantera from a factory Group 4 in 1976. Having a new chassis allowed the design team to take fully advantage of the liberal Group 5 regulations. Maurizio Micangeli and Carlo Pietromarchi were the drivers in charge of pushing the car to its limit in European races.

The chassis was reworked in order to reduced weight and improve the general strength. Weight was listed as 1,175 kg with a carbureted 5.7 liter V8 engine and 1,050 kg with a 5.0 liter engine using Lucas fuel injection. The center of gravity was also lowered. The body was designed to resemble the shapes of the opponents. During its racing career chassis 001 featured both a short and long-tail bodywork as well as different nose and rear wing configurations.

After the FIA dropped Group 5, chassis 001 was then converted into a Group C car. It ran few events in 1983, but not surprisingly it was uncompetitive against the purpose-built factory Group C cars. This Pantera remained in this Group C configuration until the current owner found it and entrusted chassis 001 to the care of Braun Motorsport.

Watch and hear the sound of the naturally-aspirated V8 engine, featuring individual throttle bodies, and jump on board with Ralf for a couple of laps of the French circuit, thanks to the in-car footage the team provided us!

0:00 Warm Up & Pit Exit
2:19 External Scenes - pt.1
4:01 OnBoard
7:55 External Scenes - pt. 2

#DeTomaso #DeTomasoPantera #PanteraGroup5
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I have to thank my friend and youtuber @Italiansupercarvideo for the great collaboration done during this event. Don't forget to subscribe to his channel!!

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- Camcorder: Canon Legria HF G30 & GX10 + Canon DM-100 Microphone
- Event: Dix Mille Tours 2022
- Where: Circuit Paul Ricard, France

Link To My Channel:    / 19bozzy92  

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