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eddiejpoplar · 6 years ago

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2020 Jeep Gladiator Pickup Finally Arrives: Here Are the Official Details

With Jeep having previously confirmed that it is calling its new pickup truck the Gladiator, you’ve by now heard (or made) all the references to Peter Graves’s toss-away line in “Airplane”—“Joey, do you like trucks called the Gladiator?”—and resolved yourself to the brand’s rationale for resurrecting the name. There was, says Jeep design chief Mark Allen, “a little bit of reluctance to call it a Wrangler truck.” Indeed, Jeep has a history of separate nameplates for its pickups, including Gladiator, Scrambler (which had been rumored to get the nod), and Comanche. Gladiator traces back to the 1962–71 Wagoneer-based truck, was used on a 2005 concept, and as a production model has now made its debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show ahead of a second-quarter 2019 market launch.

The 2020 Jeep Gladiator shares its body from the C-pillar forward with the Wrangler Unlimited, but not all of its underpinnings. While the pickup truck’s front suspension is identical to the Wrangler’s solid front axle with coil springs, the rear has a five-link coil-spring setup in place of trailing arms, with two upper and two lower forged steel control arms for longitudinal control, and a track bar for lateral control of the axle. The control arms are located under the frame rails, and the rear shocks are forward facing for more consistent damping, Jeep says. The rear suspension design is borrowed from the new Ram 1500 pickup, which has a wheelbase 3.2 inches longer than the Gladiator’s. For its part, Jeep says the Gladiator’s frame is unique to the model.

At 218.0 inches long, the truck is 29.6 inches longer than the Unlimited, which itself is 19.6 inches longer than the two-door JL Wrangler. The Gladiator’s wheelbase gets 19.4 of those additional inches, standing at 137.3 inches.

The five-foot pickup box will be available with a spray-in bedliner, as well as a soft, roll-up tonneau with a small slit in back so you can slip in a 2×4 without fussing with it. There are aluminum extrusions with cleats for tie-downs, in-bed LED lighting and an optional 115-volt power outlet. The spare tire has been moved underneath, and there’s room for aftermarket 37-inch tires, if you want to replace the factory 35s. Jeep considers the Gladiator a “lifestyle” pickup truck good for hauling motorcycles, bicycles, and kayaks rather than for hitting the work sites. It surely will handle hauling extra gear on your next Moab expedition.

Most of the interior layout is the same, at least from the front seats forward. The rear-seat bottom cushion can flip up as in most other pickups, and it sports removable locking storage bins under the cushion. As seen in many current pickups, the Gladiator will have a three-piece rear window with a power-operated middle pane that will slide to the driver’s side.

The Jeep Gladiator will be available with either of the Wrangler Unlimited’s two roof options. The body-color hardtop features removable “Freedom Panels” over the front seats, while the cloth soft top can open all the way, four-door-convertible style. In the case of either top, the Gladiator’s doors can be removed with a hand tool, and the windshield can be folded down. With the soft-top option, the Jeep Gladiator becomes the first factory convertible pickup truck we can remember since the Dodge Dakota ragtop of the ’80s.

Elsewhere, the mesh of the Gladiator’s seven-slot grille is slightly larger to deliver more cooling air to the engine due to the demands of pickup-truck towing and hauling. But even parked side-by-side, it’s hard to distinguish the Gladiator’s grille from the Wrangler’s.

The ’20 Gladiator launches with the gas-fueled 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6, rated for 285 horsepower and 260 lb-ft and hooked up to your choice of an eight-speed automatic or—good news, purists!—a six-speed manual transmission, a rarity these days even among mid-size pickups. In the 2020 calendar year, Jeep will add its 3.0-liter diesel V-6, and it will deliver 260 horses and 442 lb-ft. It will be available only with a six-speed automatic. Jeep has no plans to add the 48-volt, 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gas engine from the Wrangler lineup to the Gladiator’s.

Perhaps even bigger news in the powertrain department is the addition of an Off-Road Plus setting for the driver-adjustable four-wheel-drive system. This allows higher vehicle speeds with the rear locker engaged, Allen says, and you can bet this feature will migrate to the Wrangler lineup, likely by the ’20 model year. While Allen declined to comment on the possibility, Off-Road Plus already has us thinking of a future where even more high-speed capability sees Jeep battling the Ford F-150 Raptor and Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 with potential high-performance versions of the Gladiator and Wrangler.

Maximum towing is 7,650 pounds for the Gladiator Sport S, some 500 higher than the max for a Wrangler Unlimited. Jeep has shaken up the trim levels from what’s available in the Wrangler models. Like the Wrangler and Unlimited, the ’20 Gladiator starts with Sport and then moves to Sport S, but an Overland trim level displaces the Sahara. Rubicon is the top trim level here, as it is on the Wrangler.

The marque’s first pickup truck since the XJ Cherokee–based 1992 Comanche arrives in the second quarter of next year with specs that should satisfy the brand faithful. But is there perhaps another reason Jeep is using a model name last affixed to a version of the Wagoneer? Perhaps because the next eagerly anticipated model from Fiat Chrysler’s off-road brand is a reborn Wagoneer, which will also be built on a version of the platform used for the Ram 1500 pickup truck.

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jonathanbelloblog · 6 years ago

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2020 Jeep Gladiator Pickup Finally Arrives: Here Are the Official Details

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bodyshopcarbondalecolorado · 6 years ago

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body shop carbondale colorado

Here's a Ultimate Guide for a auto body glenwood springs

Many people nowadays think that auto body replacements could be the only real means to fixes auto-body harms or some could believe only car body replacement will produce great results for body shop carbondale colorado damages. Yet replacements are not the only real way or the best solution to decide on auto body repairs. Many car body replacements cost a lot of dollars and have a lot of time. You will be charged not only for the parts that are expensive, however for your own labor a hour it will take them to finish, and also any other materials they're using to finish the occupation. This racks up an extremely large bill for you to pay for. So that the choice to that is getting auto body fixes, this could help you save a excellent deal of time and dollars. auto body glenwood springs repairs are performed with all the present vehicles panels or parts. So that's already a significant chuck of change saved from your own pocket. Auto darkening experts have become knowledgeable and understand what techniques are most useful for repairing your motor vehicle. As they will be professionally trained and do not have to wait around for almost any parts to come in they could also complete the job in less time.

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ecoairductcleancospringscom · 5 years ago

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Preventive maintenance in colorado springs

Preventive maintenance is the care and protection of your vehicle against potential major auto repairs. Negligence is the most common and costly way to see money wasted on repairs that could have easily been prevented through regular service intervals. Depending on your vehicle’s manufacturer, avoiding preventive maintenance on certain parts and components has the potential to void warranty coverage. Car maintenance intervals have been designed to improve the reliability, durability, and resale value of your vehicle. Based upon your driving conditions, Preventive maintenance in colorado springs these service intervals may arrive sooner than you expect. For example, short commutes can actually hurt a vehicle because most engines thrive during long drives. Driving short commutes, experiencing stop-and-go traffic, and carrying heavy cargo are all aspects of severe driving. However, severe driving can also be reinforced by your environment. Hot or cold weather, mountainous or rough roads, and dusty or salty environments can all affect your vehicle. Because of these innumerable factors, adhering to a rigid service schedule can keep your vehicle operating at maximum efficiency for years to come.Vehicle components and parts naturally wear out over time, and road hazards can negatively impact critical components. By adhering to the preventive maintenance schedule in your vehicle owner’s manual, you will help ensure that your vehicle always runs at optimal conditions. Depending upon the vehicle’s service interval mileage, our staff may inspect the function of your steering and suspension components, fluid filters, belts and hoses, brakes and axles, and more to help ensure that your vehicle functions efficiently. Our staff can look at the level of vital vehicle fluids. We are also able to review exterior and interior lights, examine windshield wiper blades, check batteries, inspect hinges and locks, determine level of ball joint wear, check transmission components, fix exhaust system components, and conduct both tire wear inspection and inflation checks. It is important to schedule preventive maintenance for these and other components to ensure they continue to work as intended. Remember that environmental conditions may affect your ideal preventive maintenance schedule. Depending upon your environment, you may need to seek more frequent inspections and replacements. Contact us today to learn more about recommended car maintenance service intervals for your vehicle.

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robertkstone · 6 years ago

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2019 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro First Drive: Shocking Development

Why the sudden fascination with pickups capable of driving really fast across a rocky, dusty desert? Nobody knew we needed any such thing until Ford introduced its wide-fendered, tall-enough-to-need-clearance-lights Raptor. Chevy eventually responded with the dimensionally tidier Colorado ZR2, and now Toyota is taking aim squarely at Chevy (and preemptively at Ford, should it decide to bring the Ranger Raptor here) by redesigning the suspension of its 2019 Tacoma TRD Pro for Baja racing.

FANCY SNORKEL Anybody can Sawzall a hole in the fender and bolt a snorkel to the A-pillar, but the TRD Pro snorkel is designed in. Its fender hole is stamped in the raw steel at the factory, and hence gets the full anti-corrosion paint treatment. It also attaches to a built-in roof-rack fastening point on the roof, so no new holes are created up there. The head can be swiveled backwards to prevent ingesting snow in blizzard driving, and the head is tethered to remain with the truck should a bird or debris knock it loose. Please don’t rely on this snorkel for fording 6-foot deep water, though, as there are water drain holes down low that will admit engine-killing external water.

Key to each of these trucks’ saguaro-slaloming capabilities is a sophisticated set of name-brand shock absorbers. Chevy made big headlines by utilizing Multimatic spool-valve shocks—a technology previously utilized primarily on cars that race on paved circuits. Toyota (and Ford) chose to go with a more typical supplier of off-road racing dampers—Fox Shox. What they all strive to do is provide comfy, cushy ride quality over the sorts of small bumps one finds on paved roads, while ramping up the damping rates as the speed and size of the bump events increases to keep the suspension from bottoming out harshly, which can cause serious damage. Fox does this using internal bypass passages that provide position-dependent damping-rate variability.

Here’s how the Fox Shox work on the Tacoma: As the 1.8-inch-diameter piston moves up and down through its range of travel (which is increased by 0.7 inch in front, 0.8 inch in back relative to base and TRD Off Road Tacomas) various different orifices are exposed for the oil to travel through. Each provides a different damping rate. The front shocks feature five jounce and three rebound zones; the rears provide seven jounce and four rebound rates. The lightest damping rate near the center of the shock’s travel promises noticeably smoother on-road ride relative to the previous model’s simpler Bilstein shocks and relative to the base Tacoma shocks. The rear shocks also feature 2-inch “piggyback” external reservoirs that serve to increase the volume of hydraulic oil and thereby keep all the oil cooler during prolonged desert running. One downside of the Fox design—its position-dependent nature means that adding aftermarket lift kits and so forth without replacing the shocks could drastically alter the truck’s driving dynamics.

Instead of tubes, orifices, and springy shim packs, Multimatic shocks send oil through spool valves that move inside sleeves, at a rate controlled by a spring. These valves and sleeves each have orifices laser-cut in them for oil to flow through, and by using computational fluid dynamics to precisely design the size and shape of these orifices, Multimatic claims that nearly any force/damping curve an engineer desires can be delivered with high accuracy and vastly less iterative development work than is typically required when developing shimmed-orifice shocks. Each Colorado shock uses three spool valves. This design tends to be pretty expensive.

Before we take the Tacoma for a spin, let’s run through the rest of its 2019 upgrades, which include new front springs that add 1 inch of ride height, a larger front anti-roll bar—1.2 versus 1.1 inch diameter (still hollow), progressive-rate off-road leaf springs out back that allow more jounce travel on rough terrain, and 16-inch TRD Pro wheels that add an inch of track width front and rear. (Note that the stiffer front bar is designed to make the truck more eager to rotate and hence more fun to drive on and off road at some tiny expense of its rock-crawling articulation.) There’s also a snortier cat-back exhaust with a black-chrome tip and a new Desert Air Intake that keeps the engine breathing cleaner, less dusty air from above the windshield. Neither the intake nor the exhaust alters the output of the 278-hp V-6. Rigid Industries LED foglamps brighten nighttime trail rides, and a TRD Pro–badged quarter-inch-thick front skidplate is strong enough to be used to jack up the vehicle. New standard equipment includes a moonroof and the Entune Premium JBL audio system. All these upgrades increase the price by just $940 (with the manual) or $1,645 (automatic).

To test out the new Tacoma TRD Pro, Toyota attempted to create a mini Baja in its backyard at a former limestone quarry known as Northwest OHV Park in Bridgeport, Texas, about 80 miles northwest of Dallas. The desert simulation was compromised by several inches of falling rain that added to what was already the wettest September in recorded Texas history.

My first few trails involve careful tiptoeing up and down some precipitous and slick rocky hills, which the truck’s Crawl Control system accomplishes with astonishing ease. I especially like being able to select among the system’s five speed settings using a dedicated rotary knob on the overhead console instead of toggling a cruise-control button or something. The knob lets me see at a glance what speed is selected when slowing back down to a crawl. The 265/70R16 Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure tires impress with their levels of grip despite tread blocks filled with greasy red clay.

Next I head down to the broad sand/mud pit where the trucks can reach higher speeds to really get those Fox Shox pumping. Maybe the rain and continued use by multiple journalists has made the course particularly rough, but the seat of my pants is recording a level of ride quality that ranks well short of plush. And plush is kind of what I was hoping for, having once ridden shotgun with Ironman Ivan Stewart in one of his SCORE Toyota off-road racing trucks. Sure it had 2-plus feet’s worth of suspension travel, external bypass shocks, and the like, but that rig swallowed bumps with a plushness that I was reminded of when I sampled a Colorado ZR2 in 2016. That drive involved jumping and bouncing off a bunch of large but man-made obstacles set up in a parking lot, though, and vastly different conditions experienced years apart do not a valid comparison make. Clearly the question of which shock technology reigns supreme can only be answered by a proper Head 2 Head comparison. Maybe in Baja?

What’s New with the Other TRD Pros

2019 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro

Fox Shox like the Tacoma’s, but with unique tuning and more bypass zones—seven jounce and four rebound in front, eight and four in back—and “piggyback” reservoirs on the front shocks

TRD-tuned front springs add 2.0 inches to the ride height

Wheel travel is increased 1.5 inches in front, 2.0 inches in the rear

18-inch forged five-spoke satin black hand-polished BBS wheels that each weigh 3.35 pounds less than previous cast wheels (tires are 275/65R18 Michelin LTX A/T2s)

Quarter-inch-thick aluminum skidplate with red “Toyota” lettering

Cat-back exhaust with black-chrome tip (adds sound not power)

Rigid Industries foglamps

New grille, hood scoop

Pickup bed outer quarter panels get “TRD Pro” stamped into the steel

2019 Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro

Fox Shox like the Tacoma’s, but with unique tuning and four jounce bypass zones and three rebound zones in front, seven and four in back. Rear shocks are inverted for tire clearance and feature “roost shields” that prevent rocks from striking the exposed piston rod

TRD-tuned front springs add 1.0 inch to the ride height

Wheel travel is increased 1.0 inch front and rear

17-inch matte-black TRD wheels with an offset that widens the track by nearly an inch front and rear

New 265/70R17 Nitto Terra Grappler All Terrain tires

Quarter-inch-thick aluminum skidplate with red “TRD” lettering

Unique roof rack for stowing dirty gear

LED foglamps

Blackout grille

Standard Entune Premium JBL audio system with navigation and app suite

2019 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro BASE PRICE $43,705 VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, 4WD, 5-pass, 4-door truck ENGINE 3.5L/278-hp/265-lb-ft Atkinson-cycle DOHC 24-valve V-6 TRANSMISSIONS 6-speed manual, 6-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT 4,450 lb (mfr) WHEELBASE 127.4 in LENGTH X WIDTH X HEIGHT 212.3 x 74.4 x 71.6 in 0-60 MPH 7.1-7.3 sec (MT est) EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 17-18/20-23/18-20 mpg ENERGY CONSUMPTION, CITY/HWY 187-198/147-169 kW-hrs/100 miles CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB 0.97-1.06 lb/mile ON SALE IN U.S. Currently

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johnsmithjsi-blog · 6 years ago

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How to Protect Your Car from Summer Storms

You hear a storm come through in the middle of the night. Thunder, lightening and a downpour of rain interrupt your sleep. The next day, you leave for work and you notice the damage to your car. Small dents all over the roof and hood from hail. Or a tree limb has landed right in the middle of your roof and broken your windshield. Summer storms can not only damage your home; they can wreak havoc on your vehicles.

Your first thought is probably going to be to call your agent and file a claim with your auto insurance in Colorado Springs. Hail damage is one of the biggest reasons for non-accident claims during the summer. However, you may face other types of damage from storms. There’s the fallen tree limb as well as other debris that goes flying through the air in high winds only to land on top of your vehicle.

Preventing Damage

Your first step should be to prevent storm damage as much as possible. If you have a garage, use it for your vehicle. Clean it out of other items if you’re using it for storage. Make sure you put your car inside even when it’s not calling for storms. Pop-up storms are popular during the summer.

If you don’t have a garage, you can often buy a carport for a reasonable price. While it won’t provide the same kind of protection as a garage, it can keep hail and other debris from hitting your car. If you can’t afford a carport or don’t have room on your property, you can buy covers for your vehicle. Some are designed specifically to protect from damage. You can get full-car covers or those that stretch over your windshield.

Don’t park your vehicle under a tree. Remove any dead or damaged limbs from nearby trees. Weakened limbs are more likely to break in heavy rain or high winds.

Check Your Insurance Policy

Make sure you have adequate coverage on your vehicle before damage occurs. If you only have liability, you may want to think about getting full coverage. It’s important to know that while collision pays for incidents involving an accident with another vehicle or where your vehicle hits an obstacle, comprehensive insurance covers you for storm damage. While these two components are usually sold as a package, they can be purchased separately. You want to make sure you have both types of coverage.

Consider your deductible. Make sure you can afford to pay out of pocket the amount of your deductible so you can get your car fixed if it gets damaged in a storm. You may want to purchase gap insurance or buy replacement cost coverage if you have a loan on your car. While it doesn’t happen often that your vehicle is totaled from storm damage, it’s a situation that can occur.

Protect your car from summer storms with the right kind of car insurance and a safe place to park it.

John Smith works for John Smith Insurance Agency which provides Colorado vehicle insurance. Affordable rates and superior service for all home, auto and business/commercial insurance needs.

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itsworn · 6 years ago

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1972 DeTomaso Pantera: A Coyote in Wolf’s Clothing

Some of Marty Quadland’s earliest memories involve sitting in the family’s 1935 Ford cabriolet with both hands tightly gripping the steering wheel as he belched out a four-year-old’s version of a V8 exhaust note. Later on, as a way of dealing with his motion sickness in the car, his father usually had him on his lap, where he could help “steer.” At age 12, he bought his first car, a 1939 Chevy for $15, and immediately began modifying it. Over the next few years, while negotiating high school and then college, he had, in succession, a chopped and channeled 1931 Ford, a 1954 Ford convertible, a Triumph TR3, and a 1936 Ford cabriolet powered by a 283-cid Chevy engine.

Quadland had a dry decade following college, as far as interesting cars go. Graduate school, military service, and additional career training consumed all of his time and much of his money. Once he began working, he was able to purchase a slightly used 1971 Corvette. The Stingray made him happy until the fateful day when a friend pulled into his driveway driving a bright yellow Pantera.

Pantera coachwork was produced by Ghia, based on a design by American Tom Tjaarda.

“I was immediately smitten by the look, the mid-engine layout, and the incredible sound of the 351 Cleveland,” Quadland recalls, “and I had to have one!” To that end, he began banking every spare penny he could put his hands on. Though considerably less expensive than a Ferrari or other exotics of the era, at around $10,000, it was about $3,500 more than a very well-optioned 1972 Corvette. The price tag didn’t dissuade Quadland in the least, however, and just a couple of months after falling in love with his pal’s yellow Pantera, he placed his order with the Lincoln Mercury dealer in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Pantera was the brainchild of Alejandro de Tomaso, the larger-than-life Italian/Argentinian businessman, race driver, and bon vivant. His relationship with Ford dated back to the early 1960s, when he began sourcing engines from the Dearborn giant for some of the cars he was building in Modena, Italy, including his Mangustas. De Tomaso and Ford President Lee Iacocca, who was instrumental in the creation of the Mustang and thus was certainly no stranger to performance cars, struck a deal that would see Panteras on the market, beginning in 1971, through Ford’s extensive Lincoln-Mercury dealer network in the U.S., and distributed elsewhere in the world by De Tomaso Automobili.

Nearly half a century after it was built, this Pantera looks as good and performs as well as a modern exotic.

Marketing Panteras through Lincoln Mercury dealers, alongside Continentals, Comets, Montegos, and Cougars, was a bit odd, but given its steep MSRP and exotic flair, Iacocca thought it was a better fit than the Ford dealer network. Either way, it was never intended or expected to be a volume seller, so for Ford it was more about moving the company’s image upstream. Of course, giving Enzo Ferrari another little poke in the eye and pulling a few customers away from Lamborghini, Maserati, and perhaps even Corvette wasn’t going to upset anyone at Ford, either.

The Pantera’s coachwork was produced by Carrozzeria Ghia, which was owned by De Tomaso, but American Tom Tjaarda actually led the styling effort. Gian Paolo Dallara, who began with an aeronautical engineering degree from Politecnico di Milano University and quickly became one of the preeminent performance and racing-car designers for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, and ultimately his own firm, Dallara Automobili in Parma, Italy, oversaw the Pantera’s engineering work.

High-quality BMW-sourced leather and square-weave German carpeting bring the interior up a few notches.

Not surprisingly, it took a long time to actually receive a Pantera after ordering one, and problems with the earlier cars, including hot-running engines, excessive heat in the passenger compartment, and even some structural deficiencies, delayed delivery even further. Quadland was so enamored with the Anglo-Italian mid-engine Ferrari fighter that he was willing to wait, but his spirit was crushed when his car arrived with extensive damage incurred during shipping.

“There was going to be a long delay before another car would be available,” explains Quadland, “so the manager suggested I contact a local Pantera customer who had purchased his car a few months earlier but was unable to continue ownership and wanted to sell it. I was able to buy that car, on the spot, at a considerable discount, and drive it home the same day. That was in October 1972.”

An aluminum shift ball is one of several items borrowed from the Ferrari parts bin.

The car served as Quadland’s daily driver for the next several years. For the reliability that he demanded, and the performance he wanted, he had several upgrades done. These included enhancements to the electrical and cooling systems and an engine rebuild by Holman-Moody. In 1975, the Pantera was taken out of daily service and for the next three decades served as a pleasure-only vehicle. All the while, Quadland also had one or more Italian and/or German exotics sharing space in his garage, and though all of these outperformed the aging Pantera, his first true automotive love always remained his favorite.

Following retirement, Quadland realized a dream of his and moved west to the mountains of Wyoming. In preparation, he downsized considerably, selling his SCCA race cars, several motorcycles, and a late-model exotic, and, for the first time, he considered selling the Pantera. His son intervened, however. “I saw the look on my son’s face when I told him I might sell it,” he recalls. “He thought the Pantera would be his someday. I purchased it a few months before he was born, and he reminded me of how he had grown up around that car. So, it was immediately decided that it would one day be his, and that a restoration would be done.”

A full complement of AutoMeter gauges helps Quadland keep an eye on the essentials.

Quadland never hesitated to improve upon his car’s original parts and systems, especially when it came to performance, so the restoration also included some high-end, custom modifications, and over time evolved into a very complex undertaking. “The work was recently completed after having been performed by three Colorado shops—Pantera Performance, Excalibur International, and 3R Racing. The upholstery and other interior work was done in California by Full Throttle Panteras. While the nine-year restoration project was long, expensive, and at times frustrating, I’m pleased with the result!”

The body was stripped to bare metal and refinished in a Porsche metallic gray with silver stripes. A complete, custom red-and-gray interior replaced the original. Various parts were sourced from Ferraris, including the aluminum pedal assembly and shift knob; other bits came from BMW, and still others were simply fabricated from scratch. Scheel-Mann seats and AutoMeter Ultra-Lite gauges are both functional and beautiful to look at.

Scheel-Mann seats and Teamtech Motorsports four-point safety harness provide a perfect blend of comfort and performance.

The car’s DeTomaso electrical system, which had already been straightened out and upgraded multiple times over the years, was replaced entirely with brand-new everything, including harnesses, switches, relays, and a main fuse panel.

The original 351 Cleveland yielded to a Ford Coyote Aluminator V8. This 5.0L, 32-valve, DOHC wonder features 11.0:1 compression, 80mm drive-by-wire throttle-body, MAHLE forged pistons, Manley H-beam rods, a custom billet-aluminum oil pan, and ARP fasteners. It’s mated to a rebuilt ZF transaxle fitted with an overdrive Fifth gear for effortless, high-speed highway cruising.

The Coyote Aluminator 32-valve DOHC engine provides far more power and reliability than what the car started with.

Suspension upgrades included larger front and rear antisway bars and Koni adjustable shocks and springs all around. Quadland had power steering added and replaced the original wheels with custom Forgelines, complete with De Tomaso-logo center caps. For stopping power, a Wilwood brake system was installed, including six-piston front and four-piston rear calipers and vented rotors.

Though it’ll ultimately be his son’s car, Quadland continues to drive his beloved Pantera on a regular basis and is not shy about approaching the outer limits of its extreme performance. “It’s both exotic sports car and pure hot rod,” he reflects, “and I love the view through the windshield and over the hood as it goes down the road. From any angle, the lines and stance are as beautiful as any exotic available today, and the sound of the Coyote motor is incredible! After nearly half a century, this car excites me every bit as much as it did when it was new.”

Custom adjustable struts stiffen the chassis.

The ZF transaxle features an overdrive Fifth gear for comfortable, high-speed cruising.

Large-diameter rear and front antisway bars enhance handling.

Big Wilwood brakes give this Pantera plenty of stopping power.

Overheating was a pervasive problem with Panteras when they were new, so cooling-system upgrades are a must.

The Pantera still looks taut, aggressive, and contemporary almost 50 years after being designed.

Ford imported Panteras into the United States from late-1971 through 1975 and sold approximately 5,500 through its Lincoln-Mercury dealer network.

The aluminum pedal assembly was designed for Ferraris but looks right at home in this Pantera.

Custom Forgeline wheels wear Michelin Pilot Sport tires sized at 245/35-18 in front and 335/30-18 in the rear.

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