Head to Head – De Tomaso Pantera vs Alfa Romeo Montreal

When it comes to ultimate pairings there’s just something about elegant Italian design coupled with V8 muscle that really does tickle our collective pickle here at Car & Classic. Whether it be an Alfa Romeo Montreal, De Tomaso Pantera, Iso Grifo or a Bizzarini 5300 GT Strada the sound of a thumping V8 emanating menacingly from a beautifully styled classic European sports car is intoxicating and alluring in equal measure. Without getting too waxy, or indeed too lyrical, it honestly makes the hairs on the back of our necks stand up in appreciation. Eternally evocative this particular juxtaposition is up there with the likes of SpongeBob and Patrick and bananas and custard, which just so happens to be our favourite dessert, but we digress.

The Italians may be more renowned for their screaming V12s but when it comes to eight cylinders it isn’t just the Americans that take all the glory and it wasn’t just Tiramisu and Limoncello coming from the home of the Vatican in the ’60s. As well as the cars mentioned above there’s the Maserati Ghibli and the incredibly rare Alfa Romeo 33 Sradale, and the V8 trend extended into the ’70s and beyond, too with the Lamborghini Urraco and Ferrari 308 GTB, to name just two, so this isn’t a rare occurrence. Sporty Italian numbers have housed V8 engines within their perfectly sculpted bodies for decades so we thought we’d pick two and pit them against one another in the first of our head to head features. Let battle commence!

What sets the De Tomaso Pantera apart from the cars listed above is the fact that its V8 engine wasn’t Italian derived, it was American, from Ford to be precise, and whilst the car itself was indeed the product of Italian design house Carrozzeria Ghia, the man behind the Pantera’s lines was American born Tom Tjaarda. Although a Yank by default he had all the credentials to be crowned an honorary Italian thanks to his work on the Fiat 124 Spyder and Ferrari 356 California but the American connections were there in spades.

You see, in the early ’70s, whilst De Tomaso was working on a new car, Ford swooped in and bought up over 80% of the business. De Tomaso was making waves in the industry at the time, rather big ones thanks to its previous two cars, the Vallelunga and more importantly the Mangusta and so Ford saw an opportunity to get in on the action. De Tomaso had already been using Ford motors to power its cars; a 1.5-litre four-pot in the Vallelunga and a 4.7-litre (and later a 4.9) V8 in the Mangusta. With Ford now at the controls it was just easier to obtain the powerplants required for the new Pantera.

The weapon of choice was Ford’s 5.8-litre Cleveland V8 with 326bhp on tap, plenty enough to propel the Pantera from parked to 60mph in 5.5seconds and on to a top speed of around 160mph, which was impressive performance for 1971. Not only that but the car featured a hardy ZF transaxle, fully independent suspension, rack-and-pinion steering and four-wheel disc brakes making it an incredibly competent road car. The Pantera, astonishingly, was produced all the way up until ’92 (although Ford would back out in ’75) and over that period power increased, most notably in ’72 with the release of the GTS, a sporting and more technologically advanced version with 360bhp.

In the opposite corner we have the Alfa Romeo Montreal, next to which the Pantera seems somewhat brash and perhaps arguably a little unrefined despite having similar proportions. The Montreal is less severe in its overall design, appearing more European thanks to its more rounded front end. Both cars are two door coupés but the Montreal’s V8 is at the front rather than a mid-mounted affair, as is the case with the Pantera.

Using Alfa Romeo’s twin cam, cross-plane V8 – a derivative of the engine found in the aforementioned 33 Stradale – the Montreal’s performance credentials just can’t compete with those of the Pantera, despite the race-bred V8 being a peach of a powerplant in its own right. For a start the Italian lump only displaces 2.6-litres, less than half that of the American V8 in the De Tomaso and as such peak power comes in at around 197bhp. As the old adage goes there’s no replacement for displacement and as such the Alfa’s 0-60 is a couple of seconds slower at 7.4s and can only reach 140mph flat out. Still, these figures are not to be sniffed at and the Montreal remains a pretty rapid car and was ahead of the De Tomaso in terms of engine technology, utilising as it did fuel injection rather than the carburettor setup of the Ford lump in the Pantera.

Rarer than the De Tomaso and spanning a much shorter production run between 1970 and 1977, the Montreal was designed by Marcello Gandini of Lamborghini Countach and Lancia Stratos fame, working out of Bertone at the time. The wedge shape aesthetic is still there but as mentioned earlier, it’s softer than both the Countach and Stratos, as well as the Pantera. Beginning life as a concept car the name derives from the actual city where it was displayed to the public in 1967.

Gracefully penned and beautifully styled (not to mention being 150kg lighter) the Montreal represents a more refined, gentleman’s sportster and is fondly remembered in part for its retractable body colour-matched headlight grills, activated by the flick of a switch from within the cabin. The mechanicals remain on point, despite being pretty basic for the time with a five-speed ZF manual gearbox, double wishbone suspension with coil springs and dampers at the front and a live axle with limited slip differential at the rear. However you slice it, however, the car is pure pleasure to pilot.

It may not be top tier Alfa in the grand scheme of the company’s output over the years but this once underrated gem is now getting the recognition it deserves and rightly so – that sonorous V8 alone is worth the ticket price. Naturally we just so happen to have a stunning example for sale via our auctions platform so if you’re feeling frisky why not chuck in a cheeky bid. You won’t be disappointed but if you’re leaning more towards the Pantera camp then take a look at our De Tomaso classifieds, there are myriad examples to choose from.