When cars sit, they usually wither away into a sad rusty pile of metal or they get reclaimed by Mother Earth. It’s very rare that they appreciate in value, becoming more desirable to the people that just can’t leave well enough alone, , but that’s what Barn Find Friday is all about.

is a car that will always be desirable because it was made at the time when Italian manufacturers were pushing the boundaries of their own technologies and trying to one-up each other with new and wacky car designs.

Actually, not much has changed.

Oddly enough, it took the marriage of Italian styling and and American drivetrain to make this car work in ways that the pipe-smoking engineers at Lamborghini and Ferrari could only dream of, but all of that doesn’t really matter because this car in particular isn’t a showroom-fresh example that would start on the first turn of the key. It’s been in storage since 1987, which is almost three decades ago. At the $65,000 asking price, it may be at the top of its range, but this is definitely a car that has been rising in popularity, so getting paid to wait may not be such a bad idea.

With only 13,000 original miles on the clock, it may be a good candidate to restore. Here’s an excerpt from the description:

The color is red and was repainted prior to storage in the 80’s. The interior has the early step down dash with the original carpet that is still in the car and falling apart. The car features the series #1 flat rear deck along with the series #1 high output Cleveland engine. This Detomaso has not been started since it was removed from the barn and the engine turns freely.

The Pantera has the original exhaust system, the original wheels, the original spare tire, the original tool roll and the car is complete. The only thing on this car that is not original is someone chromed the valve covers and the air filter base but bead blasting will rectify that.

This Pantera is not without some minor early stage bubbling from sitting and not being used. This car has a dent in the passsenger side front wheel well flair and one on the rear upper fender and deck. This Pantera is equipped with series #1 square end bumpers versus the series#2 rounded edge split chrome bumpers.

This car looks to be in fair shape, with no rear rust issues that commonly plague the model. If the body is straight and has enough of the original components, this early, low-mile example could be one hell of a good deal and a monetary win for anyone who can tackle this project head on.

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is the founder of and writes and about on the internet. He owns the world’s cheapest , a , and he’s the only Jalopnik author that has never driven a Miata. He also has a real name that he didn’t feel was journalist-y enough so he used a pen name and this was the best he could do.

My name is Tavarish and I make videos about buying, modifying, and breaking cars. I also have…

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