Panther 6

[Electric Leyland]

Massively memorable from 70's Top Trumps and car books, yet as unspotted as a living dodo. And I truly love it. The (claimed) 200+mph supercar from childhood dreams of blokes of my age, hardly ever to be mentioned since. No other car came close in playground talk of the era.

 

Anyone got anything whatsoever to say about the Panther 6?

 

I heard one of the 2 cars made appeared at the NEC last year, yet the Panther car club website never divulged any photos of it on their stand (just the usual vomit enducing Jag kit car rubbish i.e. J72, De Ville, etc...). In fact the official Panther UK club practically refuse to acknowledge its existence for some reason, why? It's the only car of interest they've ever produced (aside from the Rio - Vanden Plas style tarting up taken to the extreme, brilliant).

 

So 2 were made, the famous black one, and a 2-tone white/black one. I heard the latter spent years in a crate, in bits, in Spain destined for somewhere Arabic.

 

For me, this is the ultimate car to actually (ironically) make a kit car out of. But I don't think anyone ever has. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Does anyone know anything on this Autoshite supercar bohemoth? It's about as stratospheric as a roadgoing car could get, back in the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And ............ what on earth would one be worth??

 

I don't know if either has ever come up for sale.

[Tayne]

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[Electric Leyland]

Seen this?http://www.mypanther.de/videos/Web_Vide ... ther6.html"another one of those motorshow gimmicks"

Superb clip! What happenned to the 8 orders? Yes Bob folk would probably have ragged it to 200 if it were capable. What was the actual top speed with its existing gearage?The car was as legendary as it got back in the day, from that alone it could have been quite major. But what happenned?

[Volksy]

http://www.pantherclub.co.uk/Georges/p6 ... ration.htm

 

One was being restored in 2006 apparently, See above.

[Tayne]

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[Tayne]

m

[jjp666]

That was at the NEC last year.

[barrett]

i'm pretty sure C&SC had it in their 'next month' page quite recently, but it never actually happened.....i'm guessing there will be an article at some point in the near future though.

[garethj]

It's a brilliant car and I think you've already found all the pictures on the interweb that exist. I believe there was only one really made, another was just a pile of bits that was assembled much later. If you remember it from your Top Trumps, you might also remember it from the Timex TV advert?

 

At the time, Bob Jankel got to thinking that all supercars look the same and most of the rich clientèle couldn't tell the difference between a Lamborghini and a Ferrari. Along came Tyrrell with their 6 wheel F1 car and the idea of a 6 wheel road car was born.

 

It had the biggest Cadillac V8 available which I think was 8.2 litres, with 2 turbochargers. This engine with its (normally FWD) gearbox was put into the rear of the Panther which gave massive acceleration, huge traction but worrying oversteer when you lifted off the throttle. Wider and wider tyres were put on to move this oversteer past lunatic speeds.

 

The black one was painted a few different colours to give the impression there was more than one car, the white one looked slightly different but I'm not sure if that's because it was modified over the years.

 

If you want to buy the white one and lord it over even Tagora owners, it's here: http://www.kidston.com/v2/kidston-Motor-Cars/kidston-motor-cars-available/1977-panther-six

[pompei]

WTF on a bike! Never seen that before. Truly amazing!

[Electric Leyland]

"The whereabouts of the first Panther Six, the right-hand car which debuted at Motorfair 1977, are today unknown, although it may be in Middle Eastern ownership and there are rumours it has had its engine replaced by a smaller, non turbocharged V8. The second Six, the left-hand car offered here, was unfinished when the company folded. It returned to the Byfleet works for final fettling according to Panther historian Bruno Eismark, who spent 16 years working for the factory and helped complete this car, and then disappeared from the public eye. Differences between the two Panther Sixes built include a fully opening nose on this car (à la E-Type), including a raised lip hiding the windscreen wiper as opposed to a conventional bonnet on the first one; this car lacks external door locks and the mirrors are different. The first car featured a three-seater bench seat and a column mounted gearshift lever which came in for some criticism on such a futuristic car; the second Six reverted to separate seats and a floor mounted shift lever. Painted like the other Six in various shades during the course of its life (to give the appearance that more cars had been built than actually had), the second car was dark metallic blue in the early 1980s before its current contrasting white over black scheme (also employed on the first car for some time). The second Panther Six was offered for sale by dealership Straight Eight in London for £150,000 in 1985, is known to have sojourned in Canada where it was restored extensively (as documented on various Panther Club websites) and may have even spent some time stored in Greece. It was finally acquired by the current owner, a British enthusiast, after lengthy and protracted negotiations with the former owner…in jail! Nothing about these cars is dull. After further fettling the Panther Six was displayed at the NEC Classic Car Show in November 2008 where it was awarded ‘Best in Show’ in a fitting nod to its Motorfair heyday."Wow! Anyone go to that show and photograph it?

[Mash]

I was at the show and remeber seeing it, but I can't remember taking photos. Got some of the Rio that was on the stand though - I was more interested in that...

[Lukas]

Spraken sie Deutch?

Oh yes, and it´s "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?".

[ChinaTom]

Spraken sie Deutch?

Oh yes, and it´s "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?".

I think it was Plat

[Lukas]

The text on the left of the windscreen says:"The Panther 6 was engineered as an exklusive and expensive Supercar. It´s maximum speed is quoted with 320km/h. The prototype on the right is an open two-seater, regular production cars will get a folding roof. "and the text under the car says:"It prevents AquaplaningThe Panther-engineers discovered, that six wheels minimize the danger of aquaplaning. Aquaplaning means the wheels cant push the water to the side and the wheels are loosing traktion. The driver is unable to steer. The first two front wheels of the Panther 6 are pushing the water to the sides, so the second pair of front wheels have optimal traktion. The illustration shows how six wheels are making it safer to drive in the rain. The first two wheels are pushing the water to the side, the second two wheels have perfect traktion"Lukas

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Hey does anyone remember an early 80's mag called 'Alternative cars', it was one from the prolific 80's shite-journalist PETER FILBY who i suspect would elicit much admiration on here, he certainly does from where i'm sitting. Anyway that mag had a big article on the panther 6, I think they maybe even managed to have a shot in it.That was such a great mag. I have got a few copies of it somewhere, just imagine a car mag with the 'posh end' of the kit car industry in (Midas, Hustlers, Caterham, GTM etc) mingling with shite supercars like TVR tasmins and so on with a few international obscurities and fancy custom cars (Opus T-buckets, that funny TR7 with all the chrome and the flying buttresses etc) all printed on mega glossy paper and selling for about £3.50 (25 years ago!) If I can find copy i'll try to do a few choice scans. Has anyone else got any gen on the man Filby? Whats he doing now? He is a veritable DOYEN of shite i'd say.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

This is the mag i'm talking about:

 

[retrogeezer]

Yep, I remember that mag and pretty sure I have a copy or two somewhere, at least I used to have anyway.

[VWPowered]

ruddy nora, what a amazing machine

[Tayne]

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[brammy777]

Hey i remember the Panther six, when i was getting car books every month or so back when i was younger, itd be in most of them, and it did seem to be the absolute pinnacle of excess, six wheels on a (planned)production car is just crazy.I also like the Panther Solo, the page on wiki actually has a very comprehensive ID of who they belong to and what plates they have.Speaking of six wheels, has anyone seen the other formula one cars with 6 wheels? There was a few with two axles at the rear and one with dual wheels on the rear axle, somewhat like a Transit. Alas, the Tyrrell was the only one to race. IIRC, Ferrari, March and Williams built six wheeled F1 cars.

[bigstraight6]

WOW! I'd completely forgot about the Panther 6, but this thread has jogged the old memory! I read about it somewhere at the time, possibly 'Street machine' magazine? It's a lovely looking car shame it didn't go very far, can you just imagine driving the beast around your Town today, the traffic would stop

[Tayne]

mm

[reallyloud]

Worthy as the six might be, but has anyone seen a Panther Rio in the flesh?

[Mash]

Speaking of six wheels, has anyone seen the other formula one cars with 6 wheels? There was a few with two axles at the rear and one with dual wheels on the rear axle, somewhat like a Transit. Alas, the Tyrrell was the only one to race. IIRC, Ferrari, March and Williams built six wheeled F1 cars.

The Tyrrell P34 was an ingenious machine - if you look at the race results for 1976 it features high on the leader board for most races (with a 1-2 in Sweden). Goodyear decided to play silly buggers over the tiny tyres I believe so the following year it was nowhere near as successful. I think the March 761 was a case of jumping on the bandwagon and it had the extra pair at the back for extra traction.

 

The Willliams in 1982/3 was a reaction to ever tighter ground effects regs and in testing looked like it would work effectively so FISA decided to ban six wheelers in case they did well with it

 

[Milford Cubicle]

Worthy as the six might be, but has anyone seen a Panther Rio in the flesh?

I saw one parked in a driveway in Carlisle on the road towards Langholm, but I was in a bus at the time and sans camera.

[Mash]

Worthy as the six might be, but has anyone seen a Panther Rio in the flesh?

Yes - two!!There was one at the NEC last year with the Six, a mint black one.We had one at the Triumph Dolomite Club do at Cosford a few years ago too. Pics to follow.....

[Tonka]

Has anyone else got any gen on the man Filby? Whats he doing now? He is a veritable DOYEN of shite i'd say.

Up until 18 months ago Filby, ably assisted by Sally Mitchell, was running Which Kit Car? magazine and promoting a number of kit car events but after a couple of wash-outs and subsequent event cancellations along with his involvement in the Python Cobra kit project he sold out to the publishers and Complete Kit car was born out of what was WKC headed up by Ian Stent, another kit car journo of many years standing.I've not seen Peter Filby at any recent kit car events but if I remember rightly he was looking for info for a TVR book he was working on, and I believe he is still involved in automotive book distribution.

[brammy777]

Aha heres that weird Six wheeled ferrari, the 312T6

[seth]

I remember the Panther from Top Trumps too. I'm sure it coule trounce everything else in the pack. Mayby by cc I suppose.

 

I took this shot of a Tyrrell at Brands Hatch last summer