Panther Kallista: Spotted
Where to turn when the usual specialist fare is too common for your taste...
Delight? Well, yes. This Kallista we've found in our classifieds improved upon the Lima it replaced by using Ford mechanicals rather than Vauxhall, and under that long and elegant bonnet is the firm's familiar Cologne 2.8-litre V6 pushrod engine. This, in combination with an aluminium body and a pleasingly low kerb weight, was enough to let the Kallista rip from 0 to 60mph in around 8 seconds. Okay, it has to be admitted the suspension is a little on the crude side, but if you can put up with a bit of bounce and the occasional thump it's still guaranteed fun.
Inside is an interior of traditional wood and creamy leather opulence, with a rather snug cockpit, cramped footwells and the steering wheel up far too close. There's no boot, as such, because where one would normally be is more or less where you're sitting, but there is a luggage rack, and a small space behind the seats.
I think this one's rather gorgeous, with its luscious red coachwork and its dinky 13-inch wire wheels, and according to the ad it was extensively rebuilt in 2016. There's a comprehensive service history and a low mileage of just 81,000 miles, too, and, if you're coy about age, a personal plate.
Seems to us like a rare and good chance to buy into the breed, or, if you prefer, up the dosh and consider other equally rare Panthers: the Deville looked like an ancient Bugatti and was the size of a bungalow, the Rio was a tarted-up Dolomite and the 6 had six wheels. Yowser!
SPECIFICATION - PANTHER KALLISTA
Engine: 2,792cc, V6
Transmission: 5-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 152@5,700rpm
Torque (lb ft): 159@4,000rpm
MPG: N/A
CO2: N/A
First reigstered: 1986
Recorded mileage: 81,000miles
Price new: N/A
Yours for: £13,450
See the original advert here
Mark Pearson
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The DeVille was mentioned in the text...
...but not the J72...
The Rio was a lovely little thing, though.
There was one lurking in a showroom in Sheffield when I was a kid - my mother had a Dolomite Sprint at the time, so it was doubly-interesting. Strangely, my parents didn't seem very interested in doing the swap, so obvious to my 8yo eyes...
I’d see her with a 80’s bleached blonde bouffant, wearing a faux-fur hooded jacket, driving along regularly, looking like a failed 80’s porn starlet.
Which says it all for me....
I’d see her with a 80’s bleached blonde bouffant, wearing a faux-fur hooded jacket, driving along regularly, looking like a failed 80’s porn starlet.
Which says it all for me....
When launched, Panther claimed the car was aimed at the "air hostess market". Young women with disposal income and no need for the car to be anything other than an extension of their gregarious personalities perhaps.
I spent a couple of hundred miles with the predecessor, the Lima once upon a time. It had the 2.3 ohc Vauxhall engine, which was torquey but grim at high revs. It also had the worlds longest gear-lever, and a boot with no opening lid.
I quite like them as a flashback of 80's kitsch, and I bet they appeared in loads of specialist gentlemans films of the era too.
Oh, wait a sec.
Even if they'd come off a mini I suspect those doors are the least of the worries.
To start with where are the candelabras?
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