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Thread: Panther Solo 2

  1. #1
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    Panther Solo 2

    Panther Solo

    A “could have been” that never really took of. It was presented in 1987 as an AWD mid engined sportscar by the British Panther company, which at that time was already owned by a Korean industrialist. It was actually called the Solo 2 as the Solo 1 was a 1600 cc prototype, which was unlikely to be able to compete with Toyota’s MR2 and was therefore abandoned.
    The new car featured an aluminium and carbonfibre monocoque. Propulsion was done by a 2 litre turbocharged Ford Sierra inline four, giving about 200 bhp. Zero to hundred was said to be done within 7 seconds and topspeed was about 235 kph.

    Despite these promising specs the car was not a success. Some sources say 34 examples exist, other mention that only 12 were ever sold. No further cars were produced by Panther after this.

    Shown is an example presented in one of the second floor halls at the Essen Technoclassica in 2004
    Attached Images Attached Images
    "I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams

  2. #2
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    what a great story. is panther featured on ucp?
    All about the t-tops

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by TVR IS KING
    what a great story. is panther featured on ucp?
    it is now
    "I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by henk4
    No further cars were produced by Panther after this.
    what about panther solo 3?

    12 cylinders or walk!

  5. #5
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    that indeed is confusing as you publish the only pic available of the Solo 3. Nowhere could I find any description of the technical differences between the 2 and 3, and reported production figures vary between 40 and 12, and sometimes 12 is being related to the 3. The "Panther club homepage" also does not provide much info.

    The car in my pic was reported sold earlier this year for 14,000 pound.

    Any further info would be welcome, it is always nice to solve mysteries
    "I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams

  6. #6
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    i don't have any info about that car right now as well, but what i think is that panther solo 3 was only a solo ii with some minor changes to make it look more attractive
    12 cylinders or walk!

  7. #7
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    i have a solo

    solo 1 from what i have heard got cut into 4 parts and they were then used to make the mock up of the solo 2.

    there are about 25 ish solo 2 cars around but only around 13/14 were sold to customers the rest came from pre production cars made for crash testing, customer test drives etc i think most of these pre production cars were given away to people of panther car company. i have read also that one was converted to run a rover v8 and be rear wheel drive but i think it got shipped to korea/japan when panther closed its doors.

    solo 3 in the picture is really a solo 2 in a dress ! the koreans had some of the english panther workers shipped over to refit it as a prototype solo 3 which was planned to have a merc v8 planted into it. i have tried to find out details about it and think its in the korean car makers collection somewhere no dont never to be seen again.

    if anyone else knows anything about the cars would be great to hear from them , my solo2 is number 24.
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  8. #8
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    Welcome to UCP, and congratulations on this rara avis. Judging from the picture there are some more examples existing? Any idea how many? Is there a chassis register? and for most of us, how does it/she actually drive?
    "I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams

  9. #9
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    The Panther Solo 3 looks like it was taken on a Ssangyong stand (or at least nearby). As that is what the badge is on the right hand side of the picture.

    I would suggest perhaps the photo was taken in the early 1990's.
    <cough> www.charginmahlazer.tumblr.com </cough>

  10. #10
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    solo

    she drives great, can be a bit load at times but a great car with lots of space inside. im still fixing her up really and finding out what parts came from wear as most bits seem to come from ford or other companies like the front indictor lights are off a alfa spider!

    and yes panther was taken over by sangyong they have a link to the solo3

    http://www.smotor.com/en/overview/solo3.jsp

    there is also a solo le mans car but no idea if that has anything to do with the panther solo

    http://www.smotor.com/en/overview/solo_lemans.jsp

    for a list of solo 2 cars best look at this link

    Another Solo joins the Club...

    my car is number 24 the green one

  11. #11
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    Thanks, the "smotor" links seem not to be in working order, at least here.
    On the basis of the chassis list, is the car shown in the first post chassis #15?
    "I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams

  12. #12
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    a warm welcome to ucp, and nice car too!
    thanks for the additional info

    EDIT: first two links are dead here
    Last edited by LeonOfTheDead; 06-26-2009 at 06:12 AM.
    KFL Racing Enterprises - Kicking your ass since 2008

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  13. #13
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    sorry about the links to smotor hope they dont scrap these pages but anyway i think numbers 1 to 19 or 20 were the pre production cars used for the crash testing etc so i think numbers 1 - 10 may well be very dead.

    some sad news i did hear was when the koreans closed the panther uk site and wanted to change production to korea just about all spares and tooling was taken including 150 sets of recaro (sorry my spelling is bad) to korea. this is when solo 3 was pushed and when no one paid attention they scrapped everything and put it into landfil! only thing to still be around is the solo 3 prototype somewhere i think.

  14. #14
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    here are some images of the my car while when i started work on it

    note as well how they have to place the motor in at an angle !
    Attached Images Attached Images

  15. #15
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    Wow, welcome to UCP, Congratz on driving a piece of automotive history!
    "Religious belief is the “path of least resistance”, says Boyer, while disbelief requires effort."

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