Panther of the west wind

Panther Kallista

Panther Westwinds is a former British automaker founded in 1972.

history

Panther Westwinds was founded in 1972 by Robert Jankel and was based in Weybridge in the county of Surrey in the south east of England . Due to financial problems, Jindu Industries , headed by South Korean businessman Young C. Kim, took over the company in 1980 . In 1987, SsangYong Motor Co., Ltd , operating from 1988, took over the Panther brand. Production in Great Britain ended in 1990. Until 1992, models were still produced under the name Panther by the Panther Car Company in South Korea . Robert Jankel bought back the name Panther from South Korean property in 2001. He worked on a new sports car design until his death in 2005. His son Andrew Jankel called it an "unfinished symphony" ( Engl .: "unfinished symphony"). The production of this car should take place in the USA .

vehicles

Panther produced small series sports cars and roadsters with engines from other manufacturers. The company's best-known model was the six-wheeled Panther Six, which was planned as a convertible with a top speed of over 300 km / h and which attracted a lot of attention when it was launched in 1979. However, only a prototype of the Panther Six was built. (A second is said to have been assembled from spare parts later.)

Other models, such as the Kallista and Lima, were based on the appearance of automobiles from the 1930s.

Panther cars were also available in Germany for years; Auto Becker in Düsseldorf was the most important importer and dealer. The delivery of the Kallista has only been possible in South Korea since the relocation of the Panther activities.

Models from Panther:

• Panther J.72 (1972, two-seater convertible with six-cylinder engine from Jaguar )
• Panther De Ville (1974, five-seat sedan with twelve-cylinder Jaguar engine; most expensive British car of the 1970s)
• Panther Lazer (1974, three-seater roadster with a six- and a twelve-cylinder Jaguar engine ; only one vehicle was sold)
• Panther Rio (1974, four-door, five-seater boutique car based on the Triumph Dolomite with modified exterior and high-quality interior with unchanged serial technology; 35 copies produced).
• Panther Lima (1976, two-seater convertible with four-cylinder engine from General Motors )
• Panther 6 (1977, two-seater convertible with eight-cylinder Cadillac engine with six wheels)
• Panther Kallista (1984, two-seat roadster with a six-cylinder Ford engine )
• Panther Solo (1987, two + two-seater coupé with four-cylinder engine from Ford)

Manufacturing for other companies:

Panther Westwinds also produced a few cars for other brands. This applies, for example, to the Felber FF . At the beginning of 1975, Panther took over the production rights to the recently failed French Monica 560 , which Robert Jankel wanted to equip with a Jaguar V12 engine and bring it back onto the market. However, nothing came of this project in view of the oil crisis in the mid-1970s.

literature

• Bodo Möhrke: Panther Cars - from J72 to the new Kallista , Dortmund 1994
• SsangYong Motor website
• Automobile catalogs 1979 to 1990 (Vereinigte-Motor Verlage GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart)
• South Korean magazines and websites
• Fan page: Panther Car Club Germany - since 1981
• The Big Book of the Automobile (Bertelsmann Club GmbH, Gütersloh; Book No. 05637 4)
• The Chronicle of the Automobile ( ISBN 3-86047-137-6 , Chronik-Verlag Copyright 1994 and 1997)

Web links

Commons : Panther Westwinds  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Information on all Panther vehicles at traumautoarchiv.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Giles Chapman: Robert Jankel. (No longer available online.) The Independent, June 8, 2005, formerly original ; Retrieved January 2, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
2. ↑ Pictures