It’s somehow calming from a car enthusiast’s viewpoint when a car company CEO is still a car person, deep down. Ford CEO Jim Farley’s car history backs that up, as he’s owned his share of interesting cars and not necessarily always with a Ford badge – even if they might have rolled from the factory with a Ford motor. And like the rest of us, he’s also the sort of car guy who spends some of his time looking at car ads and auctions.
A good example of that is the De Tomaso Pantera he bought via BringATrailer a couple of years ago. A Ford company car from new, the Pantera was originally a carpool vehicle for the Aeronutronic division at Ford Aerospace, in Newport Beach. The Pantera was driven for a couple of years to and from the Engineering and Research Center on Jamboree Road, until it was sold to a private owner in Ventura. During its life, it was also on display for a couple of decades at the Yankee Candle Car Museum in Massachusetts, and the first time it was put up on BaT was in October 2018.
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Back then, when being test driven by a potential buyer, the Pantera spun out on the road due to cold tires and a heavy right foot and ended up being sideswiped by a van. The crumpled passenger side quarterpanel and door were replaced and the car repainted, so by the time Farley put in a winning bid in 2024, it was good as new. According to the BAT listing, the car is painted in Giallo Fly, while Elvis Presley’s famously-shot Pantera was Yellow Gold from the factory.
The De Tomaso Pantera is one of the coolest mid-engined Italian sports cars made in Modena, and that’s saying a lot. Equipped with Ford’s 351 Cleveland V8, it combined a sleek Tom Tjaarda design with American power and Italian flair, and interestingly, it was built for a long time – over two decades.
Ford only imported Panteras to be sold through Lincoln-Mercury dealers for a few years, with 5500 cars sold by the time sales ended in 1975. It seems the split wasn’t amicable, as De Tomaso had to source engines from Australia from then on, to keep building the cars. Body manufacturing needed to move from Ford-owned Vignale to Maggiora, too.
Since Farley has a BaT account, it affords us a peek into his car guy persona as viewed through the site’s bid history. Since 2020, he’s bid on 36 vehicles. They’re mostly Fox body Mustangs, always with the 5.0 – he has said he’s owned a ’89 5.0 LX, and aren’t we always looking for another, sometimes nicer example of something we used to drive ages ago? He also seems to have really wanted this modified 2006 E46 M3, as he put in 14 bids, getting close to the winning $42,750 bid but missing out on the car.
Farley’s bid history also includes a couple of bids on ‘70s Honda bikes, classic Minis, a Höhm instructional model, a Rupp go-kart, and a really nice 1958 Lancia Aurelia that sold for almost double compared to his $56k bid.
There are also a couple of heart-warming comments he’s left on the site. One of them is regarding a really, really good-looking Ford Sierra RS Cosworth (above), an Italian import residing in Florida, with 38k miles and iconic Moonstone Blue paint. If you’re the winning bidder in an auction of a great-looking ‘80s Ford, it probably feels good to have the company CEO comment, “If you ever want to sell this car, please let me know!”
The other comment is left in the Pantera auction, which ends tomorrow. Farley hopes the car goes to an “awesome” home, and he also mentions having donated a Ford Explorer to the Pope last month. Farley says Pope Leo is a “legit car guy” who misses driving his Ford Fusion with the 6-speed manual gearshift. If it’s good knowing the Ford CEO is a car person, it certainly is good news that the Pope is one too. Then again, John Paul II used to drive a Ford Escort in Seventies Poland, too, when he was still known as Cardinal Wojtyla.
Farley’s Pantera is currently sitting at $130,000 at the time of writing. His winning bid two years ago was $121,000, so he’s likely not making a loss on the car. Back in 2024, there was even a moderate bidding war against another BaT user, up from $105k – Farley had been looking for a good Pantera for ages, and it shows that he really wanted this one. As he says, the Mustang GTD Spirit of America has taken the Pantera’s place in his garage.
Story photos: Bring A Trailer
Top graphic images: Bring A Trailer; Ford
who in the right mind would give a green light for a wet belt system?
Also pay your mechanics competitively
Farley may be a car guy, but I can tell he hasn’t wrenched on a Ford product built this millennium, since every single one I’ve been subjected to has been utter misery and mediocrity induced by cynical cost cutting and poor quality.
I don’t know about BaT, but C&B SUCKS ASS, and cost me thousands with their incompetence. The only rule of auction sites is that THEY make money.
I think many car auction sites start out as a passion project, and then they become very business oriented, and the bottom line is what becomes more important. It sucks, but is definitely the way of things.
No negative comments on his bid history! Also hilarious the CEO of one of the largest automotive companies on the planet misspelled “receipts”.
I’ve worked with many CEOs of large companies before and a sizable percentage of them were only semi-literate.
Some of it is probably also once you’re at the top, you don’t need to proofread as many of your messages, and can get away with firing off a lot of “handle this” type emails.
Also, for an unusual reference, George Peppard’s suave/smug insurance investigator had a yellow Pantera in largely unseen but weirdly influential 70s show Bannechek.
Farley: See, I’m a car guy!
Also Farley: We can’t make money on selling any cars but the Mustang, so that’s the only car we’re going to make. For now, anyway; watch this space!
To be fair, he is a CEO first, car guy second. And to play devils advocate, car guys don’t have to exclusively be into “cars”. I’ve got 6 cars currently, and only two aren’t some sort of 4wd/utility.
To be honest, the Mustang was the only car they made past the early 2010s that was of any real interest to me, anyway.
On the surface yes, but if you read into it a bit more, Ford as a company didn’t want to invest billions into making a lower-margin (compared to crossovers) product that wouldn’t ever move significant volume without cash on the hood and massive fleet giveaways.
They avoided making a 200/Dart mistake
No “car guy” credit till you reissue the Pantera!
Talk to De Tomaso about that, not Ford.
Get around the mess, call it Pintari’
To be fair, Ford supplied the engine and handled US distribution rights. Ford supposedly also helped De Tomaso improve quality/production as the years went by with the Pantera.
The Ford GT is too awesome. I’m thinking about a working mans sports car. A Ford Fiero- ish, analog gauges, as few nannies as legal. They’d sell dozens!
Ford can make a Pantera homage and call it whatever they want, as long as the audience knows what its supposed to be. Its as much a part of their history as the Cobra
If I ever came into a decent amount of fun money, my first purchase would be a LHD Moonstone Blue Sierra RS Cosworth in very nice condition with the BBS wheels. I was in love with those things as a kid, especially that configuration.
The spoiler set-up on the Cossy is definitely unique as well.
So the pope’s both a car guy and a Sox fan? Working on being the most relatable pontiff ever.
Yeah, talk about auto enthusiasm – it’s one thing to own say a manual Mustang, but manual Fusions were super rare.
Why would he let the M3 get away? $43k is peanuts for someone who $27.5 million in 2025.
If he scoops an old Econoline, we’ll know he’s decided to go live in a VAN down by the RIVER.
Different Farley, IIRC.
And a different dream weaver too?
They are (were) related.
First cousins, apparently they were very close as children
“Hey I’m Jim Farley, I pretend to be a bro every chance I get, and always make sure it’s in the news.”
I’m on my 4th recall in a truck that’s only a few months old, but been out for 3-5 years. Until Jim pays my gas for going back and forth to the dealer and for my time waiting around in their hallway they call a waiting room, he can pound sand.
Ford: Quality is Probably Someone’s Job, It Sounds Important and We’ll be Looking into it Very Strongly
We’ve had 4 recalls already on our 25 maverick hybrid AWD lariat..1 was over the air and the other 3 were done in my garage by a tech in about 10 minutes each. No hassle and no trip to the dealer. See if you can get the free remote tech to come by and do the work.