Panther Kallista Restoration: Kallista Delivery

Hi, Welcome to my first posting.

This blog will be covering the full restoration of my D reg Panther Kallista 2.8 carbed, those of you who may have come across this blog and have not heard of a Panther before then have a look at my links section to get an idea of the diversity of this small English car maker.

I have been looking for a Kallista for a short while; travelling to Surrey to have a look at a fantastic 2.8 injected special edition called a Brookland and to Grange over Sands to checkout a 1.6 conversion to 2.0 which was also great but it wasn't until I traveled to East Yorkshire to check out a 2.8 carb that I decided that a restoration was for me. The car in Yorkshire was a wreck, it had been left outside for a number of years with a badly torn hood and the windows partially open, the bonnet was all dented and the doors rusted. One look from a distance and you could tell it needed thousands spent on it, unfortunately the owner was not impressed with my diagnosis and low low offer as a restoration job.

I kept on looking and there are a number out there for sale, although due to the rarity of this car the numbers for sale are getting smaller, I think there was approx 1437 built between 1982- 1990. Most of those built went for export and because of the popularity of these cars abroad, those that are left are slowly leaving these shores.

The Kallista's chassis and Aluminium body where put together in Korea and shipped to the UK factory where the Ford running gear and engine where installed along with the cabin and hood. The car is a bit of a mish mash of Ford parts that for a beginner like me its a bit difficult to get my head around, the rear axle is a Ford Capri 2.8 modified, the front subframe and suspension is from a mark 4 Cortina the engine is a 2.8 v6 Cologne from the Granada and the rest are from a variety of sources. Should be fun sourcing spares. Fortunately there are two great Panther clubs that have a number of experts on hand that are more than happy to give advice.

I finally settled on an mot fail on eBay, this car was in a garage in Yarm Stockton which was fortunate as it was only 40 mile away, it was also on SORN which means it could not drive on the roads. We settled on a price, at the time I thought it was a good deal as I got it £2,500 lower than the asking price which was totally unrealistic to start with. But to tell the truth for a 26 year old car that has been on SORN for the last year or more as the history only goes back to 2007 its not in too bad a shape.

I am back dating this blog from the purchase. I also work away on the Dover Dunkerque ferry run for DFDS so this blog will stop and start depending on my leave. Please be patient.

The Kallista being picked up in Yarm