With its broad, one-piece steel fenders, neatly integrated air dam, and enormous Campagnolo wheels, the De Tomaso Pantera GT5-S possessed unmistakable 1980s gravitas—low, wide, extravagant, and utterly imposing—with few cars better embodying the decade’s excess and ambition. Yet this particular example carries significance far beyond its spectacular wide-body appearance. Reportedly owned and developed by Carroll Shelby, this 1987 Pantera GT5-S became an important testbed during the formative stages of the Dodge Viper program, serving as a rolling laboratory for the powertrain and chassis concepts that would ultimately give birth to one of America’s most iconic performance cars.

During the early development of what would become the Dodge Viper, Shelby and his team explored several approaches to powering the forthcoming American sports car. This Pantera reportedly served as one of their development and test vehicles, undergoing numerous powertrain and suspension configurations. Among the most significant was a Gale Banks-tuned, twin-turbocharged 360-cubic-inch V-8 that Shelby reportedly favored as a potential engine for the new sports car. The engine demonstrated considerable promise, but Dodge ultimately chose the now-legendary V-10, whose configuration offered the exotic character the company sought for the Viper.

When acquired by The Boeckmann Collection, Shelby’s GT5-S was an exceptionally preserved, remarkably low-mileage example, but it was without an engine. Drawing upon the Boeckmanns’ decades-long relationship with Shelby Enterprises, the collection undertook an extraordinary search for the very twin-turbocharged V-8 used by Shelby in period. The engine was located, comprehensively overhauled, and reunited with the Pantera. A subsequent restoration was then entrusted to Galpin Auto Sports, under the direction of in-house Hot Rod Hall-of-Famer Dave Shuten and with consultation from Gale Banks, the very man who had originally tuned the twin-turbocharged V-8 for Shelby decades earlier. Fittingly, the car was featured in the first episode of the 2020 Discovery TV series Car Kings, titled “Shelby’s Secret Project.”

Offered today, this extraordinary Pantera is more than a monument to 1980s excess: It is a surviving witness to the bold experiments and larger-than-life personalities that helped shape a new generation of American performance.