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Panther

Panther Westwinds was a manufacturer of high quality luxury sports cars. Founded in 1972 by Mr. Robert Jankel. The company was based in Surrey, in the United Kingdom. Panther Westwinds enjoyed massive success during the 1970’s but soon fell into decline by the 1980‘s. They done this by using standard parts from ordinary production cars and incorporating them into the panther cars. By using these cheaper parts the company made huge profits during this time. However, many critics of panther claim this was one of their down falls because of their lack of originality and design capability.

Panther would also base their cars around the designs of other similar cars at the time, most noticeably the Panther Rio was built around the ideals of the Triumph Dolomite. However, the Rio could easily be viewed as on of panther biggest failings, although a beautiful car and very luxurious it was vastly over priced when compared to other cars of its time. Another non-successful car made by panther was the panther-6. It was a six-wheeled convertible car. Only two were ever made and the cost of both seemed too expensive for the small company

These failings contributed to the collapse of Panther Westwinds in 1980, the company was later purchased by a Korean by the name of Young Kim who established a manufacturing plant is Essex and began making cars using bodies imported from Korea. Soon afterward the company began to make sports cars once again culminating with the panther solo in 1990. The panther solo was effectively the death of the company, having made a loss on every one the company was liquidated soon afterwards. The legacy of panther westwinds still lives on today, many of their cars are still on our roads and in car shows, most noticeably the Panther-6 which featured in the 2008 NEC Classic Car Show.