Panther Solo

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The Panther Solo is a mid-engined sports car made by the British company Panther Westwinds. It was a two-seat coupe, with the option of additional rear seats to make it a 2 + 2.

[edit] Solo 1

The first Solo, the Solo 1, was a simple mid-engined rear wheel drive car. It had a Ford 1.6 CVH Engine (as fitted in the Ford XR2), and was designed as a replacement for the marque's volume model, the Kallista. The car used relatively simple technology, had contemporary styling and was clad in a fibreglass body in order to save weight. However, Toyota launched their new MR2 around the same time, and the Solo was unable to compete with its Japanese rival.

Panther made the decision to amend the Solo in order to distance it from other similar vehicles, especially the MR2. A new design was created, a slightly larger 2+2 layout car with a composite body, permanent four wheel drive and the engine from a Ford Sierra Cosworth. This would be called the Solo 2.

[edit] Solo 2

The Solo 2 used the Ford/Cosworth 2.0 L (1993 cc) engine with a Ferguson four wheel drive system custom designed by Panther. It is not known exactly how many vehicles were built (however it was between 12 and 25), as sometimes Panther would change the chassis number of prototype cars. All but three Solos were sold to the public, two were destroyed, and one is still owned by the then owner of Panther.

The body of the Solo 2 was primarily aluminium honeycomb sandwiched between carbon fibre, and was both designed and constructed by March Engineering.