December 2015 Classic& SportsCar 137lookingto buysomething.Thesuccessfularchi-
tectwasn’t particularlytakenwiththeregular
productionmodels,butbecameincreasingly
smittenwiththestylisedillustrationforthe
Zagato-builtCaddyby ex-GeneralMotorsman
GeneGarfinkleadorningChinettiJnr’s office
wall.Theartworkwasaltogethermoreattractive
thanthefinishedarticle.The‘Zag-Cad’was
supposedto haveledto a highlystylisedEldo-
rado-basedestate,andelementsfromtheZagato
carandits stillbornsiblingwerethentransposed
onto a more exotic platfo rm. At least, they were
fo llowing a brainstorming session.
“We had already sold Bob a Daytona, a Rosso
Dino’73365GTB/4 [chassisnumber 15275 ],”
saysChinetti,“andthatbecamethebasisforthe
car. I juststartedsketchingandcameupwith
whatI calledan ‘extendedcoupé’thatBobwas
reallykeenon.I neverlikedtheuseof theword
‘wagon’, though.Yo u know, it’s okayforthereto
be an AstonMartinshootingbrake,or a Bentley
shootingbrakeor whatever, but,in Americaat
least,thiscartendedto be calleda wagon.That
irritatedme.”Oncethedesignhadbeen
completed,therewasjustthesmallmatterof
transformingChinetti’s renderingsintothree-
dimensionalreality. EnterPantherWestwinds.
“You haveto rememberwhattheearly-to-mid
’70swaslikeforthoseof us whoweretryingto
sellexoticcars,”Chinettimuses.“Forstarters,
therewasthefuelcrisis.Ontopof that,wewere
Ferrariagentsbutonlyonemodelwashomolo-
gated,so whatwerewesupposedto sell?Wetook
on all sorts of stuff in order to keep things moving
alongandthatincludedbecomingdistributor
forPanther. I reallyliked[marqueinstigator]
RobertJankel.Hewasa greatguy;a reallynice
person.Well, wejustsortof clickedandit made
senseto havehimdothecar. I reallyadmired
Panther’s workmanship.Alltheothercarswe
createdweredoneby Italiancarrozzerie. Someof
themwerecapableofbeautifulwork,butoften
theywereonly80%there.Yo u hadto fix things
or finishthem;sometimesboth.Thatwasn’t the
casewithPanther, andnobodydoesinteriors
quiteliketheBritish.It wasa goodfit.”
Thecarwasbuilt,in partat least,by Andrew
McKenzie,whoremembersit witha degreeof
fondness.“IwasPantherWestwinds’first
employee,”he says.“Actually, I wasrecruitedby
Robertbeforethecompanyevenexisted.He
askedmeto helphimwhenhe wasworkingon
theprototypeforwhatbecametheJ72andit
wenton fromthere.I certainlywasn’t involvedin
everyaspectoftheFerraribuildbut,from
memory, it tookaroundsix monthsto complete.
As tendsto be thewaywiththesethings,it was
a raceagainsttimeto getit finished,butoverall
it cameoutokay. Theworkingdrawingswere
donebyMartinTa nner, a draughtsmanwhoI
thinkwasemployedbyBritishAerospace.He
liaisedcloselywithRoberton variousprojects.It
waspropercoachbuildingso perhapsnotvery
hi-tech,buttheendresultwasprettyamazing.”
Whileretainingthefrontinnerwings,
A-posts,doorframesand’s creen,thisradical‘YOU HADTO FIXTHINGS
OR FINISHTHEMFROM
SOMECOACHBUILDERS,
BUTNOTWITHPANTHER’
Daytona’s strikingorange
nosebandwasmadeby
heatingcolouredPerspex;
traditionalwirewheels
contrastwiththeshooting
brake’s space-agelooks