The Panther Solo sports cars You've never known before

Rare ONES - On our way traveling around the virtual world, don't know how the eyes of us landed on the figure of a red sports car that had never been seen before. In short, then we did a search all over cyberspace, and finally found that was the Panther Solo 2.

The Panther Solo 2 as first shown in 1987 was clearly influenced by Group C thinking. (Picture from: Richard Rose)

As quoted from AR Online, the sports car is an advanced version of the British-made sports car named the Panther Solo 1. Unfortunately, it was a short-lived and ultimately unsuccessful mid-engined, four-wheel-drive sports car designed to replace Lotus and TVR at the head of the UK sports car industry, began to develop in 1982, when Toyota launched the MR2 just two years later it killed off any prospects of success that the British-built sports car might have had. So far, it is unknown whether the Panther Solo 1s was ever produced.

The Panther Solo 2 was the brainchild of Young Chull Kim, designed by Ken Greenley, while the chassis by Len Bailey. (Picture from: CarScoops)

As quoted from BelowTheRadar, the Solo was the brainchild of Young Chull Kim, and was developed with Robert Jankell who was previously known to be the CEO of Panther Westwinds who was famous for the 1977 Panther Six concept car. When the Solo was concieved, the Robert Jankell's company is already under the control of the Korean, and has undergone one bankruptcy and two major management restructurings. So it's no exaggeration if the Solo is called a British-made sports car with Korean taste and style.

The Panther Solo 2 was more powerful and bigger than its predecessor; the wheelbase has been extended by four inches for the 2+2 configuration. (Picture from: FastestLap)

Furthermore Panther's owner Young Chull Kim decided that the only way forward was to take the Solo upmarket. As the Ford's Senior managers had seen the Panther Solo 1 and were impressed by how well executed it was, so they offered Kim the opportunity to buy their Sierra Cosworth 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine on an exclusive basis for what would become the Panther Solo 2.

The Panther Solo 2 is powered by a Sierra 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine that was mated to a Borg Warner T5 gearbox with a Panther-designed transfer box. (Picture from: BelowTheRadar)

In short, Kim chose to take up Ford on its offer, and decided to make the Solo 2 more powerful and bigger; the wheelbase has been extended by four inches for the 2+2 configuration. The Solo 2 adopts a four-wheel drive system which would added a bit of more complexity (and weight) by placing the engine in the center (thus making it the world's first mid-engined car with power flowing to every corner).

The Panther Solo 2 adopts a four-wheel drive system which would added a bit of more complexity (and weight) by placing the engine in the center. (Picture from: BelowTheRadar)

The real difference between the two, as the original Solo had featured a targa roof, this feature was removed for the Solo 2. The pop-up headlights are then swapped for rotating items, the interior is new, there's actually very little linking the Solo 1 to the Solo 2, other than that both bodyworks designed by Ken Greenley, while the chassis by Len Bailey.

The Panther Solo interior design sketch could have come out of the Ford studio, it majored on decent ergonomics and driving position. (Picture from: AROnline)

The chassis was also quite different because the Solo 1 featured with an Escort engine and gearbox while it's successor had a Sierra powerplant that was mated to a Borg Warner T5 gearbox with a Panther-designed transfer box. Also, while the original car had Cortina-derived (but Panther-modified) double-wishbone front suspension with Escort-sourced MacPherson struts at the back, for the Solo 2 this arrangement was the other way round with the struts up front and the wishbones at the back.

The Panther Solo’s chassis with arrowhead bulkhead design was produced by Len Bailey. (Picture from: AROnline)

At one point Panther considered developing a composite chassis for the Solo 2 but this would have been far too costly and would have required a lot of time, so things were dialled back a bit. However, while there was some steel in the Solo 2's monocoque, the centre section was an aluminium honeycomb sandwiched between two epoxy resin skins which were reinforced with glassfibre cloth. At points of high stress the fibres were unidirectional; carbonfibre was used for the upper door frames. All of the bodywork was made of strengthened Kevlar-carbon composite.

The Panther Solo I has debuted at the 1984 British Motor Show in Birmingham there were many who assumed that it was just a non-functional concept rather than a driveable prototype. (Picture from: AROnline)

It all sounded very impressive, but this high-tech approach turned into a nightmare because such construction methods were in their infancy. If the panels weren't properly cured they would warp, sometimes leading to panel fit being out by two or three inches, while getting the paint to adhere properly to these high-tech materials was also an ongoing problem. It was for these reasons that although the Solo 2 made its debut at the 1987 Frankfurt Motor Show, no customer cars would be built until 1990, due to the many problems that arise related to management, financial and production.

The Panther Solo I featured with pop-up headlights and powered by an Escort engine and gearbox. (Picture from: UniqueCarsAndParts)

It's no wonder that many Solo 2 orders were cancelled, while the few buyers who hadn't canceled their orders ended up paying 30 percent more for their cars than they'd been expecting. At the same time, there was also a transfer of ownership of the company to SsangYong, when Young Chull Kim handed over 80% of his stake ownerships to the South Korean automotive company. Due to problems that never found any solution, SsangYong as the parent company of this British automotive company finally shutted it down.

The SsangYong Solo 3 while shown at the 1995 Seoul Motor Show is powered by a twin-turbo engine or a 3.9 liter Rover V8. (Picture from: AROnline)

As quoted from Carscoops, it is believed that around 13 cars had been built before the Panther shutted down. While reportedly at that time the company had prepared the Solo 2 successor prototype powered by a twin-turbo engine or a 3.9 liter Rover V8. Because at the 1995 Seoul Motor Show, SsangYong had exhibited the car which was called the SsangYong Solo 3, it seems like that the concept car prototype was brought by the company to South Korea. Although in the end the car was stuck only at the concept stage without ever exist its production version.

Basically, the Solo (1, 2, and 3) was never going to make money for Panther, and it was woefully underdeveloped. However, despite all that, it was an interesting concept, and proved the validity of four-wheel drive for mid-engined road cars. Especially, when looked at again, the Solo 2 serves to remind us all just how delightful the original one was, and would be likely have a better price. Currently, one of these rare cars seen on the Facebook is priced at £100,000.😘 *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | ARONLINE | BELOW THE RADAR | CARSCOOPS | GOODWOOD | UNIQUECARSANDPARTS | FASTESTLAP | TWITTER | FACEBOOK ]

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