Ares is a Modena, Italy-based company specializing in low-volume, boutique versions of existing vehicles, which is the way the likes of Pininfarina, Ghia, Bertone, and Karmann originally made their names. So far, the company has come up with things like a two-door Bentley Mulsanne and a rebodied Mercedes-AMG G63 with the marvelous name of the X-Raid. But its latest creation, Project Panther, is probably going to be its most ambitious endeavor to date.
It's certainly an interesting project as it takes the achingly contemporary underpinnings of a Lamborghini Huracan and places it in a body that looks an awful lot like a classic DeTomaso Pantera. It appears an odd choice to build what looks like an American classic without an American engine underneath, but those who love the modernity of a new Lamborghini might wonder why anyone would want one with a Pantera body.
Choosing a Pantera exterior probably isn't as strange a move today as it might have been a few years ago though. Until relatively recently, the Pantera was held in pretty low esteem in the classic car world, and only in the last decade or so has it started to gain a decent level of appreciation. What Ares appears to have come up with certainly looks very sharp, and it retains the classic Bertone feel of the Pantera, but without looking too inappropriately retro.
Ares has confirmed the Panther is currently undergoing final testing at its facility in Modena, and if you like the idea of it, the finished model will be available for sale sometime late next year. But what's not clear is exactly how the process of getting one actually works. The usual way these things go would mean you'd have to provide a brand new Lamborghini Huracan to be converted by the builder. What then happens to the Lamborghini body is also unclear, but the Ares business model might include some of the profits being realized by selling the panels off for restoring wrecked Huracans.
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