Elvis Shot His Pantera Because It Wouldn’t Start, and the Bullet Holes Are Still There

Most of the cars in this month’s series are famous because something terrible happened in them. This one is famous because its owner lost his temper. Elvis Presley’s yellow 1971 De Tomaso Pantera has bullet holes in it, and Elvis put them there himself. The car is now in the collection of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, and the holes were never repaired.

Elvis bought the Pantera secondhand in 1974, reportedly for his girlfriend at the time, Linda Thompson. On paper it was perfect: Italian bodywork, a Ford V8 behind the seats and nothing subtle about it. In practice, early Panteras had a reputation for being temperamental, and this one apparently lived up to it.

The story, as told by people around Elvis, goes like this. One day the car refused to start, and not for the first time. Elvis, who was not known for his patience, pulled out a pistol and shot it. Accounts differ on how many shots and exactly where they landed, but the damage people point to is in the steering wheel and the floor. Whatever the precise details, the physical evidence is still there for anyone to see.

That’s what moves this from a good bar story to a legitimate piece of history. Plenty of celebrity cars come with anecdotes nobody can check. This one comes with holes. And because nobody ever patched them, the car is as much a record of that day as it is a Pantera.

It also turns the usual rules of celebrity provenance upside down. Normally a famous owner adds value because the car was loved, shown off or driven somewhere memorable. Elvis’s Pantera is valuable because he got so fed up with it that he shot it. If someone restored it to perfect condition, they’d be erasing the most important thing about it. Collectors understand that. A car with the best story will often beat a car with the best paint.

There’s a wider market story here too. Panteras have been climbing steadily for years as the people who had one on their bedroom wall reach their peak buying years. They’ve moved well out of the “affordable exotic” bracket they sat in for so long. The Elvis car will never be for sale, but it’s still the most famous Pantera in the world, and every retelling of the story reminds buyers the model exists.

As for the Halloween angle, there’s nothing supernatural going on here. No curse, no strange deaths, no ghost in the garage. Just a frustrated rock star, an unreliable Italian sports car and a gun. Half a century later, you can stand in front of it in Los Angeles and see exactly how that afternoon ended. What’s the most temperamental car you’ve ever owned, and what finally made you give up on it?

Sources

• Hot Rod: Elvis Presley’s 1971 De Tomaso Pantera
• Jalopnik: Elvis Shot This Car Because Of A Girl

About the Author

Shawn Henry

Administrator

Shawn Henry has spent years writing about cars, and it shows—not in a resume kind of way, but in how he talks about them. He's the type who'll notice the weird trim option nobody remembers and actually know why it mattered. At Backfire News, he covers pretty much the whole spectrum: off-road trucks and trail builds, performance cars, racing, and the collector market. He's comfortable getting into the technical weeds, but he never forgets that most people read about cars because cars are fun, not because they want a spec sheet. His beat runs from classic and collector vehicles to overlanding culture, modified performance builds, new automotive tech, and the industry news that actually affects what ends up in your driveway. Mostly, though, Shawn thinks the best car stories are about people—the builds they pour money into, the road trips, the communities that form around a shared obsession. That's the stuff he likes writing about, and it's what you'll find in his work here.

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