Where does the term Pantah come from

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fightingpantah
Mariana
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Location: Melbourne Australia

Where does the term Pantah come from

Post by fightingpantah »

Hi Guys

I have tried to find an answer to this so will defer to the combined brians trust of this forum.

Where does the term Pantah come from.

Thanks in advance

Shane
Love italian automotive.

Living with a 1986 Alfa GTV6, a 1989 Alfa 75 TS, and a 1982 Ducati 500SL Pantah :-)
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Craig in France
Paso 906
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Post by Craig in France »

I don't know for sure, but have always assumed it to have been a simple play on the Italian word for panther, pantera, with the final syllable modified to strike a resonance with the Darmah that was already being produced.

But maybe someone knows for sure?

Ciao

Craig
Spagjet
Mach 3
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Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2014 9:07 pm

Re: Where does the term Pantah come from

Post by Spagjet »

so what does Darmah mean in English? I have always wondered about both names but think nowadays they are both just made up words. I suppose that's fair enough seeing both bikes were new things when they came out so might as well have had new words as names. In one way both names are better than Sport, GT, and GTS in that at least you can't confuse a Darmah or a Pantah for a heap of other things that were given that name.
I don't know if it's true but I heard that Darmahs were called the "Ducati Tiger900" in the states (but nowhere else). At least that would explain the tiger on the sidecover. I don't really care what they're called to be honest, they could have called them the Ducati Sloppyturd900 and I'd still have wanted one (at least one).
machten
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Re: Where does the term Pantah come from

Post by machten »

Darmah was apparently the name of a tiger character from a popular Italian childrens story. I've never been able to find the story.

Kev
Spagjet
Mach 3
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Re: Where does the term Pantah come from

Post by Spagjet »

riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. There ya go, finally a real connection between the word and the tiger head. Trust the Italians to do something weird like that. You gotta love 'em. Sort of like a Triumph Tinkerbell or a Honda Pikachu, ha ha ha. All of a sudden A Ducati Darmah sounds pretty good. I'll never look at mine in quite the same light again. Kids book character, huh. Thanks for that, I can stop wondering now...

Maybe Pantah was the name of a famous Italian porn star with a thing about rubber belts? Hmmm.....
ducadini
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Re: Where does the term Pantah come from

Post by ducadini »

Darmah was indeed the name of the tiger in the comic (and tv-series) Sandokan, tigre della Malasia.
Original the name was Dharma, but i suspect that due to the difficulty for the Italians to pronounce the "H", Ducati choose to move it to the back of the word.
I guess marketing just made "Pantah" up (like Craig already pointed out) analogue with Darmah.

ciao
ducadini
Nego i ricordi peggiori
Richiamo i migliori pensieri
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