At some point this past winter, I had visited the Thief River Falls factory, and one of the Arctic Cat engineers pulled me aside and told me he had recently acquired a Pantera…after giving it a thorough once-over, he noticed the hood had some barely legible remnants of hand-painted lettering which read, “AIR FORCE 2 1/2”.
Curious, he got on the Google, and the only information he could find, led him to ArcticInsider. (Naturally) From here, everything appeared to be a dead end, and he wondered if I knew anything further…short answer is, I don’t and am turning to anyone here reading this.
You can read the ArcticInsider Celebrity story HERE, which shows a young Walter Mondale on a Pantera with caption, “In 1978, then U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale had his own Arctic Cat Pantera, complete with Minnesota registration numbers and a hand-painted “Air Force 2 1/2” on the hood.”
If anyone has any back story, information, or VIN# to verify my engineering friend has the original Mondale Pantera, please email me: arcticinsider@gmail.com