|
De Tomaso owes its name to its founder, Alejandro De Tomaso an Argentinian born in 1928. Proud of his South American roots, the De Tomaso symbol is an iron tool used to brand horses while its colours are those of Argentinean flag.
At the age of 27, De Tomaso was already embroiled with his passion for cars and whilst living in Italy raced Maseratis and others for a period of around four years. At the age of 29 he took the bold move of founding his own car company in Modena, the home of Italian sports cars.
Among the first cars manufactured was a Formula Junior and an F1 car, powered by a flat eight. It was three more years before the name of De Tomaso would become more familiar to the public though.
Vallelunge
In October 1963 De Tomaso unveiled the Vallelunge Spider at the Turin Motorshow. Fifty-six Vallelungas were built, and many of them were raced with considerable success.
Originally planned to be built in aluminium, the production models were actually constructed with glass fibre bodywork. It was powered with a four cylinder Ford 1500cc engine (out of a Cortina!) but tuned to produce anything up to 135bhp.
Mangusta
Equipped with a Ford five litre V8 the P-70 also appeared at Turin, two years later in 1965. However, this sports prototype was more a styling exercise than a pure racing car. It hinted at what was to come the following year.
 |
1966 saw De Tomaso switch to Geneva to display a convertible, designed by the famous Giorgetto Giugiaro, who in 1965 started working at Ghia. This was the first Mangusta. |
Two models of Mangusta were sold, a European version with a 306bhp 4728cc motor and an American version with a 230bhp 4949cc unit. It was a surprising success with 280 of the 402 made cars being produced for the USA. Ford were impressed and subsequently acquired 80% of De Tomaso.
Deauville & Longchamp
The
early seventies were the most productive for De Tomaso in terms of new
designs. Two front engined models saw the light of day, these being the
Deauville and the Longchamp.
The Deauville is unique amongst De Tomaso products being the only car with particularly lame styling. Looking like a cross between a Peugeot 504 and a Jaguar, it was nonetheless a competent car with its V8 power. Production continued until 1985 with 244 cars made.
The
Longchamp coupe was also powered by the 5.7 litre V8 producing around 300bhp
and continued to be produced in small numbers until 1989. Total production
was 409 cars, with a handful of convertibles produced too. The cars were
very much true Grand Tourers with hints of Mercedes styling.
Pantera
Ford's ownership of De Tomaso led to what must be the best known of De Tomaso's models, the Pantera. Designed by American stylist Tom Tjaarda, the new car came with a variety of engine configurations including the 3 litre, known as the 290, a 5.7 litre GT4 and a 350bhp GTS. All were mounted longitudinally behind the cabin.
It was produced for an amazing twenty one years, with 7,260 cars rolling off the production line. However the vast majority of these cars were produced before 1973 for the American market. Ford's acquisition of De Tomaso was inspired by the desire to create a competitor to General Motor's successful Corvette. The Pantera was that car.
De Tomaso and Ford fell out in 1973 however and the company was forced to go it alone. Pantera production continued but on a dramatically smaller scale. De Tomaso had lost control of Ghia and Vignale where the car was originally built.
Around about the same time, De Tomaso acquired Moto Guzzi and Innocenti bringing the total workforce up to around 5,000 people. Further acquisitions including the famous Maserati.
Maserati and the other subsiduaries kept De Tomaso busy for many years, with production continuing of De Tomaso badged cars but only in small numbers. The company maintained a low profile despite the large amount of work it was undertaking with its other marques.
Daihatsu
The 1980's also saw De Tomaso in collaboration with Daihatsu. Initially an agreement was reached for the production of 100,000 engines, but this led to the manufacture of a further 120,000 vehicles. These included the sport version of Daihatsu Charade built for the Japanese market!
Guara
It wasn't until the 1990's that the De Tomaso gave its car production a shot in the arm with the release of the Guara in 1992. The new cars were composite bodied with fully independent suspension and as ever a torquey mid-mounted V8 to power them. In 2000, various updates were made to the Guara to bring the models up to date. Power is up to 375bhp from the 4.6 litre V8, taking the Guara to 60mph in 4.7 seconds and up to almost 170mph. Other tweaks have been made to suspension and steering.
 |
 |
 |
The Guara Coupe and Barchetta are stilll the only cars in De Tomaso's range which continues a long line of extreme exclusivity. To come however is the new Pantera which if it goes as good as it looks will surely put De Tomaso's cars back on enthusiasts' shopping lists.
 |
 |
De Tomaso remains Italy's only independent manufacturer, a fact it is immensely proud of. Outside of Italy, the company remains misunderstood with few of us appreciating the its achievements both past and present.
The Other Mangusta
|
||||
Links