Friday 2nd April 2010

Pic Of The Week: Oil-Crisis GTs

De Tomaso Longchamps steals the limelight from an old Aston

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A juicy V8 GT double this week, courtesy of the fine fellows at Classic & Sports Car magazine, who feature The Longchamps and Aston in their latest issue

The De Tomaso Longchamps in the foreground might be a little less well known than the venerable Aston V8 lurking in the back of this picture, but both these V8 bruisers somehow managed to survive the 1973 oil crisis - production for both ran fro m1972 to 1989.

During that time, Newport Pagnell shifted 2012 V8 Astons, while De Tomaso sold just 409 Longchamps. Office feeling is that the British bulldog Aston edges the Longchamps, but a Dallara monocoque chassis and a 330bhp 351 cubic inch Ford V8 make the 149mph Longchamps pretty beefy. So that must make it beef Carpaccio, then...

C&SC's May issue came out yesterday (1 April), if you want a butcher's (no pun intended) at more pics.

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[Fleckers]

Very nice

I would have either or both at the click of the fingers or lottery win

[Smartass]

Lovely. I haven't seen a Longchamps in years but there was a kid in school who's Dad used to bring him in every morning in one. Lucky git.

[LukeBird]

Very nice!

[norman156]

Great picture, absolutely love the Longchamps. Must own one at some point!

[Mazda Baiter]

Very nice.

They just look so right.

[dinkel]

Transmitter Man!

[wackojacko]

Fantastic peice of eye candy !

[vdubbin]

This may be sacrilege, but that Tomaso looks like an old boxy Datsun.

[Roberty]

Not for me, The Aston is nice enough but the De Tomaso looks unfinished.

Think I'll stick with the Porsche 918 wallpaper from a few weeks back.

[edinph]

vdubbin said:

This may be sacrilege, but that Tomaso looks like an old boxy Datsun.

Not the prettiest DeT huh? Yet there is something menacing about it...............

[Vario-Rob]

The C&SC article is a very fair and accurate summary of the Longchamp.

My only criticism is Sam didn’t make quite enough of an issue of just how thirsty they are. As the article mentions it does no more than 8 mpg wherever it goes making a proposed touring holiday to southern France an enormously painful prospect for the poor owner

Anyway if any of you are slightly interested I’m happy to answer questions on the Blancmange as it’s affectionately known in the family.

A Datsun, I ask you! Have a look at a Lancia Gamma Coupe, fill it full of steroids and ‘hey presto’ you get a GTSE Longchamp

[Belfast Boy]

Never seen a Longchamp in my life, would love a drive in one, it looks 'ard as nails. More Astons around here than Mondeos though old and new.

[dinkel]

Phil!

[911stu]

You have gotta love a Longchamp.

[soad]

Super.

[PascalBuyens]

Vario-Rob said:

A Datsun, I ask you! Have a look at a Lancia Gamma Coupe, fill it full of steroids and ‘hey presto’ you get a GTSE Longchamp

Isn't it based on the Quattroporte? Maserati was owned by DeTomaso at the time I believe...

[Badmutha]

A 1988 Longchamp GTSE recently sold at a local auction (East Anglia) for 34K. Found in a storage shed with Maseratis, Jensen, Bentley etc.It had 700kms on the clock and original plastic protection on the seats and looked mint condition under the dust.See the Lacy Scott Auction website.
I was very tempted but stopped bidding a long way short of the sale price

[Transmitter Man]

Hi Al,

Not sure who took that last shot of my car but it's better than any of mine.

I'd like to see that GTSE from the auction and hope it improves the resale value of these fairly rare cars.

Yes, the QP3 was pretty much the same as the Longchamp but there was no wide are 'GTS/GTSE' versions of the Maserati and they of course ran their own engines. I'll stick with the Ford Cleveland V8 and the 10 x 15" Campanolo mag wheels thanks

Thanks.

Phil
79 De Tomaso Longchamp GTS

[Vario-Rob]

PascalBuyens said:

Vario-Rob said:

A Datsun, I ask you! Have a look at a Lancia Gamma Coupe, fill it full of steroids and ‘hey presto’ you get a GTSE Longchamp

Isn't it based on the Quattroporte? Maserati was owned by DeTomaso at the time I believe...

The Deauville shares the same underpinnings as Quatty III and indeed predates it iirc. The Longchamp has a shortened chassis but is essentially the same as does the Kyalami. All this came long before VAG started sharing the love around different brands.

Badmutha said:

A 1988 Longchamp GTSE recently sold at a local auction (East Anglia) for 34K. Found in a storage shed with Maseratis, Jensen, Bentley etc.It had 700kms on the clock and original plastic protection on the seats and looked mint condition under the dust.See the Lacy Scott Auction website.
I was very tempted but stopped bidding a long way short of the sale price

It did indeed and it was a whole lot of money in my opinion, not that I was disappointed. We might have spoken before the sale? It certainly created a huge amount of interest but in my opinion was still going to devour a whole load of money to get properly road worthy.

The day they were all uncovered will live long in the memory, two of the bloody things all under lock and key under ten miles from me

Transmitter Man said:

Hi Al,

Not sure who took that last shot of my car but it's better than any of mine.

I'd like to see that GTSE from the auction and hope it improves the resale value of these fairly rare cars.

Yes, the QP3 was pretty much the same as the Longchamp but there was no wide are 'GTS/GTSE' versions of the Maserati and they of course ran their own engines. I'll stick with the Ford Cleveland V8 and the 10 x 15" Campanolo mag wheels thanks

Thanks.

Phil
79 De Tomaso Longchamp GTS

Evening PDC, the GTSE found in the barn certainly raised the bar on value but I still think it will take £20k to get it properly on the nail, it stayed local but I’m not sure what the new owner has planned for it. Now then, Cleveland or Windsor?

[don logan]

I don`t know how many red / magnolia Longchamps were made but I was passenger in a red / magnolia Longchamp in 1990ish! it belonged to my sister`s boyfriend, he also had a RHD Mangusta and a Pantera!