De Tomaso
(1965 - 1999)
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Italy
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A lot has already been written about this De Tomaso. About its origins, for example. After Alejandro De Tomaso's death in 2003, the car is said to have turned up in his factory. The car was sold in 2004. The remarkable thing about it is that the de Tomaso Sport 5000 Spyder Fantuzzi was allegedly parked tel-quel after its last race, the 500 kilometers of Mugello, and survived the time in the factory in Modena untouched. The car has thus been allowed to retain its patina and therefore looks thoroughly authentic. This is a good thing, because its history is not quite so straightforward.
Even as a young boy, Alessandro de Tomaso was crazy about cars. As soon as he got his driving license, he was driving old racing cars. He later became the "enfant terrible" of the Italian car industry, buying and reselling companies such as Ghia and Maserati like a Ford dealer sells his cars. His first car was the Vallelunga, one of the very first mid-engined road-going sports cars - beautiful, fast and fascinating. Our report shows the history and many rare photos of this rare car.
Ferrari Daytona, Maserati Ghibli, De Tomaso Mangusta, Aston Martin DBS and Lamborghini Miura were the dream sports cars of the late sixties. How did they compare then and now? This report picks out five of the top products of the time and compares their performance and value development, illustrated with many pictures of the individual vehicles.
The de Tomaso Mangusta was Alessandro de Tomaso's first large road-going sports car. Equipped with a robust American V8 engine, it was capable of similar performance to the elite sports cars of the time, looked stunning and was attractively priced. As many as 401 were produced, around half of which are said to still exist. This report describes the car and shows it in many pictures. Sound recordings of the background noise round off the article.
This is probably a one-off test, probably the only one in this constellation. The Lamborghini Miura meets the De Tomaso Mangusta, the Monteverdi hi speed 375 S and the Maserati Ghibli. Playboy cars is what hobby calls this sports car category. Well, the vehicles perform well and even today in 2011, acceleration times and top speeds are impressive, especially when you consider that the test took place over 40 years ago. The fact that the Monteverdi won as the best all-rounder in this test, but the Miura was the fastest, is probably only of historical interest from today's perspective, but the fact that the vehicles were notable for a number of problems could still be relevant for one or two fans today.
Alejandro de Tomaso built cars in Modena from 1958 onwards. But it was only with the Pantera in 1970 that the Argentinian became famous as a car manufacturer. With almost 7,300 units produced, the Pantera became De Tomaso's greatest success and was built for 22 years. This article goes back through the history of this mid-engined sports car and shows it in many historical pictures, several sales brochures and a highly interesting documentary from 1973.
The De Tomaso Pantera was created as a road sports car, but the engineers soon added racing versions for Group 3 and 4 to the normal mid-engined sports car, which was possible from a homologation point of view thanks to the good sales results. Later, even Group 5 racing cars were created on a private initiative and the Pantera, which was built from 1971 to 1992, could even be seen as a Group C sports car. This vehicle report tells the story of the racing Panteras and portrays a Group 5 version built in the factory in detail.
In 1981, Franco Sbarro began to build replicas based on existing old parts and the chassis of the de Tomaso Pantera Ford GT 40. One of these vehicles was dedicated to AR and displayed on the stand at the 1981 Geneva Motor Show. Roger Gloor was able to test drive this car in the summer of 1981. This report summarizes his experiences with this fast road sports car.
With only four examples built, the De Tomaso Guará Spyder is certainly one of the rarest series-produced sports cars of the nineties. It also looks good and, thanks to BMW and F1 technology, everything under the plastic skin is state-of-the-art. This vehicle report tells the story of this rare sports car, whose roots go back to the sixties.
No, this Mangusta is not a De Tomaso, but a Qvale, even though the two names were definitely linked. And it doesn't necessarily impress with its Gandini design, but rather with its concept and inner qualities. It is also rarer than even the smallest series of Porsches or Ferraris.
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All 18 De Tomaso models
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