De Tomaso Automobili SpA is an Italian car-manufacturing company. It was founded by the Argentine-born
Alejandro de Tomaso in Modena in 1959. It originally produced various prototypes and
racing cars, including a Formula One car for Frank Williams' team in 1970. The company
developed a reputation for producing sports and luxury vehicles. From 1976 to 1993 De
Tomaso owned legendary Italian sports car maker Maserati, and was responsible for producing
cars including the Biturbo, the Kyalami, Quattroporte III, Karif, and the Chrysler TC. De Tomaso
also owned motorcycle company Moto Guzzi from 1973 to 1993.
De Tomaso went into liquidation in 2004, although production of new cars continued after this
date. By 2008 a buyer was being sought for the De Tomaso trademarks, as per the court-appointed
liquidators. The company was bought by Gian Mario Rossignolo in 2009. A new business plan
for the company called for producing three models for a total of 8,000 vehicles: 3,000
crossovers, 3,000 limousines, and 2,000 two-seater sports cars.
In May 2012, De Tomaso was again for sale after their business plan failed to gather
sufficient financial backing. In July 2012, Gian Mario Rossignolo was arrested following
allegations that he misused €7.5 million worth of government funds. In September 2012,
speculation emerged that BMW might be interested in the brand factory to produce new BMW models.
De Tomaso sports cars
Vallelunga De Tomaso's first road-going production model
was the Vallelunga introduced in 1963. This mid-engined sports car had a 104 bhp Ford
Cortina engine, and reached a top speed of 215 km/h. It had an aluminium backbone chassis,
which was to become a common feature of De Tomaso cars. The first 5 cars were produced
in aluminium while production cars had fibreglass bodywork.
Mangusta The Mangusta, introduced in 1966 was the first
De Tomaso produced in significant numbers. With the Mangusta, De Tomaso moved from European
to American Ford engines. The car had a 4.7-litre iron-block V8 engine and steel and aluminium
coupé bodywork from Ghia—an Italian coachbuilder also controlled by Alejandro de Tomaso. About
400 Mangustas were built before production ended in 1971.
Pantera
The Mangusta was succeeded by the Pantera. It appeared in 1971 with a 351 Cleveland Ford
V8 and a low, wedge-shaped body designed by Ghia's Tom Tjaarda. Through an agreement with
Ford, De Tomaso sold Panteras in the USA through Ford's Lincoln and Mercury dealers. Between
1971 and 1973, 6,128 Panteras were produced in Modena, the largest number of a single
marque of De Tomaso produced. The 1973 oil crisis and other factors compelled Ford to
pull out of the Pantera deal at the end of 1973.
During the late 1970s and 1980s Pantera production continued at a greatly reduced scale of less
than 100 cars per year. From then on, the cars were largely hand-built.
Incorporating a Marcello Gandini facelift, suspension redesign, partial chassis redesign
and a new, smaller Ford engine, the Pantera 90 Si model was introduced in 1990. Only 38
90 Si models were sold before the Pantera was finally phased out in 1993 to make way
for the radical, carbon-fibre-bodied Guarà. Guarà
The Guarà is De Tomaso’s most recent production car, and has been produced since 1993. The
Guarà was designed by Carlo Gaino of Synthesis design, an Italian design house; Gaino designed
also the Maserati Barchetta. The Guarà is available in coupé and barchetta versions
and based on a Maserati competition car from 1991, the Guarà uses Ford and BMW parts in
a composite body. As with all De Tomasos except the Pantera, production has been both small
and sporadic. Biguà and off-road vehicles
In the early 2000s two other cars were planned by De Tomaso, but both proved abortive. A
two-seat Gandini-styled convertible, the Biguà, was developed from a 1996 Geneva concept in
partnership with Qvale, an American firm which had long imported European sports cars into
the USA. But as production of the Biguà—renamed the Mangusta—began, the relationship between
De Tomaso and Qvale soured; Qvale took over the car and rebadged as the Qvale Mangusta.
Production was short-lived, and Qvale’s Italian factory was bought in 2003 by MG Rover
and the Mangusta mechanics used as the basis of the MG XPower SV. In April 2002, De Tomaso
began a project to build off-road vehicles in a new factory in Calabria in partnership
with the Russian company UAZ, but this too foundered. The deal projected a production
rate of 10,000 cars a year by 2006: however, no cars were built and De Tomaso went into
voluntary liquidation in June 2004. The Guarà remained available in some markets in 2005
and 2006, but it appears that no cars were built after 2004.
De Tomaso luxury cars
Although De Tomaso is principally known as a maker of high-performance sports cars, the
firm also produced luxury coupés and saloons in tiny number throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
The 1971 Deauville was De Tomaso's attempt to rival contemporary Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz
saloons. With the same engine as the Pantera mounted in the front, the Deauville was clothed
in an angular Tjaarda/Ghia four-door body. The Deauville did not compete with its rivals,
especially those from Germany, on the quality of its build. Despite remaining on De Tomaso's
books until 1985, only 244 were ever made. A single example of an estate was built for
Alejandro de Tomaso's wife, the American racing driver Isabelle Haskell.
In 1972 De Tomaso introduced a coupé based on the Deauville, the Longchamp. The Longchamp
used a slightly shortened Deauville chassis and had the same Ford V8 engine. The body
design, however, was substantially different, and influenced by the Lancia Marica prototype,
also designed by Tom Tjaarda. A total of 409 Longchamps of all variations were built, by
the time the production ended in 1989. In 1976, Alejandro de Tomaso, with the assistance
of the Italian government, took over Maserati after its owner Citroën declared that it
would no longer support the loss-making company. The first Maserati that the De Tomaso regime
introduced, the Kyalami, was a redesigned Longchamp by Frua, with the Ford engine replaced
by Maserati's own 4.2-litre V8. The Kyalami remained in production until 1983, when it
was superseded by the Maserati Biturbo, introduced two years earlier.
Innocenti
In 1975, the Innocenti passed to Alejandro de Tomaso and was reorganised by the De Tomaso
Group under the name Nuova Innocenti. From 1976 to 1987 the top of the range Innocenti
was the Innocenti Mini de Tomaso, a sport version of the Innocenti Mini developed by
De Tomaso, initially equipped with BLMC 1275 engine, and from 1982 to 1987 with 1.0-litre
3-cylinder turbocharged Daihatsu engine. 2011 De Tomaso Deauville
At the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, De Tomaso presented a new model. The new De Tomaso Deauville is
a five-door hatchback/crossover vehicle with all-wheel drive, which, in the details of
its styling, quotes models from BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The range would include two gasoline engines
with 300 PS and 500 PS as well as a diesel from VM Motori with 250 PS. A sports car and
a limousine De Tomaso should follow. Formula One
Following a handful of Formula One appearances from 1961 to 1963, De Tomaso built a Formula
One chassis for Frank Williams Racing Cars to use in the 1970 Formula One season. The
car was initially uncompetitive, failing to finish the first four races of the year. In
the fifth, the Dutch Grand Prix, the De Tomaso 505/38 flipped and caught fire, killing driver
Piers Courage. The team persevered, first with Brian Redman, then Tim Schenken. However,
with no results, the partnership was dissolved at the end of the season.
Complete Formula One World Championship results (key)
Car list
Vallelunga Sport 5000
De Tomaso 5000 De Tomaso Sport 2000
Mangusta Pantera
Deauville Longchamp
Guarà Biguà
References
External links The De Tomaso official site
DeTomaso Parts Center Europe Pantera Club Switzerland
De Tomaso Guarà The registry for DeTomaso Automobiles
Ron Hyde's De Tomaso Cars page Information, data, and literature on De Tomaso cars.