De Tomaso Cars
Exotic · 1 model
De Tomaso: The Italian Sports Car Maker Behind the Pantera
ExoticDe Tomaso is an Italian carmaker founded in Modena in 1959 by Argentine Alejandro de Tomaso. It is best known for the Ford V8-powered Mangusta and Pantera, and it owned Maserati from 1976 to 1993.
De Tomaso models we cover
The company started out building sports prototypes and race cars, including a Formula One car for Frank Williams Racing Cars in 1970. Its first road car, the 1963 Vallelunga, was a mid-engine coupe with a 104 hp Ford Cortina four-cylinder and a steel backbone chassis, a layout that became common on later De Tomasos. About 60 were made. The 1966 Mangusta switched to a 4.7-liter American Ford V8, and about 400 were built before production ended in 1971.
The Pantera followed in 1971 with a 351 Cleveland Ford V8 and a low wedge body designed by Ghia's Tom Tjaarda. Ford bought an 84 percent stake in De Tomaso that year and sold Panteras in the US through Lincoln-Mercury dealers. Between 1971 and 1973, 6,128 Panteras were built in Modena, the most of any De Tomaso. Ford pulled out after the 1973 oil crisis and sold its stake back in 1974, but De Tomaso kept the rights for the rest of the world and built fewer than 100 Panteras a year until 1993. The last 41 were Marcello Gandini-facelifted Pantera 90 Si models.
De Tomaso also owned Moto Guzzi from 1973 to 1993 and built luxury cars in tiny numbers, including the Deauville sedan, with 244 made, and the Longchamp coupe, with 409. The company went into liquidation in 2004 and changed hands more than once before Hong Kong-based Ideal Team Ventures bought it. The revived company showed the P72, a retro sports car honoring the late-1960s P70 race car, at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed.