De Tomaso Automobili SpA, Modena, Italy. 1959 to date

Alessandro de Tomaso came to Europe from Argentina in 1955 to race Osca sports cars.

He was a great innovator and one of his first projects was an electric town car built in 1957, called the Rowan, and displayed at the Turin Motor Show, but it never went into production.

When he retired from racing he stayed on in Italy and started his own company to build racing cars for amateur drivers.

The first 6 were Formula 1 chassis for the new regulations in 1961 and could be fitted with either the Osca or Alfa Romeo 1.5-litre engines. Another Formula 1 car was entered for the 1963 Italian Grand Prix with a flat 8-cylinder 1.5-litre engine, but it did not race and was not seen again. There were a series of what can only be described as experimental sports and racing car designs in the 1960s some with cast aluminium chassis which included one for Indianapolis.

By 1965 he had designed the first road car known as the Vallelunga. This was an attractive looking coupe with a convertible option called the Pampero. The chassis was designed to take the Ford Cortina engine amidships and about 50 were sold.

Over the following years De Tomaso made a series of acquisitions in the automotive industry the first of which was the coachbuilders Ghia in 1967. In 1976 he took control of Maserati from Citroen and Innocenti who were making the Mini under licence in Italy. Other acquisitions were the motorcycle manufacturers Benelli and Moto Guzzi Maserati was sold to Fiat in 1990.

In 1968 De Tomaso produced a much more powerful car called the Mangusta (Spanish for mongoose, which eats cobras!) with a top speed of 155 mph . It had a backbone chassis with servo assisted Girling disc brakes and a mid-mounted 4,727cc Ford V-8 engine driving the rear wheels through a ZF transaxle with limited slip differential. A favourable arrangement with Ford of America resulted in sizable number of cars being produced for the American market with air-conditioning as standard.

In 1969 De Tomaso was joined by Gian-Paolo Dallara who had engineered the Lamborghini Miura They designed a monocoque Formula 2 car with a Cosworth FVA engine employed as a stressed chassis member for the first time. It was driven by Jonathan Williams on it's first outing. At the Italian Grand Prix meeting De Tomaso approached Frank Williams (no relation) with a plan for to run a Formula 1 car in 1970. Dallara designed a monocque chassis and Frank Williams supplied the Cosworth engines and Hewland gearboxes. A total of 5 cars were built for Piers Courage to drive. The team was managed by Frank Williams and it's best result was a 3^rd place in the non-championship Daily Express meeting at Silverstone. Tragically Piers Courage was killed at Zandvoort and the teams momentum was lost.

The relationship with Ford was developed further with the arrival of the Pantera in 1971. The backbone chassis was replaced by an integral body/chassis unit and the Ford engine was increased to 5,763cc and 350bhp. This 175 mph car was sold in America through Ford's Lincoln-Mercury outlets.

Other models from De Tomaso were the Mustela coupe of 1969 with a front mounted 2.9-litre V-6 Ford engine, and the Deauville. The latter was a luxury 4-door saloon styled by Ghia which looked similar to the Jaguar XJ6. It was powered by Ford, and there was a choice of either the 4,727cc or the 5,763cc V-8 engines. There was also a shorter 2-door coupe version called the Longchamp and both models were in production from 1970 to 1988.

The purchase of Maserati led to a version of the Longchamp being produced with a choice of Maserati V-8 engines and called the Kyalami.

The Ford relationship ended in 1974 and so the flow of Panteras slowed to a trickle until it was de-listed in 1996, by which time about 10,500 had been made. Before that two new models were announced, The Guara and the Bigua. The Guara was a mid-engined coupe with the BMW 3,982cc V-8 and a 6-speed gearbox. The Bigua, known as the Mangusta in America, was a front-engined convertible with a three position hard top allowing it to be used as a coupe, targa or cabriolet. It was powered by a 4,601cc V-8 Ford engine with a 5-speed gearbox.

From 2000 the Mangusta became the Qvale Mangusta and was manufactured by a separate company. De Tomaso was now the only Italian manufacturer not encompassed by the Fiat combine although they were in partnership with Visteon Automotive Systems an American automobile parts company.

One of the clubs for Italian cars is the Italian Intermarque Association:-

Club Secretary : Phil Ward, 1 High Avenue, Letchworth, Hertfordshire SG6 3RL

Bibliography:

De Tomaso Pantera, by Jan Norbye, published by Osprey. 1980.

DE tomaso Automobili, by Wallace Wyss, published by Osprey. 1981.