The Vallelunga was de Tomaso's first production
car, and featured a mid-mounted engine borrowed
from the Ford Cortina GT...
Mangusta is Italian for Mongoose, the only animal
capable of catching and eating Cobra's - the
AC Cobra being the inspiration for the car...
The Mangusta was styled by Giugiaro during his
time at Ghia, and still looks great some 40
years later...
The first result of the official liason between
Ford and de Tomaso was the wonderful Pantera...
Powered by the US built 5.7 litre Cleveland
engine, the Pantera also used componentes from
Germany, the UK, France and of course Italy...
de Tomaso also made other cars, such as the
Deauville, but would always be remembered for
the Mangusta and Pantera... |
The De Tomaso marque was founded by Alejandro de Tomaso
in the 1960’s. De Tomaso was a native Argentinean
who had moved to Italy where he had the opportunity
to work for the Maserati brothers at their OSCA factory.
De Tomaso watched, and became increasingly impressed
by the sports racing Cooper of the late 1950s. Convinced
of the virtues of the mid-engined configuration, he
left Maserati and set up his own workshop to build race
cars.
After building a series of Junior Formula single-seater
racing cars, he produced his first road car, the “Vallelunga”.
Naturally the car featured a mid-mounted engine design,
in this instance the 4 cylinder engine being derived
from the Ford Cortina GT, along with a backbone chassis
frame and all-independent suspension.
With the 1960’s came the wonderful AC Cobra,
and again De Tomaso would find inspiration. The “Mangusta”
would be named after the Italian name for “Mongoose”
- the only other animal fast enough to catch and eat
cobras!
Like the previous Vallelunga, the Mangusta had
a backbone frame and double wishbone independent front
suspension, but this time the car was powered by the
wonderful 5 litre 302 V8 Ford Windsor engine.
Styled by Giugiaro during his time at Ghia, the Mangusta
was first seen at Turin in 1966, many commentators of
the day being in awe of the cars blistering performance
figures.
The US derived engine was good for 305bhp and
drove through a 5 speed ZF transaxle, offering an impressive
top speed of 150mph (241.4 kmh) – the 0-60mph
(96.5 kmh) dash could be done in 6.5 seconds and 0-100mph
(160.9 kmh) in just 14.5 seconds!
One of its more unusual features was in the way you
accessed the engine bay, the use of a gull-wing inspired
roof panel located behind the seats and swinging upward.
Some 400 Mangusta’s were produced between 1967
and 1972.
In 1967 de Tomaso acquired Ghia, and would later sell
it on to Ford in Detroit. Ford in turn acquired a share
in the fledgling de Tomaso business. One of the major
benefits to De Tomaso was Ford’s agreement to
assume marketing responsibility for de Tomaso cars in
the US.
The first result of this liaison was the development
of the “Pantera” (Italian for Panther).
First seen at the 1970 New York motor show, the car
retained much of the Mangusta’s layout, except
that it had a combined steel body/chassis construction.
The motoring press quickly described it as world class,
deriving its composition from a global parts bin. The
US V8 engine was mated to a German transmission, it
used British brakes and steering, had French tyres and
naturally an Italian body and assembly.
The engine was Ford’s latest 351cu.in 5.7 litre
“Cleveland” which, in HO (High Output) form,
made the Pantera good for a 0-60mph dash in 7 seconds
flat and the 0-100mph in 15 seconds.
As was typical
of most performance vehicles of the era, European versions
offered better performance and fuel economy being unhindered
by convoluted emission control hardware.
The Pantera shared the Mangusta’s coil sprung
independent suspension, used Girling vented disc brakes
on all 4 wheels and the cast magnesium wheels were shod
with Michelin XVR radial tyres.
In 1973 a “GTS”
version was introduced in Europe, a highly tuned Cleveland
engine now affording 350bhp and making the car good
for a (claimed) top speed of 175mph.
But by 1974 the luster of the marque was beginning
to tarnish. Ferocious rust plagued the cars, and this
combined with reliability problems and suspect handling.
Add the mid-1970’s fuel crisis and it was obvious
the days of the de Tomaso were quickly drawing to a
close. Ford gave up it’s de Tomaso links (although
it would retain Ghia), and the Pantera and a few other
models would continue in extremely limited production
into the mid 1980’s.
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