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De Tomaso

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'''De Tomaso Modena SpA''' is an [[Italy|Italian]]
[[automobile|car]]-manufacturing company. It was founded by the [[Argentina|Argentinian]]-born [[Alejandro de Tomaso]] ([[1928]]–[[2003]]) in [[Modena]] in [[1959]]. The company went into liquidation in [[2004]]; [http://www.italiaspeed.com/2004/cars/others/detomaso/liquidation.html] despite this, new cars were still being made by De Tomaso as of 2005. [http://auto.moldova.org/auto/eng/28/54/]

Originally, De Tomaso produced various prototypes and racing cars, including a [[Formula 1]] car for [[Frank Williams Racing Cars|Frank Williams]]'s team in [[1970]].

== De Tomaso sports cars ==
De Tomaso's first road-going production model was the [[De Tomaso Vallelunga|Vallelunga]], introduced in [[1963]]. This striking mid-engined sports car was propelled with a 104 bhp (78 kW) [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] [[Ford Cortina|Cortina]] engine, and had a top <br>speed of 215 km/h (134 mph). It featured an [[aluminium]] backbone [[chassis]], which was to become De Tomaso's technological trademark, and [[fibreglass]] bodywork.

The first De Tomaso produced in anything like significant numbers, the [[De Tomaso Mangusta|Mangusta]], introduced in [[1966]], was also the first to be developed in association with [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]], a firm which was to have a decisive influence on De Tomaso's early life. With the [[De Tomaso Mangusta|Mangusta]] De Tomaso moved from European to American [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] engines; powered by a 4.7-litre iron-block [[V8]] engine and with [[steel]] and [[aluminium]] coupé bodywork from [[Ghia]] – an Italian coachbuilder also controlled by [[Alejandro de Tomaso]] – the [[De Tomaso Mangusta|Mangusta]] could more than compete with contemporary [[Ferrari]]s and [[Lamborghini]]s on looks, if not on cachet. With its flowing panels and almost absurdly raked rear window, the [[De Tomaso Mangusta|Mangusta]] was a true Italian supercar. About 400 examples were built until production ended in [[1971]].

The [[De Tomaso Mangusta|Mangusta]] was succeeded by the [[De Tomaso Pantera|Pantera]], the car that was to put De Tomaso on the map – if only briefly. It appeared in [[1971]] with a 5.8-litre [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] V8 and a low, wedge-shaped body designed by [[Ghia]]'s [http://www.tom-tjaarda.net Tom Tjaarda]. Though less visually arresting than the [[De Tomaso Mangusta|Mangusta]], the [[De Tomaso Pantera|Pantera]] looked set to vault De Tomaso into the ranks of the supercar giants. Through an agreement with [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]], De Tomaso sold [[De Tomaso Pantera|Pantera]]s in the [[United States of America|USA]] through [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]]'s [[Lincoln (automobile)|Lincoln]] and [[Mercury (automobile)|Mercury]] dealers. Between [[1971]] and [[1973]], 6,128 [[De Tomaso Pantera|Pantera]]s were produced in [[Modena]], dwarfing the intensity of any De Tomaso production runs before or since. Sadly for the firm (and for American supercar fans), the poor quality of Italian [[steel]] of the time, combined with [[1973 oil crisis|the oil crisis of the early 1970s]], caused [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] to pull out of the [[De Tomaso Pantera|Pantera]] deal at the end of [[1973]]. (Other supercars of the same era, such as the [[Frua]]-bodied [[AC Cars|AC]] 427 and 428, were to cease production completely for the same reasons.)

After its brief flowering as a mass-production car, the [[De Tomaso Pantera|Pantera]] settled down during the 1970s and into the 1980s as an ordinary, small-production but 'invisible' Italian supercar. This was a shame, as it combined the [[De Tomaso Mangusta|Mangusta]]'s sound mechanicals and (almost as) striking looks with a larger engine and a more luxurious interior. Price-wise, it was much more affordable than its rivals from [[Ferrari]], [[Lamborghini]], [[Aston Martin]] and [[Iso automobile|Iso]]. [[De Tomaso Pantera|Pantera]] production continued at a greatly reduced scale, incorporating a [[Marcello Gandini]] facelift and engine tweaking in [[1990]], until it was finally phased out in [[1993]] to make way for the radical, [[carbon fibre|carbon-fibre]]-bodied [[De Tomaso Guarà|Guarà]].

The [[De Tomaso Guarà|Guarà]] is De Tomaso’s most recent production car, and has been built in fits and starts since 1993. Available in coupé and barchetta versions and based on a [[Maserati]] competiton car from 1991, the [[De Tomaso Guarà|Guarà]] uses [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] and [[BMW]] parts in a sweeping composite body which betrays its origins on the track (the [[Maserati]] prototype didn’t even have a windscreen). As with all De Tomasos except the [[De Tomaso Pantera|Pantera]], production has been both small and sporadic.

In the early 2000s two other cars were planned by De Tomaso, but both proved abortive. A two-seat [[Marcello Gandini|Gandini]]-styled convertible, the [[De Tomaso Biguà|Biguà]], was developed from a 1996 [[Salon International de l'Auto|Geneva]] concept in partnership with [[Qvale]], an American firm which had long imported European sports cars into the [[United States of America|USA]]. But as soon as the [[De Tomaso Biguà|Biguà]] – by now renamed the Mangusta – started coming off the assembly lines the relationship between De Tomaso and [[Qvale]] soured; [[Qvale]] took over the car completely and it was rebadged as the [[Qvale]] Mangusta. Despite taking the name of an illustrious De Tomaso of old, production was short-lived, and [[Qvale]]’s Italian factory was bought in 2003 by [[MG Rover]] and the [[De Tomaso Biguà|Biguà]]/Mangusta mechanicals used as the basis of the (equally short-lived) [[MG (car)|MG]] [[MG XPower SV|XPower SV]]. Subsequently, De Tomaso embarked on 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 was signed in April 2002, with a plan to build 10,000 cars a year by 2006: however, no cars materialised and De Tomaso went into voluntary liquidation in June 2004. [http://www.globalautoindex.com/maker.plt?no=1348] The [[De Tomaso Guarà|Guarà]] remained available in some markets in 2005 and 2006, but it appears that there were no cars built after 2004. [http://www.histomobile.com/1/De_Tomaso/1994/Guara_.htm?lan=1]

== De Tomaso luxury cars ==
Although car enthusiasts know De Tomaso principally as a maker of high-performance sports cars, the firm also produced luxury coupés and saloons – albeit in tiny numbers – throughout the 1970s and '80s.

The [[1971]] [[De Tomaso Deauville|Deauville]] was De Tomaso's attempt at a rival to contemporary [[Jaguar]] and [[Mercedes-Benz]] saloons. With the same engine as the [[De Tomaso Pantera|Pantera]] but mounted in the front, the [[De Tomaso Deauville|Deauville]] was clothed in an angular but elegant Tjaarda/[[Ghia]] four-door body which had more than a hint of the [[Jaguar XJ6]] about it, and came with the leather-and-air-con trim level that might be expected in such a car. The [[De Tomaso Deauville|Deauville]] did not have a hope of competing with its rivals, especially those from [[Germany]], on the quality of its build, but it blew them out of the water on rarity-appeal – despite remaining on De Tomaso's books until 1985, only about 300 were ever made. The ultimate rare [[De Tomaso Deauville|Deauville]] is the single example of an estate, built for [[Alejandro de Tomaso]]'s wife, the American racing driver Isabelle Haskell.

[[1972]] saw the introduction of a coupé based on the [[De Tomaso Deauville|Deauville]], the [[De Tomaso Longchamp|Longchamp]]. Mechanically this was essentially the same car – the [[De Tomaso Longchamp|Longchamp]] used a slightly shortened [[De Tomaso Deauville|Deauville]] chassis and had the same [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] V8 engine. The squarer, flatter body, however, was substantially different, without the [[De Tomaso Deauville|Deauville]]'s flowing lines.

In 1976, [[Alejandro de Tomaso]], with the assistance of the Italian government, took over [[Maserati]] after its owner [[Citroën]] (itself recently taken over by [[PSA Peugeot Citroën|Peugeot]]) declared that it would no longer support the loss-making company. The first 'new' [[Maserati]] that the De Tomaso regime introduced, the [[Maserati Kyalami|Kyalami]], was in fact a mildly reskinned [[De Tomaso Longchamp|Longchamp]] with the [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] engine replaced by [[Maserati]]'s own 4.2-litre V8. The two cars, outwardly similar except for their badges, grilles and headlights, remained in production until [[1983]], when the [[Maserati Kyalami|Kyalami]] was superseded by the genuinely new [[Maserati]] [[Maserati Biturbo|Biturbo]], introduced two years earlier. The [[De Tomaso Longchamp|Longchamp]] trickled on until [[1989]]. Just 395 [[De Tomaso Longchamp|Longchamp]] coupés and 14 convertibles were built.

== Car list ==
*[[De Tomaso Vallelunga|Vallelunga]]
*[[De Tomaso Mangusta|Mangusta]]
*[[De Tomaso Pantera|Pantera]]
*[[De Tomaso Deauville|Deauville]]
*[[De Tomaso Longchamp|Longchamp]]
*[[De Tomaso Guarà|Guarà]]
*[[De Tomaso Biguà|Biguà]]

{{De Tomaso}}

== See also ==
* [[Alejandro de Tomaso]]
* [[Qvale]]

== External links ==
{{commonscat|De Tomaso vehicles}}
* [http://www.detomaso.it The De Tomaso official site]
* [http://www.detomaso.de DeTomaso Parts Center Europe]

[[Category:Motor vehicle manufacturers of Italy]]
[[Category:Supercars]]
[[Category:Formula One constructors]]

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De Tomaso

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