De Tomaso PDF Manuals
The Milan-based Italian company De Tomaso is known for its sports cars.
It was founded by Alejandro de Tomaso, a racer from Argentina in 1958. In the same year, the first car of the company was released. A year later, de Tomaso, in partnership with his second wife, racer Isabelle Haeckel, moved the company's headquarters to Modena, where by that time such well-known companies as Ferrari and Maserati had already settled. De Tomaso himself never really tried to compete with them, focusing on rivalry with such small companies as "Lotus" "Cooper" and "Lola".
De Tomaso Automobili's first car was the one created for the 1959 Formula Junior race. In the same year, the car was released for participation in the Formula 2 races. The company started production of serial sports cars only in 1965.
From 1965 to 1975, De Tomaso collaborated quite seriously with the American automaker Ford. Around the same time, the companies Innocenti and Maserati joined the company, the latter being the first subsidiary.
In 1969 Alejandro de Tomaso commissioned Jeanpaolo Dallara to design and build a sports car for the then famous racing driver, Frank Williams. The car was supposed to take part in the Forumula-2 racing competition. A little later, "De Tomaso" opened in its work the direction of production of exotic cars of original design, intended for driving on public roads. Such cars were equipped with Ford engines.
From that moment on, de Tomaso entered into a rivalry with Enzo Ferrari himself. For this, he makes every effort to lure the best employees of the famous Italian to himself. So in 1968 Jean Paolo Dallara joined the company from Lamborghini. At the same time, De Tomaso Modena S. p. A. Acquires Ghia with head designer Tom Jaard.
The same team of designers and engineers led by Guigiaro developed the design of the company's most famous car - DeTomaso Mangusta. Early models of this car had radiator grilles located in the front; later models received one seven-inch retractable headlight.
The body of "Mangusta" was made of steel panels and therefore weighed 1,409 kilograms. The car was simply great in terms of design, but hard to drive. At the moment it is a desirable object for replenishment of their collections by lovers of retro cars.
In 1974, the company, based on the experience of successful cooperation with Ford on the development of engines, "De Tomaso Automobili" created a joint venture with the American concern for the production of the Pantera car. This model was produced in various modifications up to 1990.
DeTomaso Pantera created the general concept of the company's vehicles. So, based on the vision of its design, a four-door sedan "Deauville" and a two-door "Longchamp" were developed. Both cars were designed by Tom Jaarda, who retained the traditional trapezoidal radiator grille in the style of the classic DeTomaso - Mangusta.
“Pantera” is still the most demanded car of the company, it is he who is presented today as the “face” of the company and is actively purchased by its fans. These are mainly collectors of retro cars, since in 1996 the Panther was taken out of production. Further, under the brand De Tomaso Mangusta, they produced the base sports coupe for the MG Rover.
Unfortunately, in the two thousandth Alejandro de Tomaso, the founder of the company suffered a stroke and, as a result of many legal disputes, one of the partners of the company, Bruce Kavali, received the right to the brand. Since then, the DeTomaso Automobili trademark has not been used in its original sense.
