De Tomaso Vallelunga Alloy Body

Now as you know De Tomaso’s are generally rare, the Vallelunga is no exception with only 53 built, however this one is really really rare. During its development 6 alloy bodied prototypes were built by Fissore. Out of those 6 cars built 3 were destroyed under instruction from Fissore and 3 were kept by De Tomaso. This is one of those remaining 3.

De Tomaso Deauville Series 2

Let’s cut to the chase, this thing is fitted with the same Ford Cleveland 5.7ltr V8 that was fitted to the Pantera, with all of those 330 horses. That would have made this one very, very fast four door when it debuted in 1971 as the Series 1.

De Tomaso Pantera GT5S

In the war of the rear wing in the 80’s the only company that gave the Lamborghini Countach a run for its money was De Tomaso with the Pantera. Designed by Tom Tjaarda, it debuted in 1970 at the New York Motor Show and soon went into, well for Modena standards, fast production of 3 cars per day!!!! Intially it was created in collaboration between De Tomaso and Ford, as Ford desperately needed a sports car to compete with GM on home spil, this relationship though only lasted until late on in 1973. Following this production drastically reduced as the car was taken out of the US. By the late 80’s it had evolved into the 1985 GT5S with its wider body kit and much required huge rear wing.

Maserati Shamal

Conceived when Maserati was under De Tomaso's stewardship when budgets were tight and finally brought to the public by Fiat after its buyout during its development, in 1989. In fact despite the modern body designed by Maserati's Design Centre in conjunction with Marcello Gandni (Lamborghini Countach), the chassis underneath though spanned back two models to the Spyder in 1984. Now lets get back to that body, you can't miss those widened box arches that hint that this sports car has rally connections. But like so many cars of the era they were just for show, just like that "of the time" bonnet spoiler which I must admit I really like.

De Tomaso Deauville

The De Tomosa name is sin ominous with the Panthra, (a car I’ll get round too) but it also produces 240 four door saloons, the Deuville. Aimed at the luxury market it came fully loaded with all 1972 could muster including rear air conditioning and the usual all round power assistance from steering to windows. Powered by a 5.7ltr Ford V8 with 300bhp it was no slouch, reaching 60mph in 6.4sec’s and continued up to 146mph. Production stopped in 1984 after 3 series. At a time when all the supercar makers are looking at producing high performance saloons its nice to see one was at it nearly 40 years ago.