In 1955, a young Argentine, named Alejandro de Tomaso, arrived in Italy with the dream of developing competition cars. De Tomaso even participated in the Formula 1 World Championship, first in a Ferrari 500 and later behind the wheel of a Cooper T43, but the focus quickly turned solely and exclusively to racing car production.
As such, Alejandro de Tomaso abandoned his car racing career and in 1959 founded De Tomaso in the city of Modena. Starting with racing prototypes, the brand developed the first Formula 1 car in the early 1960s, before also launching the first production model, the De Tomaso Vallelunga in 1963, with a 104hp Ford engine and just 726kg thanks to a fiberglass bodywork.
Then followed the De Tomaso Mangusta, a super sports car with a V8 engine that opened doors for what is perhaps the most important model of the brand, the by Tomaso Panther . Launched in 1971, the sports car combined the elegant Italian design with the power of Made in USA engines, in this case Ford V8 units. The result? 6128 produced in just two years.
Between 1976 and 1993, Alejandro de Tomaso was also the owner of Maserati , having been responsible, among others, for the Maserati Biturbo and also the third generation of the Quattroporte. Already in the 21st century, De Tomaso turned to off road vehicles, but without success.
With the death of its founder in 2003, and also due to financial problems, the Italian brand went into liquidation the following year. Since then, among several legal processes, De Tomaso has passed from hand to hand, but still regained the reputation it once had.
As you can see in the images, the legacy of the historic Italian brand is not being preserved the way it deserved. Documents, body molds and other components can be found at the Modena factory subject to all kinds of conditions.
