It was founded by the Argentine-born Alejandro de Tomaso (1928–2003) in Modena in 1959.

De Tomaso Modena SpA was an Italian car-manufacturing company. The blue and white stripes of the logo's background are the colors of the national flag of Argentina. The symbol in the foreground that looks like a letter "T" is the cattle branding symbol of the Ceballos estate where Alejandro grew up. It originally produced various prototypes and racing cars, including a Formula One car for Frank Williams's team in 1970. 

 

Headquarters Modena, Italy

mangusta  1967-1971

The De Tomaso Mangusta is a sports car produced by Italian automobile manufacturer De Tomaso between 1967 and 1971. It was succeeded by the De Tomaso Pantera. The Mangusta replaced the Vallelunga model, on which its chassis was based. The word "mangusta" is Italian for "mongoose", an animal that can kill cobras.

401 cars in total were built, about 150 were made for Europe, while the remainder were made for North America. The initial cars are claimed to have a more powerful Ford HiPo 289 engine; the later cars all had Ford 302 engines.

The Mangusta was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, whose main highlight is a center-hinged, two-section hood that opened akin to gullwing doors. The early European versions were fitted with a mid-mounted 306 hp Ford 289 V8 engine, driven through a 5-speed ZF transaxle; but for almost all Mangustas for both Europe and North America an unmodified "J Code" 230 hp Ford 302 V8 was used. All round Girling disc brakes and independent suspension, rack and pinion steering, air conditioning, and power windows were fitted, ahead of other manufacturers at the time. Journalist Paul Frère claimed he achieved a top speed of 250 km/h in the Mangusta.

The Mangusta was relatively inexpensive for the time, but with a 44/56 front/rear weight distribution reportedly suffered from stability problems and poor handling. The car's cabin was also cramped and it had extremely low ground clearance.

zonda  1971

The De Tomaso Zonda was designed by Tom Tjaarda of Ghia and first shown to the public at the Geneva Motor Show in 1971.

The Zonda featured a front engined Ford Cleveland 5,563cc V8 with 350bhp. The car was built on a shortened De Tomaso Deauville chassis.

The Zonda was a prototype to be placed above the Pantera. It never went into production. It was conceived as a GT car to compliment the De Tomaso Pantera and to be sold alongside in the Lincoln Mercury showrooms in the US.

Ford didn’t think there was a market for the car and so it was never put into production. The De Tomaso Zonda was later repainted red by Ford.

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deauville  1971-1985

The De Tomaso Deauville is a luxury four-door saloon first exhibited at the 1970 Turin Motor Show. The Deauville was powered by the same 5,763 cc Ford Cleveland V8 as the De Tomaso Pantera, rated at 335 PS. The car has a top speed of 230 km/h and featured styling similar to that of the Jaguar XJ.

The Deauville has an independent rear suspension very similar to that used by Jaguar, and ventilated discs front and aft. It shares its chassis with the Maserati Quattroporte III. A shorter version of its chassis underpinned the Maserati Kyalami and De Tomaso Longchamp grand tourers.

A total of 244 cars were produced. There were three Deauville variants: the early series 1 (1970–1974: serial number 10##, 11## and 12##), late series 1 (1975–1977: serial numbers 14##) and the series 2 (1978–1985: serial numbers 20## and 21##).

One Deauville station wagon was made for Mr. De Tomaso's wife. There were also two armoured Deauvilles produced, one for the Belgian Royal Family and the other for the Italian government. The latter is on display in the Museo delle Auto della Polizia di Stato in Rome.

At the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, a newly resurrected De Tomaso marque presented a new model, reviving the use of the name Deauville. The new Deauville is a five-door crossover vehicle with all-wheel drive, which in the detail of its styling quotes models from BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and was designed by Pininfarina.

pantera  1971-1992

The De Tomaso Pantera is a mid-engine sports car produced by Italian automobile manufacturer De Tomaso from 1971 to 1992. Italian for "Panther", the Pantera was the automaker's most popular model, with over 7,000 manufactured over its twenty-year production run. More than three quarters of the production was sold by American Lincoln-Mercury dealers from 1972 to 1975; after this agreement ended De Tomaso kept manufacturing the car in ever smaller numbers into the early 1990s.

The first 1971 Pantera models were powered by a 5.8 L  Ford Cleveland V8 engine having a power output of 335 PS.

Ford stopped importing the Pantera to the US in 1975, having sold around 5,500 cars. De Tomaso continued to build the car in ever-escalating forms of performance and luxury for almost two decades for sale in the rest of the world.

longchamp  1972-1989

The Longchamp was derived from the De Tomaso Deauville four-door saloon, using a shorter wheelbase chassis with the same suspension, engine and transmission. The same platform underpinned the Maserati Kyalami grand tourer and the Maserati Quattroporte III saloon as Maserati was owned by De Tomaso at the time. The Deauville and the Longchamp were the only front engine production cars produced by De Tomaso. The Longchamp was initially offered only as a 2-door 2+2 coupé. It was designed by Tom Tjaarda of Ghia and was influenced by his previous Lancia Marica prototype.

After supplies of American-built 351 V8s dried up, De Tomaso began sourcing their engines from Australia, to where the production line had been transferred. The engines were tuned in Switzerland before being installed, and were available with power outputs of 270, 300, or 330 PS.

90 si targa 1990-1993

Over the years, De Tomaso gradually moved the Pantera upmarket. The specifications were enhanced with a more luxurious interior and wide-bodied variants like the GT5 and GT5S were introduced.

Thanks to its brawny new look, the Pantera became seen as a slightly less expensive alternative to a Lamborghini Countach. The resultant SI was the most extensively modified Pantera yet seen.

For 1990 the 351 engine was replaced by the 5.0-litre Ford 302 engine featuring electronic fuel injection and modified cylinder heads, intake manifolds, camshafts, valves, and pistons. By the time De Tomaso had finished, the power rating had risen to 305bhp at 5800rpm. Compared to the outgoing Windsor motor, this latest power unit was smaller, lighter and more efficient.

Transmission was via five-speed ZF gearbox, single plate clutch and limited-slip differential.

Stopping power was improved by the addition of four-wheel ventilated and drilled disc brakes with Brembo calipers that were shared with the Ferrari F40.

The Pantera received new styling penned by Marcello Gandini, suspension redesign and a partial chassis redesign.

An enormous spoiler was also added at the back of the car. It worked in conjunction with the ground effect rear bumper which shrouded the exhausts. Handsome new tail light clusters replaced the old Carello units.

Despite this major cosmetic surgery, the SI’s parentage was still obvious to anyone familiar with the original.

The new model was called the Pantera 90 Si and it was introduced in 1990. Only 41 90 Si models were made before the Pantera was finally phased out in 1993 to make way for the radical Guarà. Out of the 41 cars made, two were used for crash testing, and one was reserved for the De Tomaso museum. As such, only 38 were sold to the public, of which four were converted to Targas by Pavesi. In the UK, the model was sold as Pantera 90.

The Targas were converted by Carrozzeria Pavesi in Milan who had a long history of modifying Italian exotics into open top specials. Previously, Pavesi had worked on De Tomaso’s Longchamp Spyder and the Pantera GT5S Targa. In addition, the firm had carried out many private commissions for drop head Ferrari Testarossas, 400s and 412s.

Each Pantera SI Targa was reinforced to compensate for the lack of a roof. The removable body coloured Targa top could be stowed under the rear deck lid.

As the SI Targa retailed at 50% more than the Coupe, demand was understandably subdued.

1959-2004

2009-2011

2019-2022

2022-now

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