COMPANY

De Tomaso was founded by Alejandro de Tomaso in Modena in 1959. Its first road model was the Vallelunga, first produced in 1963. The mid-engined sports car had a Ford Cortina engine and could reach a top speed of 134 mph. It featured an aluminium backbone chassis, which became a trademark of De Tomaso cars. The first 5 Vallelungas were made from aluminium, while later production automobiles had fibreglass bodies.

The Mangusta was produced in 1966 and was De Tomaso's first car to be made in significant numbers. The Mangusta marked De Tomaso's move in to using US engines. It had a 4.7-litre V8 engine, an aluminium and steel coupé body from Ghia and around 400 Mangustas were built until production ceased in 1971.

The Mangusta successor was the Pantera. Featuring a 351 Cleveland Ford V8 and a low, wedge body, it was their most powerful model yet. Between 1971 and 1973, there were 6,128 Panteras produced in Modena. This was De Tomaso's largest volume of a single model ever produced. From the late 1970s to the 1980s, production of Panteras continued at a much reduced rate, with fewer than 100 cars a year. From this point forward, De Tomasos were mainly hand-built.

The De Tomaso GT5 was introduced in 1980. This new model incorporated a luxurious interior, better brakes, larger tyres and wheels and a fibreglass body. In 1985, a revamp of the GTS took place and was sold as the GT5-S until the late 1980s, when De Tomaso brought back the Pantera, this time with a different engine and a face-lift.

Finally, the Pantera was phased out gradually to make way for the Guarà, De Tomaso's most recent production vehicle that was introduced in 1993. Based on a 1991 Maserati competition car, the Guarà featured BMW and Ford parts in a radical carbon-fibre body.

De Tomaso went in to liquidation in the early 2000s but in 2011, it introduced their first new model in years, the Deauville.