De Tomaso

De Tomaso Modena SpA was an Italian car-manufacturing company. It was founded 1959 by Alejandro de Tomaso in Modena. It originally produced various sports prototypes and auto racing vehicles, including a Formula One car for Frank Williams Racing Cars in 1970. Most of the funding for the automaker came from Amory Haskell Jr. The company went on to develop and produce both sports cars and luxury vehicles such as the Ford-powered Mangusta and Pantera. From 1976 to 1993, De Tomaso owned Italian sports car maker Maserati, and was responsible for producing cars including the Biturbo, the Kyalami, Quattroporte III, Karif and the Chrysler TC. De Tomaso also owned the motorcycle company Moto Guzzi from 1973 to 1993. De Tomaso's first road-going production model was the Vallelunga (named after the racing circuit) introduced in 1963. This mid-engine sports car had a 104 hp (78 kW) 4 cylinder engine shared with the Ford Cortina, and was able to attain a top speed of 215 km/h (134 mph). It had a steel backbone chassis, which was to become a common feature of De Tomaso cars. The aluminium coupé body was designed and several built by Fissore. In 1965 was moved to Ghia where they were assembled with fiberglass bodies. A total of approximately 60 cars were produced. The Mangusta, introduced in 1966 was the first De Tomaso produced in significant numbers. De Tomaso moved from European to American Ford engines. The car had a 4.7-liter V8 engine and steel with aluminium bodywork from Ghia. About 400 Mangustas were built before production ended in 1971 The Mangusta was succeeded by the Pantera. It appeared in 1971 with a 351 Cleveland Ford V8 and a low, wedge-shaped body designed by Ghia's Tom Tjaarda. Through an agreement with Ford, De Tomaso sold Panteras in the USA through Ford's Lincoln and Mercury dealers. Between 1971 and 1973, 6,128 Panteras were produced in Modena. The 1971 Deauville was an effort to rival contemporary Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz saloons. With the same engine as the Pantera mounted in the front, the Deauville was clothed in an angular Tjaarda/Ghia four-door body. Unfortunately it was let down by it’s build quality. Despite remaining for sale until 1985, only 244 were ever made. A single example of a station car was built for Alejandro de Tomaso's wife, the American racing driver Isabelle Haskell In 1972 De Tomaso introduced a coupé based on the Deauville with a slightly shortened Deauville chassis and the same Ford V8 engine, called the Longchamp. Its body design, however, was substantially different, and was influenced by the Lancia Marica prototype, also designed by Tom Tjaarda. A total of 409 cars of all variations were built by the time the production ended in 1989. The 1973 oil crisis and other factors compelled Ford to pull out of the Pantera deal at the end of 1973, a few months after buying all of De Tomaso's shares and getting control of the entire production process in the three factories that shared the workload in northern Italy. But De Tomaso retained the right to produce the car for the "rest of the world" market, so he continued Pantera production at a greatly reduced scale of fewer than 100 cars per year during the 1970s and 1980s. From then on, the cars were largely hand-built, even more than before When Citroën decided that it would no longer support the loss-making Maserati company in 1976, De Tomaso took over Maserati with the assistance of the Italian government The first Maserati De Tomaso introduced, the Kyalami, was a redesigned Longchamp, with the Ford engine replaced by Maserati's own 4.2-litre V8. Pietro Frua was commissioned by De Tomaso to undertake the restyling of the Tom Tjaarda-designed Longchamp to give the new car a distinctive Maserati feel. The edgy lines of the Longchamp were softened, and the headlamps were replaced by quad-round units The Kyalami remained in production until 1983, when it was superseded by the Biturbo. In 1993, De Tomaso sold Maserati to Fiat S.p.A. due to slumping sales and low profitability. In 1993, de Tomaso suffered a stroke. He retired as head of De Tomaso Modena, succeeded by his son Santiago. EZ Power Steering was the first company to produce power steering kits for the DeTomaso Pantera. Not just nice to for ease of parking, it makes it possible to make the car more sporty, with many owners using wider/stickier tires, smaller steering wheels and more caster for straight line stability. We supply the kits for the early cars built before 1986 and the later cars from after 1986.