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De Tomaso Reviews

De Tomaso

De Tomaso, the car company, built its first car in 1967. It was the creation of Argentinean Former racing driver Alejandro de Tomaso, who moved to Italy in the late-1950s and started to build racing cars. The Vallelunga was its first car, but the Mangusta put the company on the map. Like most subsequent models this was powered by a Ford V8 engine. The company’s staple product, the Pantera, followed in 1970, and was soon joined by the Deauville and Longchamps.

In the '70s De Tomaso acquired Maserati and Innocenti, which ended selling the Mini across Europe, though the former was sold off in 1993. Production in fits and starts since, including V8-powered Guarà and Bigua, and briefly relaunched in 2011 with a luxury saloon/crossover. It also failed.

Mangusta (1967 - 1971)

Good: Extremely fast, fragile, lairy, scary and amazing - and we love that engine cover

Bad: Priced beyond reason these days, but a mid-engined pioneer

Deauville (1970 - 1989)

Good: Good-looking, useful four-door, with bags of performance and supercar kudos

Bad: Fragile, prone to corrosion, and clearly a Jaguar XJ6 pastiche

Pantera (1971 - 1985)

Good: Supercar looks and soundtrack, effortless performance, the potential to clear the outside lane of the motorway at a whim

Bad: Build quality is laughable, reliability even worse, and then there's the rust

Longchamp (1972 - 1989)

Good: Understated good looks of the earlier versions, plenty of performance from the Ford V8 engine

Bad: Lacking the finesse and subtlety of something like a Ferrari 400, altogether more appealing in Maserati guise

Pantera GT4, GT5 and GT5S (1984 - 1991)

Good: Looks like a proper supercar, with Countach-baiting attitude, good value compared with the thoroughbreds

Bad: Not fast or well-handling enough to cut it against the best 1980s supercar opposition