De Tomaso P72

Several years ago, an Italian entrepreneurial group tried to revive the legendary Italian car brand De Tomaso, which is asleep since 1993. The SUV Deauville, which was presented at the Geneva Motor Show, never went into production. Instead, the new company went bankrupt. Now, just in time for the 60th anniversary of the brand, another revival attempt is taking place, which is clearly better positioned right from the start. Together with Wyn Design, the team behind the new Apollo IE (Intensa Emozioni) set about creating a truly breathtaking sports car with the model code P72. From the beginning, the basis was the carbon monocoque of the Apollo IE, but with an own upper structure, which is why the doors and the windscreen are totally different.

The name P72 refers to a project in which company founder Alejandro De Tomaso worked together with Carroll Shelby in the early 1960s. The P70 should be a racecar for the prototype category in endurance racing. The P stood for Prototipo and the 70 for the huge displacement of seven liters. Planned was a bored and further modified Ford engine, which in the normal production cars of the American manufacturer came with ‘only’ 4.7 liters of displacement. Peter Brock was hired for the design of the body and chassis. He was already known for his designs of the Chevrolet Corvette C2 Stingray and the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé. However, there soon was some trouble between Shelby and De Tomaso, leading to Shelby leaving the company and De Tomaso putting the project on halt. Alejandro then cooperated with Italian coachbuilder Ghia, one of the companies that he later bought, to complete the prototype. It now was called the Ghia-De Tomaso Sport 5000 and first shown to the public at the Turin Motor Show in 1965.

So 54 years later, the new De Tomaso P72 debuts at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and is also allowed to drive up the mountain on the famous hillclimb circuit. Zyn Design has clearly succeeded in transferring classical shapes of the 1960s to the present day. Soft curves make for an exceptional sports car body in comparison to many competitors today. In contrast to the historical model P70, the new P72 will actually go into production. However, it is an extremely limited production run with only 72 copies worldwide. For the technical data De Tomaso would like to announce more in the coming months. Orders and deposits can already be made. The base price is reportedly around 750,000 € (about 845,900 US$). For Western Europe, Louwman Exclusive in the Netherlands took over distribution and sales.

Images: De Tomaso