Coys Auction - Automoto D‘Epoca
Padova Fiera
Padova, Italy

Italy

Saturday 25th October 2008

Admission by catalogue only - admits two.

Former racing driver Alejandro de Tomaso has owned some of the most famous names in Italian engineering including Maserati, Innocenti, Benelli, Moto Guzzi, Vignale and Ghia. Cars under his own name raced in Formula One in the early 1960s and he showed a number of prototype road cars before putting one, the Vallelunga, into limited production in 1965.
De Tomaso hoped that the Vallelunga would be taken over by a major manufacturer, but when that did not happen he re-engineered the chassis, and dropped in a 4.7 litre Ford V8 which delivered its 306bhp and 392lb/ft through a ZF five-speed gearbox. Meanwhile Giotto Bizzarrini had designed a mid-engined car for which Giugiaro had created a body, this project was stillborn but de Tomaso took over the body shape and so created the Mangusta, which is Ital