To Be OFFERED AT AUCTION WITHOUT RESERVE at RM Sothebys' Monterey event, 15 - 16 August 2025.

• Fascinating one-off competition prototype developed by racing luminaries Carroll Shelby, Alejandro de Tomaso, Peter Brock, and Medardo Fantuzzi
• Exhibited by De Tomaso at the 1965 Turin Motor Show
• Resurrected in 2004 from nearly 40 years of storage within the De Tomaso factory
• Gradually restored from 2004 to 2016; currently equipped with small-block Ford engine fitted with rare Gurney Weslake aluminum heads
• Awarded at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering

With an all-star development team of Alejandro de Tomaso, Carroll Shelby, Peter Brock, and Medardo Fantuzzi, the De Tomaso P70 was poised to be a show-stopping race winner before the winds of fate rendered it a fascinating case of what might have been.

Heading into the 1965 season, Carroll Shelby was in search of a replacement for his Cooper-Monaco-based King Cobra. Hoping to best Bruce McLaren’s Chevolet-powered cars in the newly thriving USRRC series, and the forthcoming Can Am, Shelby envisioned a rear-engine open prototype with a 7-liter engine. Ford declined to provide him a lightweight alloy version of their 7-liter NASCAR engine, so Shelby turned to de Tomaso for a solution, and the Argentine speed wizard proposed boring a Ford 289 engine to a 7-liter displacement.

Peter Brock, the onetime GM Design intern who penned the original sketches for the Stingray Corvette, and later became the Shelby-American employee responsible for the Daytona Coupe’s winning coachwork, was assigned by Shelby to formulate a new body for the proposed car. Brock had long championed the concept of the adjustable rear airfoil, and he soon penned a slippery rear-winged open racer based on his earlier design for the Lang-Cooper Special.

A chassis was built by De Tomaso using the company’s revolutionary central-spine architecture. First engineered for the Vallelunga model, this novel design incorporated the engine and transaxle into a load-sharing arrangement, not altogether unlike the McLaren F1 that appeared decades later. Initially fitted with a standard 289-cubic-inch Ford engine with a custom De Tomaso intake manifold, the chassis was dispatched to Fantuzzi’s shop for coachwork, where Brock worked side by side with Modena’s brilliant craftsmen.

As the P70 was intended for Can Am’s relaxed regulations, and not the more stringent European Group 7 rules, Brock was able to implement a number of revolutionary design elements. In addition to features like covered headlamps and covered rear wheels, the coachwork featured an impossibly low body-integrated windscreen, and an adjustable rear airfoil that provided considerable downforce at speed.

Unfortunately, when De Tomaso’s progress on the 7-liter engine fell behind Shelby’s projected schedule, the American cancelled the project. Without a 7-liter engine the P70 would not be competitive in Can Am, and the build specs were purposely formulated without respect to Group 7 regulations, rendering the car unusable in European racing. Shelby’s impending contract with Ford to assume control of the GT40 program surely also influenced his decision.

Alejandro de Tomaso, no less shrewd an operator than Shelby, quickly repositioned the project and completed the car. De Tomaso had recently acquired Ghia to support his next model, the Mangusta, and the P70 was therefore rebadged as the Ghia De Tomaso Sport 5000 when it was presented at the 1965 Turin Motor Show.

Following the Turin appearance, the P70 was essentially mothballed, and it remained stored in a disassembled state for many years in the corner of the De Tomaso factory. In 2004 the car was discovered by Philippe Olczyk, a De Tomaso enthusiast and researcher who pined to steward its return to glory. The surviving components included the chassis, rear clamshell bodywork, and cockpit with seats and dash panel.

A sale was soon arranged to a committed collector in Belgium, and the P70 was entrusted to various concerns in Modena, initially with the purpose of assembling a complete car. In addition to rebuilding the chassis with new suspension and brake parts as needed, the project included the fabrication of a new front body section and new cast aluminum wheels in the original style. For power, the car was fitted with a Ford small-block engine capped with Gurney Weslake aluminum heads like the ones used on the Le Mans-winning John Wyer GT40s.

After initially being displayed in an unpolished state at the 2005 The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, the P70 was sold in April 2013 to its current owner, who embarked a more comprehensive restoration. The De Tomaso was then exhibited at a Pete Brock tribute at the Quail in 2013, winning the Motor Trend Editor’s Choice Award, and again at the Quail three years later, winning the Best Postwar Racing Car. The car was also shown at the 2016 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.

Optimally suited to Shelby and De Tomaso enthusiasts, this hyper-rare and fascinating competition/show car is a unique product of one of motorsports’ most unlikely collaborations, sure to fascinate sports car racing enthusiasts far and wide. To view this car and others currently consigned to this auction, please visit the RM website at rmsothebys.com/auctions/mo25/.