De Tomaso Car perators Manuals and Spare Parts Catalogs PDF

 The Milan-based Italian company De Tomaso is known for its sports cars.

It was founded by Alejandro de Tomaso, a racer from Argentina in 1958. In the same year, the company's first car saw the light of day. A year later, de Tomaso, in partnership with his second wife, racing driver Isabelle Haeckel, moved the company's headquarters to Modena, where by that time such well-known companies as Ferrari and Maserati had already settled. De Tomaso himself never really tried to compete with them, focusing on competing with such small companies as Lotus, Cooper and Lola.

The first car of De Tomaso Automobili was a car created to participate in Formula Junior racing in 1959. In the same year, a car was released to participate in Formula 2 racing. The company began production of serial sports cars only in 1965.

From 1965 to 1975, De Tomaso collaborated quite seriously with the American automaker Ford. Around the same time, Innocenti and Maserati joined the company, the latter being a subsidiary of the former.

In 1969, Alejandro de Tomaso commissioned Gianpaolo Dallara to design and build a sports car for the then famous racer Frank Williams. The car was supposed to take part in Formula 2 racing competitions. Somewhat later, “De Tomaso” opened in its work the direction of production of exotic cars of an original design, intended for driving on public roads. Such cars were equipped with Ford engines.

From this moment on, de Tomaso enters into competition with Enzo Ferrari himself. For this purpose, he makes every effort to lure the best employees of the famous Italian to himself. So in 1968, Jean Paolo Dallara moved to the company from Lamborghini. At the same time, De Tomaso Modena S. p. A. Acquires the Ghia company along with its head designer, Tom Jaard.

In 1974, the company, based on the experience of successful cooperation with Ford on the development of engines, De Tomaso Automobili created, together with the American concern, an enterprise to produce the Pantera car. This model was produced in various modifications until 1990.

DeTomaso Pantera created the overall concept of the company's cars. So, based on the vision of its design, the four-door sedan “Deauville” as well as the two-door “Longchamp” were developed. Both cars were designed by Tom Jaarda, who retained the traditional trapezoidal grille in the style of DeTomaso's classic Mangusta.

“Pantera” is still the most popular car of the company; it is today the “face” of the company and is actively purchased by its fans. These are mainly collectors of vintage cars, since the Panther was discontinued in 1996. Then, under the De Tomaso Mangusta brand, they produced a sports coupe that was basic for MG Rover.

Unfortunately, in the 2000s, Alejandro de Tomaso, the founder of the company, suffered a stroke and as a result of many legal disputes, one of the company’s partners, Bruce Cavali, received the rights to the brand. Since then, the DeTomaso Automobili trademark has not been used in its original sense.