1965 DeTomaso Sport 5000

Company founder Alejandro de Tomaso was born into a wealthy and politically active Argentinian family, and was forced to flee to Italy in 1955 after being implicated in a plot to overthrow then-President Juan Perón. Once there, his passion for amateur racing was fostered by the numerous events throughout the continent. His racing career would encompass two World Championship Grands Prix, four participations in the Sebring 12 Hours and a class win (11th place overall) in the 1958 Le Mans 24 Hours.

de Tomaso married American heiress Isabelle Haskell in 1957 which further added to his financial credibility and automotive prowess, as she was the granddaughter of William C. Durant, one of the founders of General Motors. Settling in Modena, de Tomaso commenced production of a variety of moderately successful Formula Junior chassis, along with several uncompetitive Formula One and Two designs. In the early 1960s, he began road car production.

DeTomaso Vallelunga
The first De Tomaso road car was named the Vallelunga after the Roman motor racing circuit. It used a well-proven Chapman-Esque short-wheelbase pressed steel backbone chassis with a tubular rear sub-frame, with its engine acting as a stressed member. The two-seater coupe was powered by a 1.5-liter Ford Cortina four-cylinder engine that was robust and immensely tunable. Fitted with Weber carburetors, it was paired with a Hewland transaxle and sent power to the rear wheels. DeTomaso's experience in racing was reflected in many aspects of the vehicle, including its running gear, which utilized an all-independent suspension by wishbones and coil springs, rack-and-pinion steering, and four-wheel disc brakes. The glass-fiber coupe bodywork was styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro and used a glass hatch for access to the engine bay.

Alejandro de Tomaso the Vallelunga would catch the attention of a major automobile manufacturer who would buy into the program and adopt the project as its own, but when no one came forward, he decided to produce it himself. Although the project was not a commercial success, it gave him the motivation to embark upon his most ambitious project to date - the P70 Spyder.

DeTomaso P70 Spyder
The P70 Spyder was aimed at the North American Can-Am series and long-distance European racing events. It was a collaboration between De Tomaso, Carroll Shelby, and former Daytona Cobra Coupe designer Pete Brock, and many of its design and mechanical features were sourced from the Vallelunga. It used a steel backbone chassis and a stressed engine - a Shelby-sourced 289 cubic-inch Ford engine paired with a five-speed Colotti transaxle. The styling was penned by Mr. Brock and made into reality by Modenese master craftsman Medardo Fantuzzi. Only minor deviations were made by Mr. Fantuzzi from the original design, including the rear wing which was intended to be controlled remotely by the driver.

The goal was to build an initial batch of ten cars, followed by an additional forty units to satisfy homologation requirements. Ultimately, only one example was created, as the project began to fall apart after Shelby abandoned the project to focus on the GT40 program. de Tomaso subsequently formed an alliance with Carrozzeria Ghia to progress the car to completion.

Upon completion, the P70 (displayed as the Ghia de Tomaso) was displayed in November of 1965 at the Turin Motor Show. It was enthusiastically received at the show and helped garner attention for de Tomaso's new roadcar, the Mangusta, meaning mongoose in Italian. It is no coincidence that the mongoose is one of the few natural threats to cobras in the natural world, signaling de Tomaso's desire to best Shelby.

After its show duties were completed, the P70 concept was put into storage at the de Tomaso factory in Modena.

DeTomaso Sport 5000 Spyder
With the P70 project complete, de Tomaso began construction of another car, the Sport 5000 Spyder. It was built around a very similar chassis design as the P70 with similar bodywork and intended to contest select international events during the 1966 season. It had a taller windscreen with a wiper, more conventional doors, a dash-mounted mirror, a mirror on the driver's side fender, and open rear fenders.

The team intended to race the Sport 5000 Spyder at both the Sebring 12 Hours and Le Mans 24 Hours in 1966 (with Pierre Noblet and Umberto Maglioli as nominated drivers), but it did not participate in either event. Its racing debut was on July 17th of 1966 at the Mugello 500 KM where it was driven by Roberto Bussinello. On the first of eight scheduled 66.2-kilometer laps, the car suffered a mechanical failure and was forced to retire. This would be the car's one and only racing outing.

After the race, the car returned to De Tomaso's Modena works and was put into storage. It would remain there for nearly four decades until Alejandro de Tomaso's death in 2003, aged 74. A Belgian collector acquired the car from his estate in 2005, and it subsequently passed into US-based ownership.

by Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2022