DeTomaso’s rare, forgotten Vallelunga was the Pantera’s rough draft — Petersen Automotive Museum
It was just about inevitable that the DeTomaso Vallelunga would be constructed in smaller figures, because it was a high priced and compromised device from an unidentified model. By the time the remaining Vallelunga was designed in 1965, just 50 experienced been made by Ghia along with a few aluminum-bodied protoypes and five alloy-bodied competitors automobiles.
Just just one of the Vallelungas created was appropriate-hand push and it was developed for Colonel Ronnie Hoare, Ferrari importer for the U.K. His strategy was to fit a 148-hp Lotus twin-cam motor to produce a genuine pocket-sized street rocket, but he found the Vallelunga simply just as well less than-formulated to be viable. He then sold the vehicle on in 1970, by which level DeTomaso was on the verge of unveiling his ideal-recognized automobile, the Pantera.
Unusual and obscure, Vallelungas are the most useful motor vehicles in the DeTomaso legacy. Though a museum-grade (#1 issue) Mangusta specced with the greater-output motor and built amongst 1967 and 1970 tops out at $325,000, a Vallelunga in these kinds of better-than-manufacturing facility problem is worth $390,000. For a driver-good quality example with a couple of scuffs and bruises, you are seeking at $245,000—more than $80K much more than the most worthwhile Pantera (a 1988 GT model in #1 ailment). The 1st of the DeTomaso road autos rarely ever pop up for sale, both.
Though imperfect at its debut, the Vallelunga recognized the method of mid-motor Ford electrical power less than placing Ghia overall body do the job that the later on Mangusta and Pantera would render in larger dimensions and production depend. Four many years soon after the roadster debuted at Turin, DeTomaso would bring in the eye of Lee Iacocca, then Ford’s govt vice president, and leverage its Lincoln-Mercury seller network for considerably less delicate, much more accessible choices. As a assertion of DeTomaso’s wild, original vision, having said that, the Vallelunga will generally stand apart.
