Plans to revive the De Tomaso sportscar brand have been revealed.
Italian businessman Gian Mario Rossignolo - a former Fiat executive - bought the De Tomaso name last month, and has now announced plans to build 8000 De Tomaso cars a year in a former Pininfarina factory near Turin.
Rossignolo, 79, says his company now plans to produce a three-model range of aluminum vehicles using the innovative Univis spaceframe construction technique. These will be an SUV, a luxury saloon and a coupe.
Although no details of which car will be built first have been revealed, Rossignolo has said the first will be shown at the Geneva motor show in 2011.
The De Tomaso sports car company was founded in 1959 in Modena, northern Italy, by former Argentinean racing driver Alejandro De Tomaso. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2004, a year after De Tomaso's death.
De Tomaso became an iconic brand for sports car fans in the 1960s and 1970s with three coupes - the 1963 Vallelunga, the 1966 Mangusta and the 1970 Pantera.
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Re: De Tomaso brand revived
Re: De Tomaso brand revived
Rossignolo, which is well known in his country, was trying to buy Bertone. He says he has some patents regarding aluminium space-frame technique, and this should allow him to build state-of-the-art cars with a fraction of the investments usually needed.
So he was trying to secure a brand for his products. The cheapest available was De Tomaso, probably worth close to zero. De Tomaso is still popular because of the PAntera and the Mangusta.
Honestly, I wouldn't bet a penny on Rossignolo right now. There's overcapacity in that sector, and I suspect his efforts are simply hopeless.
Re: De Tomaso brand revived
Elvis apparently shot his DeTomaso - but the corpse keeps twitching.