The origin of the De Tomaso Mangusta
In 1964, Shelby funded a race car, called P-70, to be built by De Tomaso for the 1st 1966 Can-Am. Alejandro de Tomaso was supposed to develop it with a collaborative team sent by Shelby, and build 5 cars but couldn’t make it by the deadline. Carroll Shelby signed a contract with Ford to develop GT-40 for Le Mans and eventually cancelled the contract with De Tomaso in late 1965 which offended De Tomaso, but didn’t prevent him from finishing his car together with the designer Pete Brock who was sent by Shelby but didn’t leave the project. Alejandro had Ghia build a body for his single race car and had it displaced at the Turin Motor Show in November 1965 under the name Ghia De Tomaso Sport 5000.
Later he started to develop a road car based on P-70 to replace the faulty model Vallelunga and to compete with Shelby Cobra. Still annoyed with Shelby, he named the car after an animal that kills cobras, Mangusta, which is the Italian for mongoose. The body was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and built by Ghia. The De Tomaso Mangusta was unveiled at the Turin Motor Show in November 1966 and targeted not just the European market, but mainly the U.S. At the time, Ford was also looking for a less expensive high-performance alternative for the road version of GT-40 MK3 to be sold in Europe. In 1968 a De Tomaso Mangusta was sent to Ford headquarters in Dearborn, badged as Shelby MkV, which was admired by them and Ford decided to fund a prototype which was later produced by the name Pantera.
Tecnical specifications
The De Tomaso Mangusta was built on a tubular chassis with a mid-engine layout, featuring an all independent suspension with wishbone and coil springs equipped with anti-roll bar in the front & rear. It was powered by 2 Ford V8 engine types, both naturally aspirated using 2 overhead valves/cyl. The more powerful Ford-289 used for the Europe version, which was also used in 1966 Shelby GT-350, could produce 306hp while the Ford-302 American version could produce only 220hp. Using a 5-speed ZF gearbox, it was delivered to rear wheels which, for the first time in a production car, had different size from the front wheels. So could it kill the Cobra?
With an Italian design, gullwing hood, aerodynamic and stylish body, 4 disk brakes & much sportier look, Mangusta was also expected to have a great performance esp. due to the superb suspension & mid-engine layout, but it proved to be underdeveloped. With a weight distribution ratio of 32/68, the light front faced lifting in cornering causing under-steering. On the other hand, the chassis frame didn’t seem so firm and tended to bend sometimes causing over-steering. Briefly, it was unpredictable and unstable and hard to control. With around 500kg more weight and a less powerful engine it was not faster than Cobra either, so the mongoose was beaten by the cobra. Not so successful, totally 401 units were built, around 150 for Europe and 250 for the U.S market plus a special one with a Corvette engine for Bill Mitchell, General Motors Vice President. 50 units built as 1970 U.S models featured 2 pop-up headlights.
