The ultimate italian coachbuilder site
The ultimate italian coachbuilder site
In 1971 at the Turin motor show, DeTomaso unveiled this prototype built by Ghia named 1600 Spider, powered by a Ford engine and completely similar to theFiat X1/9 designed by Bertone
Surely among those few who remember that episode, many think of a case of plagiarism. In reality, De Tomaso did not have any productive ambitions towards that 170 hp prototype, drawn in a hurry by the good Tom Tjaarda, at the request of Alexandro himself, after seeing some models that for years wandered between Fiat and Bertone. It is perhaps thanks to this hoax that the story of X1/9 began, probably to demonstrate that the small De Tomaso company could pull out models like Fiat in a few months and not in a few years amid a thousand hesitations. The fact is, that this setback to Fiat set in motion a mechanism that allowed Bertone to finalize and definitively present the X1/9 project. What would the project of this magnificent two-seater have been without this affront? Maybe he would forever be buried in the dust in some Bertone warehouse, but history gave birth to it and we all enjoy it.
The De Tomaso Vallelunga was presented as a concept car at the Turin Motor Show in 1964. De Tomaso initially intended to sell the Vallelunga project to some other car group, primarily Ford. However, no car manufacturer was interested in the purchase, so De Tomaso decided to build the car at its own expense. Production of the model was then assigned to Ghia. The design was instead the work of the Fissore bodywork.
