Industry news

De Tomaso Has Returned With The P72 Supercar

Attention ladies and gentleman. One of the most legendary Italian sports car makers is back and celebrating their 60th birthday in style by showing us exactly what they’re here to do. De Tomaso is here to blow our minds with curvaceous styling and racing car derived technology – yep, they’ve come a long way since the Pantera.

This car is is named the P72, and is soaked in style from head to toe, and this isn’t a shock as the company was revived by the same company that built the Apollo Intensa Emozione. That’s Italian for ‘intense emotion’, and that certainly comes across in this design, too. Them main man behind the project however, was Norman Choi, a businessman from China who has been De Tomaso’s chairman since 2014.

Anyway, enough of the names, more about the car. The aesthetics echoes classic car design from the 60s era of motorsport. The curves and low slung cockpit but high hips looks like they’ve come straight from the Ferrari P3/4, and the front takes inspiration from the Jaguar XJ220.

Of course, they’ll tell you that inspiration comes from De Tomaso’s back catalogue of race cars, but there’s no denying that it’s pulling the best bits from some of the most successful cars out there. Look at the interior for example, and all that’s missing the the Huayra badge from Pagani’s most beautiful car.

The metals are polished copper, and yes, that’s an exposed gear linkage. I’ve gone all weak at the knees.

Delving deeper into the car and things get a bit more serious. The chassis is built around a carbonfibre cell, the carbon mounts for the suspension and carbon crash shell structures both front and rear. De Tomaso is keen to add that just like the Apollo, its chassis is  FIA LMP motorsport rated – no half measures here.

Specs on the powertrain are at the moment being withheld, with us only having confirmation that the car is mid-engined. We can guess, though, that it will continue the De Tomaso style of embracing high-powered V8s, although a hybrid powertrain is possibly on the menu.

Watch out for the P72 this weekend at Goodwood Festival of Speed, and if you’re there, they’ll be more than happy to take a deposit on the expected final price of almost £700,000. That’s a big number, but worse looking art has been sold for more.

Alex Harrington

Alex started racing at a young age so certainly knows his way around a car and a track. He can just about put a sentence together too, which helps. He has a great interest in the latest models, but would throw all of his money at a rusty old French classic and a 300ZX. Contact: [email protected]

Related Articles

Back to top button