De Tomaso P72: Rare American powered Italian Hypercar

Intaz Saikia
0 0
Spread the love
Read Time:5 Minute, 30 Second

De Tomaso P72 is an ultra-rare Italian Hypercar that is American Powered.

 

 

The De Tomaso P72 is a limited edition supercar from a historic Italian performance brand created by the same people who created the fire breathing GT1 inspired V12 hypercar the Apollo IE.

 

 

  • Design inspired by the De Tomaso P70.
  • Super exclusive and only 72 units will be ever made.
  • Powered by a Roush Tuned Ford supercharged V8 engine and gets a proper manual gearbox.
  • Built by the same team that created the Apollo IE and also built on the same carbon chassis that the Apollo IE uses.
  • Prices start at $850,000

 

 

Overview and History

 

De Tomaso Automobili, the Italian high-performance car brand is back into the business with the super gorgeous De Tomaso P72 Hypercar which they unveiled in the 2019 Goodwood Festival Of Speed. Its undoubtedly the most beautiful modern car that has been made in recent years. But before we talk about this automotive art we have to go back to history to know how the P72 came into life.

The story begins with the De Tomaso P70, a project that was done 50 years ago. By the end of 1964, Carroll Shelby had to come up with something new to prepare for the soon to arrive Can-Am era of international racing. Shelby Cobras were not making enough fuss. In Italy, company founder Alejandro de Tomaso was working on his first road car, the Vallelunga, perfecting his new transaxle chassis, and a 7-liter V8 engine for racing. When he got to know that Shelby has enough cash a deal was made to work on the P70 to bring it into life before the deadline.

 

De Tomaso P70 Sketch
De Tomaso P70 Sketch | Peter Brock, De Tomaso Automobili

 

The plan was that Alejandro would engineer the car with a race-tuned 4.7-liter Ford V8 engine, Carroll Shelby will provide the budget, and Peter Brock work on the design aspects and this is where tension arose. In case if you don’t know about Peter Brock, he designed some of the very important cars in past like the Shelby Daytona Coupe and Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.  Shelby had also bought an SCCA-approved design from Peter Brock and send him to Italy to make sure that Alejandro De Tomaso stayed true to the original design. This really offended him and also he was behind schedule to deliver five cars for the race with his brand new engines.

The P70 project eventually came into an end and Shelby started working on the Ford GT40 project. However, Alejandro was not willing to give up and having purchased the coachbuilder Ghia teamed up with them to finish the car. Renamed it to “Ghia-De Tomaso Sport 5000,” the car was displayed to the public in the 1965 Turin Motor Show. 

But De Tomaso went out of business later and back in 2014 it was purchased by Norman Choi, CEO of Apollo Automobile based in Hong Kong. This is the same brand that’s responsible for making a race car that’s road legal with a LeMans race spec carbon fiber monocoque chassis and its none other than the ridiculously cool-looking Apollo Intensa Emozione or “The Apollo IE“. 

 

Design

The new De Tomaso P72 unveiled at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed is the spiritual successor of the P70 in many aspects. 

 

De Tomaso P72 Sketch
De Tomaso P72 Sketch | Jowyn Wong,De Tomaso Automobili

 

All the credit goes to the team that built the Apollo IE as mentioned above. The man behind the design of P72 is Jowyn Wong who also designed the Apollo IE. And with the P72 he really do beat Italians in their own game.

 

 

The exterior clearly resembles many design cues from the P70 with all the curves and the retro design, this surely does take us back in time. With all the cooper accents from wheels to the big exhaust and to the interior its such a beautiful car. And if that was not enough than the interior will do the justice by usage of analog gauges just like fine swiss watch, the finest leather and an open-linkage gearshift like a Pagani does. And with that its clear it costs $850,000(plus tax). With less usage of interior screens like any other modern hypercar do and going for old-school style gauges and interior this make the P72 a car with timeless design and in future, its price may go up 3 to 4 times what it costs now. 

 

Engine and Chassis

 

The P72 is powered by a rear mid-mounted Roush tuned 5-liter supercharged V8 engine that produces 700 BHP and 680 lb-ft of torque or 922NM. The engine and the supercharger is in a way that it sounds like a naturally aspirated motor and the top-mounted large copper exhaust does the justice how it sounds. All the power goes to the rear wheels via a 6-speed manual transmission.

With the use of a Ford supplied engine, it also makes the car reliable in terms of engine maintenance and parts availability for the future.

As mentioned above it is built around the LeMans spec chassis and also shares the suspension components with the Apollo IE. So it gets all the hypercar performance package. 

 

Only 72 units of the De Tomaso P72 are produced and each cost around $850,000 and it seems quite a bargain in a world full of hypercars from manufacturers like Koenigsegg, McLaren, Pagani and also recently launched Gordon Murray T.70. Its also a special car as it brings the Iconic De Tomaso brand back into the business. Sources say that they will come up with luxury SUV and other new models too.

Any thoughts on the P72, drop in the comments section below.

 

Follow MotoTales NE on FacebookTwitter and Instagram for the latest updates on the automotive world.

 

Copyright (C) MotoTales NE. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

About Post Author

Intaz Saikia

An Electronics Engineering graduate and with a passion for Automobiles a full-time Automotive Blogger.
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %

Average Rating

5 Star
0%
4 Star
0%
3 Star
0%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Next Post

2021 BMW M 1000 RR is the First M motorcycle

Spread the love Post Views: 787 2021 BMW M 1000 RR is the first-ever M Motorcycle from BMW Motorrad.   2021 BMW M 1000 RR is the first-ever motorcycle roll-out of the M-performance division with a whopping 212 HP engine.   First-Ever BMW motorcycle from M-division. Features a modified 999cc […]
2021 BMW M 1000 rr