1963 DeTomaso Vallelunga pictures and wallpaper

1963 DeTomaso Vallelunga news, pictures, and information

Rolled out in 1964, Vallelunga was the product of the experience due to races. Its central backbone chassis is the main element. The first spider, a sort of barchetta, appeared on De Tomaso stand at Turin Motorshow in 1963. Alejandro De Tomaso originally planned to build the car in aluminium, so the first three were built like that by Fissore. But then he yanked the contract away from them, awarding it to Ghia Carrozzeria in Turin, a very important name in De Tomaso history.

A change of strategy occurred, and in particular there was a switch from body materials to fiberglass, and a switch in styling in order to have only a glass hatchback provide access to the engine access. The engine, the same used in Ford Cortina, was a 1500 cc Ford - 104 hp -, that could be tuned to produce as much as 135 hp. The VW gearbox, modified in five-speed version at De Tomaso, and the brakes by Campagnolo made Vallelunga definitely aggressive. Because of the slow start-up in production, the car was never manufactured in sufficient numbers in one year (minimum 50 vehicles) to be homologated as a production car by the FIA.

The attendances of De Tomaso cars in competitions were occasional and results were sometimes hardly decipherable.
Together with the technical aspect (central backbone chassis was revolutionary itself), Vallelunga proposed a rare grace and beauty design. Looking back, this vehicle makes more sense today than it did at that time. 56 vehicles of one of the most beautiful cars of those years have been produced, thus starting an industrial production followed by Mangusta.

Source - DeTomaso Moden S.p.A.

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