CarBrandLogos archive · De Tomaso · 1964
A backbone chassis and a Cortina engine: the blueprint for everything that followed.
Discover the storyPhoto: Rikita · CC BY-SA 3.0
The story
Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the De Tomaso Vallelunga, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.
01
Alejandro de Tomaso was an Argentine ex-racing driver running a small engineering shop in Modena, and the Vallelunga was his first attempt at a road car. He built it around a pressed-steel backbone chassis with the engine mounted behind the driver and bolted directly to the structure as a stressed member — a Lotus-influenced idea executed with racing-car logic.
De Tomaso Vallelunga c.1965 · Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England · CC BY 2.0
02
The engine was a 1,498 cc Ford four from the Cortina, which was cheap, light and easy to replace anywhere in the world, driving through a four- or five-speed transaxle. That pragmatic use of mass-produced American and British hardware in an Italian chassis became the De Tomaso method, and it ran through every car the firm made.
03
Franco Maina styled the body at Carrozzeria Fissore, and it is beautifully proportioned — small, low, delicate. It was also flawed: using the engine as a chassis member fed vibration straight into the car, and the structure was never quite stiff enough. Only 59 were built between 1964 and 1967, 58 of them coupés, before the Ghia-bodied Mangusta took the same principles and added a V8.
At a glance
Produced
1964–1967Engine
1498 cc Ford straight-4Designer
Franco MainaBody
CoupéTechnical specification
Badge at launch
This is the marque emblem that accompanied the Vallelunga's era. The full identity timeline is documented in the brand archive.
Explore the logo history →Lineage
Contemporaries from the 1960s
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