De Tomaso Vallelunga

Wasn't one of the most significant features of these that engine and gearbox were a load-bearing part of the chassis, and the suspension bolted to the box?

Beautiful little machine!

Best,

Jack.

 

I believe that's so and I think it also has the center structural tunnel. Both of these ideas were seen again in the Early 1990s Maerati Barchetta. Another uber lightweight car this time with a 300HP V6 twin turbo as used in the later Maserati racing and Ghibli II. That Barchetta is not a cheap car to buy. The fuel cell is in that tunnel and a SOB to service. There is one of them here in PA. Then there's the Guara.
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Yes, DeTomaso developed the spine design chassis for this little road monster. It was powered by a Cortina engine (1.5L IIRC) and mated to a VW Beetle gearbox fitted with Hewland gears. 52 (or 58) cars built some in alum some in fiberglass. They were crude and fast little race cars. (110hp in 750kg body) Just like it's successors ( Sport 5000, Mangusta) it's center tunnel had the front suspension and steering on one and and the motor an the other, the rear suspension was attached to the motor/transaxle assembly
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I think only the prototype was in aluminum. The rest were fiberglass. The body was manufactured by Ghia but designed by Fissore. Sort of has a Porsche 718 profile to it, the 1962/3 Porsche works prototype wich sort of has Porsche 356 Abarth DNA in my opinion, so it comes back full circle to the Italians.

Tom Tanner/Ferrari Expo 2014-Chicago March 2014

 

I believe there were three aluminium bodied cars built but correctly, all the rest were glass.

 

Two Vallelungas were at Concorso in 2011 and 2012. A red one and a light blue one.

Flickr: johnei's stuff tagged with vallelunga

 

Does anyone know of or have pictures of the rear prop rod assembly? I have gathered quite a few pictures of many of the known but unable to find this. I'm restoring one and there was indication of a rubber hold down (have pieces). A prior accident repair has eliminated other indicators. Thanks in advance.

 

Do you mean the prop rod for the rear window, as shown in the first picture in post #25 above? If so, this rod is shown in a couple of pictures in the Auto Italia article. It looks much too long to be stored on the car when not in use! It appears to sit in a simple "shoe" on each end. The pictures don't show much detail, I can scan them for you if you think it might help.

Tell us about your car!

 

Here is a better shot:
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Yes it is the rear rod. Thank you for the picture. That is the best view so far.

As far as our project, it was severely damaged when new. It was pieced back together overlayed from the outside. The vehicle is being dissected down to preform proper repair. At the same time we are finding out exactly how the body was assembled and debunking some myths. The body has been carefully sanded down to factory gel coat to reveal repairs and factory seams. The outside repairs are left while working from backside then removed and properly replaced.

Truly, thanks for the time with that picture. I'm sure we will have more scratch out head moments as this progresses.

John

 

L.A. Auto Show, 1967
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Thanks Ed, nice picture......I lightened it up a little for you so we can see it a little better.
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Nice to see a period shot!. Thanks also for the enhancement. Almost wondering if a thread with all our info and others should be started for reference. This would include the restoration. Or just leave it all here?
Looks like a 750 or 1500 sport in the background? They had same wheels.

 

Awesome pic Ed!

The car in the background is the Sport 2000.

 

So is that one of the Fantuzzi cars? Interesting.

 

The Sport 1000 was done at Fantuzzi and it ended up with a BRM engine, 998cc, it produced 128hp @ 9750 rpm.

The Sport 2000 was done by Ghia, designed by Giugiaro, it ended up with the production 1500 engine with 105hp.

 

Same as Vallelunga on the 2000. Thank you. Love the history. It was said some of the 1500's were tuned to 130hp.

 

Guys are cranking those things closer to 175 these days, cool!

 

Hmmm. That's mostly internal. Wouldn't deduct at a concours but much more fun on the street.

 

This car just arrived last night:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdx4PVZ3Gig]The Vallelunga in the barn -- De Tomaso Vallelunga DT 0148 - YouTube[/ame]

We were on a trip to Italy and stopped to pick up some parts in a small town.....the gentleman asked what else we were doing in the country. I told him we were going to see Santiago DeTomaso on the trip ad he asked about Vallelunga's. Next thing you know we were looking at a car that had been in this town of 2,000 since new and only been in the current owners hands recently.

It took 6 months of negotiating but the car just got home, I'm pretty happy and have already started the list of bits the car needs.

 

I've seen the video. You acquired that one? Spectacular! I sincerely think it would be great to put all owners and people of knowledge together on this great car. The restoration would not be possible here if we did not have two.

 

I have a compilation of information back to 98. This includes documentation from Mazda Dpeed in which the designers of the MX5 and MX3 both had Vallelungas which confirmed inspiration.

 

Information is scarce on the cars and they are tough to get great good information on. Many reports of competition cars and the like were claimed many years ago. I'd like to see supporting
factory documentation or something to bolster the stories.

We are big fans of the DeTomaso marque and especially the diminutive Vallelunga. There are now four Vallelungas in the collection, pretty much one of each of the variants.

If you squint they look like a 250LM in my books.

 

I like this
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Congrats Fred, that's perfect for your collection!