The De Tomaso P72 is an upcoming

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

manufactured by Italian automobile manufacturer

De Tomaso De Tomaso Automobili ltd. (previously known as De Tomaso Modena SpA) is an Italian car-manufacturing company. It was founded by the Argentine-born Alejandro de Tomaso (1928–2003) in Modena in 1959. It originally produced various prototypes an ...

. Based on the underpinnings of the

Apollo Intensa Emozione The Apollo Intensa Emozione, sometimes referred as the IE, is a mid-engine sports car manufactured by German automobile manufacturer Apollo Automobil GmbH, in partership with Manifattura Automobili Torino, designed by their chief designer Joe W ...

, the car is meant to be a homage to the De Tomaso P70 prototype racing car. De Tomaso has said that the car should be available by the end of 2022.

Development history

The De Tomaso brand was acquired by

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

–based IdealVentures in 2014, the same company who had acquired German automobile manufacturer Gumpert. Under the new management, work was started to revive the brand after a failed attempt in 2009. After an advertising campaign based on the company's history and some teaser videos of the new car in development under the code name "Project P", the company introduced the new sports car at the 2019

Goodwood Festival of Speed The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual motorsports festival featuring modern and historic motor racing vehicles taking part in a hill climb and other events, held in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England, in late June or ...

. The new car, called the P72 uses a

carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

chassis constructed to

LMP1 A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were crea ...

standards and is based on the

. Unlike the Intensa Emozione, the car is meant to be a

grand tourer A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving, due to a combination of performance and luxury attributes. The most common format is a Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, front-engine, rear-wh ...

Design

Exterior

Designed by Jowyn Wong of Wyn Design, the exterior design is based on the P70 racing car and the LeMans race cars of the 1970s and combines modern elements with the classic shape. The exterior also features a top mounted exhaust system.

Interior

The interior is upholstered in diamond stitched leather, and has opulent instrumentation featuring polished copper elements, along with an open linkage gearshift lever finished in copper of the

manual transmission A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission system, where gear change ...

installed in the car. The interior also has circular analogue and digital instrumentation design to recall the car interiors of the 1960s and 1970s.

Specifications

In October 2019, De Tomaso revealed that the P72 will be powered by a 5.0 litre supercharged Ford Coyote V8 engine featuring a Roots-type supercharger manufactured by American tuning company

Roush Performance Roush Performance is an American automotive company primarily involved in the engineering, development, and manufacturing of high-performance components for street and competitive racing applications. The company's namesake is automotive mogul ...

. The engine is a result of a technical collaboration between both companies. The engine is mated to a 6-speed manual transmission. Power output figures were not disclosed as the engine is still in development stage.

Production

72 units of the P72 are planned to be produced. This move was made to ensure the exclusivity of the car. The car will go under homologation but De Tomaso have assured that the car will remain the same as the pre-production model shown at Goodwood.

References

External links

{{De Tomaso De Tomaso vehicles Cars introduced in 2019 Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles Sports cars Coupés 2020s cars Retro-style automobiles