The De Tomaso Vallelunga is a

mid-engine In automotive engineering, a mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the rear-wheel axles, but behind the front axle. History The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive format can be considered the original layout of ...

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 ...

produced from 1964 until 1967. It was the first road going automobile manufactured by the company.

History

The

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is generally used to ...

has a

backbone chassis Backbone tube chassis is a type of automobile construction chassis that is similar to the body-on-frame design. Instead of a two-dimensional ladder-type structure, it consists of a strong tubular backbone (usually rectangular in cross section) ...

with stressed member engine and formula car suspension in a

barchetta Barchetta () is an Italian word commonly translated into English as "little boat". The term originally referred to a small skiff used for recreational purposes. It is also applied to some items of clothing, as well as being used in automobile styli ...

body constructed in Modena. Named the Vallelunga 1500 after the Autodromo di Vallelunga racing circuit, it was shown by

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 ...

at the

Turin Auto Show The Turin Motor Show ( it, Salone dell'Automobile di Torino) was an auto show held annually in Turin, Italy. The first official show took place between 21 and 24 April 1900, at the Castle of Valentino, becoming a permanent fixture in Turin from ...

in 1963 and subsequently raced. Advertised in a prospectus as a Spider with weather equipment,

Alejandro de Tomaso Alejandro de Tomaso (10 July 1928 in Buenos Aires – 21 May 2003 in Modena, Italy) was a racing driver and businessman from Argentina. His name is sometimes seen in an Italianised form as ''Alessandro de Tomaso''. He participated in two Formula O ...

hoped to sell the concept to another company, but when there were no takers he commissioned

Carrozzeria Fissore Carrozzeria Fissore was an Italian coachbuilder located in Savigliano, near Turin (Piedmont). History The firm was founded in by the brothers Antonio, Bernardo, Giovanni, and Costanzo Fissore. Originally they built horsecarts and only later ...

to build a new aluminum body on his

rolling chassis A rolling chassis is the chassis without bodywork of a motor vehicle ( car, truck, bus, or other vehicle), assembled with suspension and wheels. Heavy vehicles Separate chassis remain in use for almost all heavy vehicles ranging from pickup ...

. Fissore presented the resulting

coupé A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...

styled by its young design chief Franco Maina at the Turin show in November 1964. As many as fifteen were built, the last few of which, unclaimed by De Tomaso, were scrapped by the coachbuilder. In 1965 production was moved to

Ghia Carrozzeria Ghia SpA (established 1916 in Turin) is an Italian automobile design and coachbuilding firm, established by Giacinto Ghia and Gariglio as "Carrozzeria Ghia & Gariglio". The headquarters are located at Corso Guglielmo Marconi, 4, Tu ...

where 50 were assembled with

fiberglass Fiberglass ( American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cl ...

bodies based on Maina's design. In 1966 Ghia loaned a Vallelunga to the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

in New York City for an automobile design exhibition.

Specifications and features

The engine is a 1.5 L

straight-4 A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the ...

Ford Kent from the

Cortina Cortina may refer to: Things * Cortina (tango), a short piece of music played during a tango dance event * Ford Cortina, a medium-sized family car built by Ford of Britain from 1962 to 1982 **Lotus Cortina, a 1963–1968 performance variant on the ...

, tuned to a power output of at 6,200 rpm with twin

Weber Weber (, or ; German: ) is a surname of German origin, derived from the noun meaning " weaver". In some cases, following migration to English-speaking countries, it has been anglicised to the English surname 'Webber' or even 'Weaver'. Notable pe ...

40DCOE2 carburetors, mated to a

Volkswagen Beetle The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German (meaning "beetle"), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug, and known by many other nicknames in other languages—is a two-door, rear-engine economy car, ...

transaxle A transaxle is a single mechanical device which combines the functions of an automobile's transmission, axle, and differential into one integrated assembly. It can be produced in both manual and automatic versions. Engine and drive at the s ...

. The chassis frame is a fabricated sheet and tubular steel

backbone The backbone is the vertebral column of a vertebrate. Arts, entertainment, and media Film * ''Backbone'' (1923 film), a 1923 lost silent film starring Alfred Lunt * ''Backbone'' (1975 film), a 1975 Yugoslavian drama directed by Vlatko Gilić ...

and front crossmember with the mid-mounted transmission and engine initially carrying rear suspension loads to the central beam. Tubular frame extensions were progressively added during production eventually taking all rear suspension and body loads. Suspension is racing-derived

double wishbone A double wishbone suspension is an independent suspension design for automobiles using two (occasionally parallel) wishbone-shaped arms to locate the wheel. Each wishbone or arm has two mounting points to the chassis and one joint at the knuckl ...

at the front and multi-link at the rear, with front and rear

anti-roll bar An anti-roll bar (roll bar, anti-sway bar, sway bar, stabilizer bar) is a part of many automobile suspensions that helps reduce the body roll of a vehicle during fast cornering or over road irregularities. It connects opposite (left/right) whee ...

s and concentric springs & shock absorbers. Front uprights are

Standard-Triumph The Standard Motor Company Limited was a motor vehicle manufacturer, founded in Coventry, England, in 1903 by Reginald Walter Maudslay. For many years, it manufactured Ferguson TE20 tractors powered by its Vanguard engine. All Standard's tracto ...

rack and pinion A rack and pinion is a type of linear actuator that comprises a circular gear (the '' pinion'') engaging a linear gear (the ''rack''). Together, they convert rotational motion into linear motion. Rotating the pinion causes the rack to be driven ...

steering is

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...

, brakes are Campagnolo Amadori disc type, tires are radial 145-13 front and 175-13 rear. The small car weighs with fiberglass body and many cast magnesium chassis components. Engine and battery are accessed by tilting back the entire rear body section on Fissore Vallelungas. On the Ghia version the rear window hinges at the front and an upholstered panel lifts out. The rear window and headlamp covers are

acrylic Acrylic may refer to: Chemicals and materials * Acrylic acid, the simplest acrylic compound * Acrylate polymer, a group of polymers (plastics) noted for transparency and elasticity * Acrylic resin, a group of related thermoplastic or thermosett ...

. The aluminum fuel tank and its filler are in the front compartment. Air leaves the front-mounted radiator beneath the car, and plumbing runs through the backbone to the engine.

Successor

The Vallelunga was replaced by the Mangusta which used the concept of the Vallelunga chassis significantly re-engineered to take a Ford 302 engine, with a coupé body by

Giorgetto Giugiaro Giorgetto Giugiaro (; born 7 August 1938) is an Italian automotive designer. He has worked on supercars and popular everyday vehicles. He was born in Garessio, Cuneo, Piedmont. Giugiaro was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999 and inducted ...

Notes

References

* * * *

External links

De Tomaso Vallelunga Spider prospectusDe Tomaso Ghia Vallelunga sales brochure

The PROVAMO registry of De Tomaso Automobiles

Franco Maina (1938-2019) biography and gallery in Italian
{{De Tomaso

Vallelunga Vallelunga (Italian for ''long valley'') is a valley, or plateau,Tonino Floris, Marco Spada, ''Pedalando nel Lazio''p. 97 Edizioni Mediterranee, 1996 . near Campagnano di Roma, Italy. See also * Vallelunga Circuit The Autodromo Vallelunga ...

Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles Automobiles with backbone chassis Cars introduced in 1964 Sports cars