by Wallace Wyss –

This is not a new book. It is instead a story of how a book came about and what happened to it before it (almost) disappeared into the sands of time.

I had been working for David and Linda Adler in Huntington Beach, CA on their Pantera International magazine when they announced they had enough background material to do a book on DeTomaso.

They were staunch DeTomaso fans and owned the first DeTomaso car ever made, a Formula One single seater, a Longchamp coupe and a racing Group 3 Pantera, which is how I met them at Carmel when they were street driving the full race, unmuffled car called “Whiplash.”

They wanted to go first class on a book and fortunately, at the time, there was absolutely no Pantera book on the market. I forget if they found the printer or I did but we did go for hardbound printing, and a color section.

The goal was to summarize the exciting life of Alejandro deTomaso (properly last name should start with a small “d”) and his wife Isabelle Haskell.

The couple had met in 1959 at a parts counter in Italy. Both were racing Italian cars. He a refugee from Argentina where he had fled the goods on Juan Peron, who was mad that DeTomaso had criticized him in print. She, a wealthy sportswoman from New Jersey who not only raised thoroughbred horses but got into sports car racing in the early ‘50s.

They were an improbably couple, she tall and blonde, he short and dark haired, a descendant of Italians but born and raised in Argentina.

She was his second wife, his first wife an Argentinian. He divorced her soon after meeting Isabelle.

When doing the book I was fortunate to be able to talk to Tom Tjaarda, a tall quiet American who had gone to Italy straight out of U of M’s architecture school to work on a show display for a coachbuilder and ended up working his entire life in Italy. He is most known for the years he spent at Ghia, designing the Pantera, and for other DeTomaso cars including the Deauville (a Jaguar copy) the Longchamp (a Mercedes copy) and various one off show cars.

Fortunately for Tom, Ford bought Ghia carrozzeria, I say “fortunate” because DeTomaso was a little slow on paying and Tjaarda even had to go to court to get paid.

I even went to Argentina, (where I wish I could say I danced the tango) but my meeting with the great Juan Manuel Fangio was disappointing in that he wouldn’t spill the beans on DeTomaso’s early career in Argentina.

A good decade after the book was published, DeTomaso took another stab at a mid-engined sports car, a car I’ll call the “last Pantera”, a prototype that DeTomaso posed with in 1999, when he was wheelchair bound and so crippled nobody could quite understand what he was saying.

The book had a chapter on each major car they had created from 1959 to 1991 and at first Tjaarda is “under the shadow” of his predecessor Giorgetto Giugiaro, the genius who designed the Mangusta, but after Giugiaro leaves to start Ital Design, he comes into his own as a major designer.

It was mind boggling writing about DeTomaso because I couldn’t get two opinions the same on him, no matter who I talked to. This was so unlike Shelby, who I had profiled previously in several books, as DeTomaso was not universally well liked in the automotive field or in Italy where he was resented from the get-go because he was Argentinian. His business style was to selectively irk his competitors, such as the time he bought Benelli, a motorcycle firm, and built a prototype six cylinder using parts from several Honda motorcycle engines.

Another time he found a picture of the Fiat X1/9 prototype and had Tjaarda design a look alike car which he premiered first.

His own race car driving ambitions having ended in 1959, (he did compete at LeMans, as did his race driving wife) he never appeared to have the zeal to campaign racing teams, any such plans finally killed off with the death of his aristocratic British driver Piers Courage in a DeTomaso Grand Prix car. So, even though he was in the same town as Ferrari, he achieved little success with his marque in racing compared to the successes of his erstwhile rival, Enzo Ferrari.

The book was published back in 1991, and sold well for awhile, then was forgotten, as was the DeTomaso marque except for staunch owner’s clubs in the US and the UK.

Over 7,000 Panteras were imported to the US, from 1971 to 1974 so many survive. Few of the subsequent cars were imported here, though one front engine U.S.-certified one was called the Mangusta but it had none of the character of the mid-engined Mangusta. It was a flop, not to mention the ownership of the car having reverted to its American-based investor Kjell Qvale who re-named it the Qvale Mangusta.

The book ended with DeTomaso still alive and still hatching new plans and adding companies to his portfolio, including Maserati (which he bought for the price of one mag wheel). I didn’t update the book but instead wrote another DeTomaso book with David and Linda Adler coming in as co-authors, that book was softbound and is out of print.

I am glad to hear that Mrs. DeTomaso, now a widow, is out and about in 2019, having rejoined the horse breeding field and currently fielding a horse called War Cry that has definite winner’s DNA, like we’re talking Derby potential.

We’ll see if that new car, the DeTomaso P72, being introduced August 15th by the German firm that bought DeTomaso, the marque, raises the ante on the value of old DeTomaso cars and builds interest in the marque as an Italian alternative to Ferrari and Lamborghini–a level that DeTomaso was never quite able to reach.

But if you want the story such as it was up to 1991, you might be glad to hear that the original 1991 first edition that I authored is still available. I will be offering them at my Art & Books booth at Concorso Italiano in Seaside (suburb of Monterey) August 17th during Monterey Car Week.

Price $100 each. Oh, and free mailing in the U.S. if you want to mail order one.

For ordering info send an email to – mendoart7@gmail.com

DETOMASO – THE MAN AND THE MACHINES

· Availability: In Stock

· Author: Wallace Alfred Wyss

· ISBN: 9780962968204

· Size: 273.00 x 205.00

· Publisher: Adler Publishing

· Publication Year: 1991

· Edition: 1st Edition

· Revised: No

· Reprint: No

· Language: English

· Pages: 255

· Illustrations: Black and White and Color

· Format: Hardback – With Dustjacket

· Condition Book: Fine

· Condition Dust Jacket: Fine

For ordering info send an email to – mendoart7@gmail.com

Let us know what you think in the Comments.

 
 
 
 
 
THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss is the author of 18 car histories. As a fine artist, he will be exhibiting at the Concorso Italiano in the Art & Books booth.