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It was nearly unavoidable that the DeTomaso Vallelunga would be built in smaller numbers, considering that it was a costly and compromised machine from an mysterious manufacturer. By the time the last Vallelunga was made in 1965, just 50 had been manufactured by Ghia alongside with 3 aluminum-bodied protoypes and 5 alloy-bodied competitors automobiles.
Just just one of the Vallelungas created was appropriate-hand generate and it was produced for Colonel Ronnie Hoare, Ferrari importer for the U.K. His program was to suit a 148-hp Lotus twin-cam motor to create a real pocket-sized road rocket, but he discovered the Vallelunga simply just much too less than-formulated to be viable. He then offered the car or truck on in 1970, by which stage DeTomaso was on the verge of unveiling his very best-identified car, the Pantera.
Scarce and obscure, Vallelungas are the most precious cars in the DeTomaso legacy. Even though a museum-quality (#1 problem) Mangusta specced with the greater-output motor and created amongst 1967 and 1970 tops out at $325,000, a Vallelunga in such much better-than-manufacturing unit ailment is worth $390,000. For a driver-high quality case in point with a number of scuffs and bruises, you’re hunting at $245,000—more than $80K much more than the most important Pantera (a 1988 GT design in #1 problem). The to start with of the DeTomaso street cars and trucks hardly ever pop up for sale, both.
Even though imperfect at its debut, the Vallelunga established the components of mid-motor Ford electric power beneath placing Ghia overall body function that the later on Mangusta and Pantera would render in greater dimension and output count. 4 years following the roadster debuted at Turin, DeTomaso would draw in the eye of Lee Iacocca, then Ford’s government vice president, and leverage its Lincoln-Mercury dealer network for much less sensitive, much more available choices. As a assertion of DeTomaso’s wild, original vision, having said that, the Vallelunga will always stand apart.
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