DeTomaso's rare, forgotten Vallelunga was the Pantera's rough draft

[Hagerty]

Think DeTomaso and you probably think V-8, with a fabulous exhaust note and huge reserves of performance. But that's not how things began for this enigmatic Italian brand, because its first car featured nothing more glorious than a Ford Cortina 's four-cylinder.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/detomasos-rare-forgotten-vallelunga-was-the-panteras-roug...

[ThePorscheMan]

Such a pretty cah. Always loved these. Thanks for the reminder.

[OptimusPrime]

Gorgeous cars with perfect proportions -- like a miniature ATS 2500! Only the interior is a bit of a let-down, looks a bit kit car. Remember when these were $50k?

[RetroRock]

I know what you mean about the interior...
Years ago I came across a pristine Yellow Mangusta on a used car lot for $20K. This was a car I had lusted after for half of my youth, but upon seeing the interior, it was a bit of a let down. I had an E-Type roadster in the garage I was restoring at the time and looking now at the Mangusta's spartan and modern vinyl interior elements just didn't hit home with me.
I passed on it... What a Sap!

[audiobycarmine]

'Vette meets Jag". What a sweet car!

I remember the first Panteras in my local Lincoln dealerships.
$10K got you one. Back then, $10K was a lot of cash. Most cars were less than half that.

[doug_s]

Yes, not cheap. But half the price, or less, compared to other hand built italian cars.

I 1st saw one at an auto **bleep** afford one now.

doug s.

[Smilodon]

As a car obsessed 8th grader, I was privileged to be given a ride in a school bus yellow Pantera, the aspire to car at the local Indianapolis Lincoln-Mercury dealer. Even then, I wasn't star-struck enough to miss the car's faults. But. But- that thing had more than enough "cool" to negate all the faults. In a 20 minute drive, who would know? At 14? And 50 years later, I understand that all Panteras have been "corrected", cooling, A/C, fit&finish. And now I drink with a bud who has a matte black, SOHC 427 all Ford motor professionally built Pantera GTS, with snakey 180° headers- y'all think a flat crank Shelby sounds evil? He's got 4" center dumps and zero baffling. The cam chains are, ah, loud. The local Ferrari/Lambo cats just don't. I believe, but don't know, that it was built by Hall Pantera. I wish I could upload a start/rev/chunk into first and disappear into smoke vid for y'all, but the site keeps refusing. And yes, it's a real SOHC 427, sounds like Armageddon on start. Never heard a Hemi as aggressive. But that's just me.

[LamboEd]

Neat, but i will NOT trade my 1972 Pantera for it! I don't think I have ever seen one in person.

[Buzz]

Such beautiful lines! Clearly too “euro” for the 70’s American crowd though. The Pantera was a beauty of a much different type and the basic shape was amazing. Those things looked absolutely spectacular in wide body race trim.

[doug_s]

I can't imagine why anyone would want one of these, even at 1/10th the price of what hagerty says they're worth. Not that I have anything against de tomaso - i really like my '72 pantera.

I could see spending big money on the mangusta, but you can have the vallelunga. I'd even take one of those little innocenti de tomaso's over the vallelunga. I guess if you're a de tomaso fan, have millions and a garage like leno's, why not? Otherwise, forget it.

doug s.

[sclin10]

I **bleep** to replace!

[sclin10]

What I wrote was 'I **bleep** to replace!'

Where did 'bleep' come from?

[sclin10]

s-h-u-d-d-e-r.

[sclin10]

Let me try this one more time.
I s-h-u-d-d-e-r to think what the rear window would cost to replace. (What in the world is going on with Hagerty?)

[Snailish]

the bad word filter... had an update? ...a disgruntled software employee?

Anyways... words with s and the letter h in them, especially if around 4-5 letters long seem to get bleeped the most consistently. 

If it was a software update circa the day this started... roll it back? Otherwise who quit at the software company the day before!

[Sajeev]

Let's see if any of these get bleeped out: 

SHOW
SHIFT
SHRINK
STREET
SHUDDER

[Sajeev]

I shudder to think what will happen when I write that word. 

[doug_s]

Happened to me, too. The site must be having issues

[Sajeev]

@sclin10 sorry about the bleeps in your response, we are working on a bleeping fix with the software that's causing this bleep. Please bear with us. 

[Tsaxman]

Bleep off, Sajeev! You've had two days to fix this bleeping thing, bleep it!

[TG]

any consideration to turning it off in the interim? we aren't exactly a rowdy bunch

[RedRyder_SFZ]

Looks similar to a Dino 246 from the front and sides. Beautiful car. Never knew they existed. Thanks Hagerty.

And it’s going on almost a week now with the “**bleep**”ing….let’s get this thing fixed.

[FloridaMarty]

Can't explain it, but this article reminded me of the Puma car from Brazil. Maybe it was the color, maybe it was the line of the front fender. Completely different cars, but someways similar in styling.

[Gary_Bechtold]

It's a very interesting car. Would have thought it would be a bit faster with the weight. Still prefer the Pantera!

[BrentF]

Wow! That would have been a hit.

[Stixx]

Well it certainly does have a lot of graceful lines to it and I think in my personal opinion a prettier car than the Mangusta or the Pantera .. I know I would love to have it with the four-cylinder engine I drove formula Fords for four years in SCCA and that’s a great running engine especially if it’s pumped up to 137 ponies in such a lite chassis

[aviones1]

I agree

[MustangJim]

Beautiful car that I had neved seen nor heard of. Thank you for this story

[tigercat]

Always love these rare and transitional cars. There is so much room for improvement but it is limited in design so you just have to go with it in stock form. Beautiful from the front and corner **bleep** to see more of his contributions to the auto world.

[Roadsterboy]

Pretty cool car, but I would rather have a Lotus Europa Special

[jaysalserVW]

Cure the *BLEEP*. Announce that you are going to FIRE the *bleeping editors* and the *bleeping* software managers. *BLEEP* will be cured over-night!