Calling Vario Rob...
Discussion
Ah well funny you should ask!
Over the summer the beast has taken something of a back seat due to a house move, wedding and now the first born son and heir on the way. In case that hasn’t been enough I’m also tooling up to change of the old Nazi engined slot car or as it is better known the 993 for something Italian front engined and V12 powered
Attention in recent days has now turned back to project Deauville with her now being registered and moveable, she is going up the only marque specialist left in the UK just outside Barnsley called 3.4 Garage.
3.4 is owned by the DTDC club secretary who also happens to own one of the other roadworthy Deauvilles left which brings me neatly on to the next point. The owners club 1/3 yearly magazine arrived last week with a brief article and including mine there are only meant to be three decent and solid cars left, although a few registered project type cars remain.
You may have gone to the Goodwood FOS where the other car was meant to be on display around the cricket ground but alas due to a horrendous balls up by a body shop the new door sills were in fact returned blue and not black, just not Goodwood really! So next year the plan is to have my own car up to concourse / show standard and to have it at Goodwood. None the less although disappointed not to see one there I consoled myself with the fantastic Iso Fidia on the same display, first owner being one other than John Winston Lennon, utterly sublime
Realistically to do this is going to mean putting about ten to twelve thousand of the finest queens folding into 3.4’s pocket, whether it is worth it depends on how you ever see the value of a concourse Deauville? I like to think I’m on the right side of it but really it’s just about having the thing in the first place and as any good Pistonheader knows that is what it’s all about. This will put the whole project in at £25k
The overall prognosis for the refurbishment will involve the following
• Engine rebuild
• Fettle electrics
• New bottoms to drivers and passenger doors
• Partial respray as there is not much tin rot but the pant is tiered
• New exhaust
• Re-Connolly leather
• New carpets
So all in all she is solid but tired and that is a damn good starting place
Ironically in the last club magazine there has become available what can only be described as the most desirable De Tomaso possibly (or at least to me) in the shape of a Longchamp GTSE. It’s the last one ever built, immaculate, 44 thousand on the clock and offers on £26k . Were it not for the content in the first paragraph I would have already bought her. Plans are afoot none the less as my old man has had a love of the marque for years!
You might have read the article on the Pantera in last months Classic Car owned by fellow club member Johnny Woods? It was down at Indianapolis on the Friday before Le Mans and completely stole the show, as not only is arguably one of the best Pantera’s in the world but he did most of the work himself!
I will aim to keep something of a running diary on the refurbishment as the importation thread seemed to get a bit of interest. Interestingly if I can get her on display for next years FOS I get (I think) 10 free tickets to give away and some hospitality, well worth the £25k on its own to this poor fool!!
Any question either Deauville or marque related I would be delighted to answer, so few people seem interested in de Tomaso’s on the site. No accounting for taste
Over the summer the beast has taken something of a back seat due to a house move, wedding and now the first born son and heir on the way. In case that hasn’t been enough I’m also tooling up to change of the old Nazi engined slot car or as it is better known the 993 for something Italian front engined and V12 powered
Attention in recent days has now turned back to project Deauville with her now being registered and moveable, she is going up the only marque specialist left in the UK just outside Barnsley called 3.4 Garage.
3.4 is owned by the DTDC club secretary who also happens to own one of the other roadworthy Deauvilles left which brings me neatly on to the next point. The owners club 1/3 yearly magazine arrived last week with a brief article and including mine there are only meant to be three decent and solid cars left, although a few registered project type cars remain.
You may have gone to the Goodwood FOS where the other car was meant to be on display around the cricket ground but alas due to a horrendous balls up by a body shop the new door sills were in fact returned blue and not black, just not Goodwood really! So next year the plan is to have my own car up to concourse / show standard and to have it at Goodwood. None the less although disappointed not to see one there I consoled myself with the fantastic Iso Fidia on the same display, first owner being one other than John Winston Lennon, utterly sublime
Realistically to do this is going to mean putting about ten to twelve thousand of the finest queens folding into 3.4’s pocket, whether it is worth it depends on how you ever see the value of a concourse Deauville? I like to think I’m on the right side of it but really it’s just about having the thing in the first place and as any good Pistonheader knows that is what it’s all about. This will put the whole project in at £25k
The overall prognosis for the refurbishment will involve the following
• Engine rebuild
• Fettle electrics
• New bottoms to drivers and passenger doors
• Partial respray as there is not much tin rot but the pant is tiered
• New exhaust
• Re-Connolly leather
• New carpets
So all in all she is solid but tired and that is a damn good starting place
Ironically in the last club magazine there has become available what can only be described as the most desirable De Tomaso possibly (or at least to me) in the shape of a Longchamp GTSE. It’s the last one ever built, immaculate, 44 thousand on the clock and offers on £26k . Were it not for the content in the first paragraph I would have already bought her. Plans are afoot none the less as my old man has had a love of the marque for years!
You might have read the article on the Pantera in last months Classic Car owned by fellow club member Johnny Woods? It was down at Indianapolis on the Friday before Le Mans and completely stole the show, as not only is arguably one of the best Pantera’s in the world but he did most of the work himself!
I will aim to keep something of a running diary on the refurbishment as the importation thread seemed to get a bit of interest. Interestingly if I can get her on display for next years FOS I get (I think) 10 free tickets to give away and some hospitality, well worth the £25k on its own to this poor fool!!
Any question either Deauville or marque related I would be delighted to answer, so few people seem interested in de Tomaso’s on the site. No accounting for taste
Provided the 993 goes for sensible money and given the market for good low mileage cars is pretty strong anyway I’m planning on buying one of the very last 550 Maranello’s, Lancaster Ferrari in Colchester have a fantastic one with little mileage. I really feel that the 550 is possible one of the very few recent Ferrari which will be considered great in many years to come and would be a lovely addition to the garage.
We shall see but the thought of that bloody Longchamp GTSE invades my thinking far too regularly
As for the Deauville, one thing I had forgotten to mention is it needs a new fuel tank as one has already been replaced and the remaining one is porous, you can understand why she really hasn’t seen much use. The thought of her disappearing up in smoke is the stuff of Kafker. None the less she has been given a blast round the block and in summary she goes bloody well and if any of you have ever driven a Series III V12 Jag it is very similar. Oodles of torque and very much an iron fist in a silken glove but given the thing weighs about two tons she does handle very well.
Of course the rear suspension and axle set up is very much Jag in its design with a Salisbury diff although essential not borrowed, just similar. In fact I’ve put her up on a lift in a workshop next to a Jag and suffice to say the engineering integrity in the Deauville is far higher but that of course is no great surprise and not really praise in itself!
As for the engine build she is clearly not putting out big figures at present but as you will no doubt appreciate it is quite possible to squeeze big power from a Cleveland. I want to retain the original block as somehow to simply can it for a Windsor ‘Crater’ engine would be removing the provenance of the car but I think a rebuild using the full original specification with the odd tweak should give a 330 bhp lump and in my opinion that’s quite enough for a car like that.
One amusing driving anecdote I know you classic Piostonheader’s will like involves an Impreza and the driver not knowing what a De Tomaso was. It was a bog standard and fairly early one so say about a 200 bhp car. It got right up my chuff and was bobbing and weaving about behind me and generally driving like a prat.
The road was a lovely long and open A road north of Bury St. Edmunds. This bloody thing is buzzing about like a fly round a turd and tried to pass me although not in good and considerate fashion, all swerves and sudden movements. Or at least he thought he was going to pass me. I floored the old dame and suffice to say a combination of a 4 barrel Holley and a Ford Cleveland coughed spluttered cleared itself and roared like she hadn’t done in many years.
I blew the bugger into the weeds leaving him to wonder exactly what that big strange red thing was growled so furiously when yapped at.
We shall see but the thought of that bloody Longchamp GTSE invades my thinking far too regularly
As for the Deauville, one thing I had forgotten to mention is it needs a new fuel tank as one has already been replaced and the remaining one is porous, you can understand why she really hasn’t seen much use. The thought of her disappearing up in smoke is the stuff of Kafker. None the less she has been given a blast round the block and in summary she goes bloody well and if any of you have ever driven a Series III V12 Jag it is very similar. Oodles of torque and very much an iron fist in a silken glove but given the thing weighs about two tons she does handle very well.
Of course the rear suspension and axle set up is very much Jag in its design with a Salisbury diff although essential not borrowed, just similar. In fact I’ve put her up on a lift in a workshop next to a Jag and suffice to say the engineering integrity in the Deauville is far higher but that of course is no great surprise and not really praise in itself!
As for the engine build she is clearly not putting out big figures at present but as you will no doubt appreciate it is quite possible to squeeze big power from a Cleveland. I want to retain the original block as somehow to simply can it for a Windsor ‘Crater’ engine would be removing the provenance of the car but I think a rebuild using the full original specification with the odd tweak should give a 330 bhp lump and in my opinion that’s quite enough for a car like that.
One amusing driving anecdote I know you classic Piostonheader’s will like involves an Impreza and the driver not knowing what a De Tomaso was. It was a bog standard and fairly early one so say about a 200 bhp car. It got right up my chuff and was bobbing and weaving about behind me and generally driving like a prat.
The road was a lovely long and open A road north of Bury St. Edmunds. This bloody thing is buzzing about like a fly round a turd and tried to pass me although not in good and considerate fashion, all swerves and sudden movements. Or at least he thought he was going to pass me. I floored the old dame and suffice to say a combination of a 4 barrel Holley and a Ford Cleveland coughed spluttered cleared itself and roared like she hadn’t done in many years.
I blew the bugger into the weeds leaving him to wonder exactly what that big strange red thing was growled so furiously when yapped at.
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