De Tomaso reveals first P72 customer car
Originally shown at the 2019 Festival of Speed, the 700hp De Tomaso is now a spectacular reality
It’s all too easy to be a little dismissive of new supercar projects, given the amount that do not make it past the concept stage. It’s simple enough to conjure up excitement with a wild shape and audacious claims; rather harder to make the vision a reality. So credit where it’s due to De Tomaso; it rolled up to Goodwood in the summer of 2019 with a sensational '60s-inspired supercar. One that would have 700hp from a supercharged V8, a manual gearbox, and an obsession with driver involvement. Nice idea, a lot of us probably thought, let us know when it’s actually happened - now it has.
This is the first P72 that will be going to a customer; a completed car in as-promised spec from six years ago. Another 71 will follow, all with a hand-assembled 5.0-litre - complete with forged internals and a new supercharger - that De Tomaso says is ‘immediate, responsive, and emotionally rewarding.’ The car very intentionally doesn’t have many drive modes or features beyond ESC; there’s a six-speed manual with an exposed linkage (and what looks like a gearknob the size of a snow globe), plus manually adjustable three-way dampers.
There isn’t a Race setting or a Qualifying powertrain configuration or any assistance with oversteer; what happens in a De Tomaso P72 will be, by and large, down to the driver. You can’t even pair your phone to anything in here. Which they’re very proud of: ‘Inside, the P72 rejects the digital age in favor of mechanical intimacy. ‘The cockpit is free from screens, no infotainment, no overlays, no distractions. Instead, drivers are welcomed by traditional analogue dials, bespoke switchgear, and a cockpit shaped entirely around human connection.’ Lovely stuff.
Underneath the P72 is an all-new bespoke carbon monocoque (plus carbon subframes), which De Tomaso suggests resets the benchmark for ‘structural purity’. Talk about a huge undertaking; you’d have to assume De Tomaso is planning additional evolutions of this architecture - even they, surely, cannot justify the expenditure of a new carbon chassis for just 72 cars. The benefit of a clean-sheet design, of course, is being able to tailor the car exactly to requirements, from hardpoints to driving position. So the V8 is as low as it can be, the weight distribution is ‘optimal’, and the driver will sit right down in the belly of the beast.
Surrounded, it must be said, by a spectacular interior. Going without screens means there’s not much here, but everything from the roof switches to the harness buckles looks more like jewellery than switchgear. And if rose gold isn’t your thing, De Tomaso will tailor the interior as required. The milled aluminium components can be bead blasted, hand-brushed or hand-polished ‘with the same care found in a mechanical timepiece’, for some idea of the lengths they’ll go to. Rest assured it’s going to be a very special place from which to scare yourself silly.
“The P72 was our promise to faithfully revive a historic marque,” said Norman Choi, CEO of De Tomaso Automobili. “This first production-specification vehicle embodies everything we stand for: a mechanical soul, timeless beauty, and a driving experience that rises above modern convention. It is our echo through time—now made real.” It arrives 60 years after the P70, a collaboration between Alejandro De Tomaso and Carroll Shelby, as a homage to that time rather than a recreation. But if the 1960s were about fantastic speed and incredible design, we’d say De Tomaso has absolutely nailed the remake. A few folk are going to be stars of their local concours lawn this summer.
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