Guide: De Tomaso Pampero
Background
Shortly before he acquired Carrozzeria Ghia from Ramfis Trujillo in 1967, Alejandro de Tomaso commissioned the company to build an open two-seat concept on a stretched Vallelunga chassis.
The two firms were already familiar to one another as De Tomaso had earlier contracted Ghia to provide bodywork for 50 standard Vallelunga Berlinettas plus a couple of racing-style concepts.
Named after a polar wind from South America, the Pampero was designed at Ghia by Giorgetto Giugiaro.
Bodywork
Fabricated from aluminium and painted red, the Pampero’s nose treatment would heavily influence Giugiaro’s next creation for De Tomaso: the Mangusta. Both cars featured twin headlights mounted inside a full width aperture; those of the Pampero were impractically positioned behind a mesh grille.
The Pampero was given a low profile bonnet and single piece front bumper upon which the indicator lenses were mounted.
Each rear fender housed a bank of engine cooling vents that also concealed the catches for the fuel filler cap and engine cover.
Aside from a vented bulge to cover the engine, the rear deck was made as flat as possible.
Wraparound rear quarter bumpers were positioned below each bank of tail lights and split by a chrome licence plate shroud.
Chrome was also used to plate the window frames, light bezels, wipers, bumpers, front grille, door buttons and hood catches.
Ghia produced a black folding canvas roof and also a hard top.
Overall, the new body was 120mm longer, 35mm wider and 20mm taller than the production Vallelunga.
Chassis
The standard Vallelunga was only the second production sports car to incorporate a mid-mounted engine. It featured an innovative Lotus-style spine chassis that used the engine and gearbox as load-bearing members.
For the Pampero, De Tomaso employed a special elongated version of the Vallelunga chassis with a wheelbase extended from 2315mm to 2350mm.
The Pampero retained the standard Vallelunga’s rose-jointed Formula 3-type suspension. This set up comprised coil sprung dampers via double wishbones at the front and reversed lower wishbones, single upper arms and lower trailing arms at the back.
Anti-roll bars were installed at either end and Brevetti disc brakes all round.
13 x 5.5-inch cast magnesium Campagnolo wheels were shod with Dunlop SP tyre.
Engine & Gearbox
A 1.5-litre Ford Kent engine was installed albeit one with various De Tomaso upgrades like all Vallelunga motors. These modifications included a higher 10.3:1 compression ratio, twin Weber 40 DCOE 2 carburettors and a custom aluminium alloy De Tomaso head.
Peak output was 105bhp at 6500rpm.
Transmission was via four Hewland gears mounted in a De Tomaso-prepared upturned Volkswagen gearbox.
Launch
Displayed at the Turin Motor Show in November 1966, the Pampero failed to excite in the same was as the standard Vallelunga had.
Despite having been quite pretty, the rather subdued shape didn’t reflect the Pampero’s state of the art underpinnings - the Vallelunga was, after all, 1964’s under two-litre Italian Championship winning sports car.
Initially kept at the Ghia factory where it was retailed at $5500, who acquired the Pampero and its current whereabouts remain unknown.
Ghia was sold to Alejandro de Tomaso in 1967 and, soon afterwards, the firm began to produce bodywork for De Tomaso’s first series production model: the Mangusta.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Ghia / Ford - https://www.ford.com
