Guide: De Tomaso Vallelunga — Supercar Nostalgia

De Tomaso - De Tomaso Vallelunga - 1960s Italian Cars - 1960s Supercars - Fissore - Ghia

Background

Having raced a variety of cars in his native Argentina, Alejandro de Tomaso departed for Italy in 1955.

De Tomaso hailed from a politically prominent family and his move to Europe was reputedly the result of involvement in a failed attempt to overthrow the Argentine President, Juan Peron, in June 1955.

Three months later, Peron would be ousted following a military coup.

Once in Italy, De Tomaso settled in Modena where he worked as a mechanic for Maserati. In 1956, he met American heiress and fellow racer, Elizabeth Haskell.

Haskell was on a factory visit to buy a Maserati 150 S. The pair subsequently married at a ceremony in Palm Beach in 1957. Thanks largely to his wife’s largesse, Alejandro went on to launch De Tomaso Automobili in 1959.

Initially, De Tomaso Automobili focused on the construction of single seat and sports racing cars normally powered by OSCA, Alfa Romeo or Fiat engines. The fledgling company went on to experience moderate success in junior classes but failed in Formula 1.

At the Turin Motor Show in October 1963, Alejandro de Tomaso unveiled a new sports racing car based on a spine chassis similar to the type used by Lotus for their Elan. One of these bare chassis was proudly displayed on the wall behind the metallic blue-green Spyder.

De Tomaso named the new model Vallelunga in recognition of the Rome track where his company did much of its testing and racing. As per all previous machines to emerge from De Tomaso’s little factory, the new mid-engined machine was initially conceived for competition use.

However, to broaden its appeal, the decision was soon made to offer the Vallelunga as a Berlinetta suitable for road or track. It would become only the second production road car to be equipped with a mid-mounted engine coming hot on the heels of the Rene Bonnet Djet launched in June 1962.

Chassis

The Vallelunga was based around a steel spine chassis with a short 2315mm wheelbase. As per the latest racing fashion, it incorporated the engine and gearbox as load-bearing members. Bolted above the gearbox was a fabricated crossmember that supported the rear suspension top mounts and the body.

State-of-the-art rose-jointed double wishbone suspension was lifted from De Tomaso’s contemporary single seat racers. Up front were unequal-length upper and lower A-arms. At the back was a single upper arm, a reversed lower A-arm and long upper and lower trailing arms that extended back from the bulkhead.

Coli sprung dampers were fitted all round along with an anti-roll bar at either end.

Both axles ran Brevetti disc brakes.

Cast magnesium 13-inch diameter wheels were sourced from Campagnolo. They measured 5.5-inches wide at the front and 6.5-inches wide at the rear.

Dunlop SP tyres were normally fitted and a 60-litre fuel tank was installed.

Engine / Gearbox

In the engine bay was an uprated version of Ford’s Kent inline four-cylinder overhead valve pushrod motor.

This was a well-proven unit that had powered various sporting machines; probably its most exciting application prior to the Vallelunga was in Ford’s Cortina GT where the iron-block 1498cc engine produced 78bhp at 5200rpm and 97lb-ft at 3600rpm..

Once delivered to Modena, output was upped to 105bhp at 6500rpm and 129lb-ft at 3600rpm. This was achieved by increasing the compression ratio (from 9.0:1 to 10.3:1) and fitting twin Weber 40 DCOE carburettors. De Tomaso also developed a custom alloy big valve head.

With a higher compression ratio and even bigger carburettors, 130bhp was reputedly possible albeit at the expense of some torque.

The engine drove through Hewland gears mounted in a De Tomaso-prepared upturned Volkswagen gearbox attached to the back of the engine.

While some early Vallelungas used a four-speed ‘box, a five-speed unit was subsequently introduced.

Bodywork – Spyder Prototype

To clothe the Vallelunga, De Tomaso turned to Carrozzeria Fissore in Savigliano. Here, a portly aluminium shell was created that adopted all the latest innovations of its day.

At the front, headlights were located behind cowled Plexiglas covers designed to cut through the air with minimal resistance. A large primary nose intake was flanked by two smaller ducts that directed cool air towards the brakes. Further up, a removable front lid gave access to the mechanicals.

In lieu of a conventional windshield, Fissore fitted a cut-down Plexiglas screen that wrapped right around the cockpit to the rear bulkhead. A polished aluminium rollover bar was subsequently added behind the driver’s seat.

Carved out from the tops of the rear fenders were shoulder-mounted engine cooling scoops similar to those subsequently adopted by the Ferrari 250 LM. The single piece rear clam was hinged at the trailing edge and tilted backwards to allow access to the engine and ancillary equipment.

At the back of the car was a very short Kamm tail. The tail fascia was opened up with a series of vents that allowed hot air to escape from the engine bay.

Interior – Spyder Prototype

Because the Vallelunga Spyder was conceived with competition in mind, the cockpit was equipped with only the most basic equipment.

Upholstery was limited to rubber floor matting and black vinyl for the bucket seats. Most of the other surfaces were left in body coloured metal.

Instrumentation comprised large read outs for road and engine speed plus a smaller oil pressure gauge. As space was at a premium, the dials were housed on a central control panel off to the driver’s right.

Spider a 2 Posti

Perhaps realising that the Vallelunga would be a more lucrative proposition should it be marketed as a dual purpose road and competition car, De Tomaso quickly abandoned any plans to build further copies of the Spyder prototype.

Instead, the company switched focus to a more road-oriented version.

Within a matter of weeks, the company had produced a brochure for a car dubbed the ‘Spider a 2 Posti’. However, while this particular machine never materialised, 1964 would see the first Vallelunga Berlinetta emerge as De Tomaso Automobili made its first steps towards a genuine production offering.

Bodywork - Berlinetta

The first of three alloy-bodied Vallelunga Berlinetta prototypes was competed by Fissore during the autumn of 1964. One such car went on to start at the Turin Motor Show that October.

Although the Spyder and Berlinetta shared a vague similarity, nothing was carried over from one design to the other.

The Berlinetta had a longer, lower nose with a wide, shallow primary intake and natural aluminium three-bar grille. The headlights were mounted underneath large Plexiglas covers that lent the car an extremely aerodynamic appearance.

Like the nose, the Berlinetta’s side profile was notably slimmer than the Spyder. The doors were elongated and given proper winding windows and opening quarterlights. Triangular rear quarter windows together with slim A pillars meant visibility was excellent.

A fastback profile incorporated an enormous single piece panoramic screen.

Like the nose, the single-piece tail was made longer. Its fascia was dominated by an enormous opening that housed an aluminium grille and circular tail lights.

The exhaust was re-routed to exit from underneath the tail as opposed to through the rear fascia.

Interior - Berlinetta

Inside, the driving position was very good although space for tall drivers was limited.

Fissore created a brand new dash that was typically trimmed in black vinyl to match the transmission tunnel, door centres, seats and rear bulkhead / parcel shelf. The bucket seats were given weave-effect centres while the rear bulkhead and parcel shelf were normally diamond quilted.

A wood-rimmed steering wheel had three vented aluminium spokes. Directly behind was an instrument binnacle with large read outs for road and engine speed and a smaller oil pressure guage mounted in between. A fuel gauge plus water and oil temperature read outs were located on a central control panel that linked the dash to the transmission tunnel.

The instrument binnacle fascia along with that of the central control panel were normally given a wood effect trim although some cars came with aluminium inserts instead.

Mounted ahead of the central control panel was the wood-topped gear lever with its open gate transmission.

Wind down windows were standard but some cars came with sliding Plexiglas items.

Switch to Fibreglass Ghia Bodies

Although Fissore might reasonably have expected to receive the contract to build production Vallelungas, Alejandro de Tomaso ultimately commissioned Ghia for that task. In the preceding months, Alejandro had become an increasingly influential figure at Ghia and would ultimately assume full control of the company in 1967.

50 cars were ordered from Ghia, all of which were to be fashioned with fibreglass instead of aluminium bodies.

A number of changes were made in the transition to production specification. These included the switch to a lift-up glass hatch (instead of a single piece rear clam), opening rear quarter windows and simplified black mesh nose and tail fascia grilles (instead of Fissore’s more elaborate aluminium grilles). The Fissore script originally fitted behind each front wheelarch was switched to a Ghia motif.

Weight / Performance

The production Vallelunga weighed in at 726kg.

In 105bhp trim, top speed was quoted at 112mph while 0-62mph was said to require 6.7 seconds.

Production Changes

Early on, the circular front indicators were dropped in favour of slim rectangular units mounted in each corner of the nose aperture.

End of Production

Production continued until 1967, by which time the 50 Ghia-built cars had been completed.

In addition to the trio of aluminium-bodied Fissore prototypes, De Tomaso also built several one-off creations on the Vallelunga platform to include the Pampero, Sport 1000 and Competizione 2000.

Competition History

Because the Vallelunga was never manufactured in sufficient numbers to be homologated in the production classes, it was typically forced to compete against out-and-out sports racing cars.

Nevertheless, two of the alloy-bodies prototypes were pushed into occasional service.

On October 25th 1964, Franco Bernabei won the Coppa Settecolli, a race organised for sports cars of up to two-litres at Vallelunga. Bernabei also posted fastest lap on his way to victory ahead of similar cars from Abarth, Porsche and Maserati.

Another two-litre sportscar race at Vallelunga, the Rome Grand Prix, was held on May 16th 1965. On this occasion, De Tomaso entered alloy-bodied cars for Bernabei and Filiberg. The race was won by Ferrari’s Dino 166 P prototype (driven by Lorenzo Bandini) while second place went to the privateer Porsche 904 GTS of Maurizio Grana (which was two laps in arrears). Bernabei took the final podium spot (a further lap down the road) and Filiberg brought the sister car home in seventh.

On June 6th, De Tomaso entered the same pair of cars for the Mugello GP World Sportscar Championship road race. Unfortunately, neither car (that of Secondo Ridolfi / Ugo Locatelli or Franco Bernabei) made it beyond the halfway stage.

Although Alejandro de Tomaso filed a two-car entry for the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours, the ACO rejected his application.

Thereafter, the Vallelunga only made occasional appearances in the hands of privateer owners.