Guide: Shelby MkV (De Tomaso Mangusta)
Background
Ford’s Total Performance programme of the 1960s proved a remarkable success. It extended to practically every facet of motor sport and most famously yielded four straight wins at the Le Mans 24 Hours between 1966 and 1969.
This quartet of victories in the world’s most famous motor race came courtesy of the GT40 which, along with the Mustang, had a transformative effect on Ford’s image.
GT40s were produced in a number of different configurations, the most extreme of which was the MkIV Group 6 Prototype that won at Le Mans in 1967.
After this second win at Le Mans, Ford officially withdrew from the sport owing to a three-litre engine limit for Group 6 Prototypes that was imposed from 1968.
However, because the Group 4 GT40 that was available to customers had already met the 50-car requirement for the Sport class (which had an advantageous five-litre engine limit), these ‘production’ GT40s were able to race on.
In the hands of the Gulf Oil-backed John Wyer Automotive Engineering squad (born from the ashes of Ford Advanced Vehicles when Ford pulled out), another two Le Mans wins fell the GT40’s way in 1968 and 1969.
To capitalise on the prestige of their Le Mans victories, Ford executives wanted to offer a flagship high performance model to compete with the best European machinery. Although a re-bodied Mk3 GT40 road car was released, its enormous price meant only seven were built between April 1967 and June 1969.
Something more affordable that could sell in far higher numbers was needed.
Over in Modena, Alejandro de Tomaso’s little company had spent most of the 1960s skipping from one motor sport project to the next. However, at the Turin Motor Show in November 1966, de Tomaso’s firm unveiled the Mangusta; an astonishingly handsome mid-engined supercar powered by a Ford V8 engine.
Aside from the GT40, the only other mid-engined car with a big block motor available at the time was the Lamborghini Miura.
One of the exciting new Mangustas was sent to Dearborn for assessment as a potential addition to the Ford-product line. Badged as a Shelby MkV, the car was otherwise standard and would have come with either a 4.7-litre Shelby-tuned 289 engine or Ford’s standard five-litre 302.
Reception & Legacy
Unfortunately, while the Mangusta looked great, it was chronically underdeveloped and had an extremely cramped cockpit.
However, Ford executives were impressed by Alejandro de Tomaso and they considered him “a possible Italian Shelby”.
The seed was sewn for a collaboration between the two firms.
This was somewhat ironic as the Mangusta had itself been born from the underpinnings of a failed racing partnership between Alejandro de Tomaso and Carroll Shelby. De Tomaso had been suitably irked over the deal that he named his new car Mangusta as the Mongoose was one of the few mammals able to kill a cobra.
As it turned out, the Shelby MkV led to Alejandro de Tomaso becoming a very rich man: Ford purchased a controlling interest in De Tomaso Automobili and bankrolled a Mangusta replacement known as the Pantera.
The Pantera was conceived as a Ford V8-powered mid-engined supercar of which Ford hoped several thousand would be sold through their high-end dealerships every year.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Ford - https://www.ford.com
