We'll be drooling for days.
Very few cars are truly beautiful. The question is whether the very good looking DeTomaso P72 reaches this level - the surprise reincarnation of an Italian automaker’s name on a magnificently sculpted carbon fibre body and a level of interior jewellery to make Pagani gasp.
Unveiled at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the P72 instantly made waves as the covers were being pulled off. Even its silhouette hinted at the car being unlike anything we’ve yet seen in production form, and with that in mind, the sheer sight of it in entirety must’ve a fair few jaws in the audience.
The P72, hence the name, is itself a modern day homage to the original vision for the DeTomaso P70, a car that ultimately never reached fruition but was engineered from inception to its prototype stages by legends Carroll Shelby, Peter Brock, and of course, Alejandro DeTomaso.
Shelby would provide powertrain, a 4.7-litre Ford V8, while Brock was in charge of styling and aerodynamics. Meanwhile, the chassis and suspension would be supplied by DeTomaso and its Argentine founder, using the skeleton of the company’s existing cars, the Vallelunga.
Problems and setbacks plagued the car’s development and as a result, just one example was built and raced in 1966. At that point, Brock and Shelby had moved on to other projects, with the latter famously spearheading Ford’s Le Mans ambitions by helming the GT40’s creation.
The P70, then, is a car forgotten by time but had most, if not all, the ingredients of greatness. And now, 60 years later after the founding of DeTomaso Modena SpA in 1959, the world is treated to the P72, the brainchild of the brand’s current owner, Norman Choi, who made the acquisition in 2014.
You might have that name before as Choi, a native of Hong Kong, is also the CEO of Apollo Automobili, built from the ashes of the Gumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur GmbH, and the same one that recently showed off the Intenso Emozione - best described as the hypercar that Batman would have designed.
It’s not surprisingly, then, that the DeTomaso P72 uses essentially the same carbon fibre structure as the Apollo IE. But while the latter uses a 6.3-litre naturally aspirated Ferrari V12, details on the P72’s engine and powertrain have not been revealed. However, its clear that the engine will be mated to a manual transmission.
Like its cousin, the P72 will be expertly constructed by HWA, the Affalterbach-based motorsports company that’s been an AMG racing supplier for two decades. HWA also participates in Formula E under the HWA Racelab and in the DTM series with AMG, so they know a thing or two about what might constitute a proper hypercar.
Only 72 example are to be made and promises to deliver an analogue connection between driver and machine. Honestly, with looks as arresting as this, is could drive like a garbage truck and we’d still happily sell our souls for one.
