[DeTomaso] MANGUSTA INFORMATION, NEEDS, NEWS, ETC./Dick Ruzzin

[Dickruzzindesign at aol.com]

Steve,
I am here in California, west LA, for my sons wedding on Sunday.

I now have a mechanical drawing of the Mangusta, 1/10th scale I think, a 
brownline print that was signed by Giugiaro. It is the first running car. It 
appears to be a studio drawing, all four views. I am sending a copy to Fabrizzio 
Giugiaro and hope to get one back, newly signed by his father.

I will then copy it and send it around to interested parties. I do not have 
anything to help your friend, but I am starting to line up parts and info for 
the winter "storage" months.

I want to redo my front end, ball joints and bushings. I know you have spoken 
about availability of those parts in the past and I wonder if you can share 
your sources, part numbers, etc.

I also need a pair of windshield wiper arms. Would Pantera arms fit?

Any ideas on the wiper arms? I only need the ends as i have made new arms, 
but they do not match the Mangusta 13mm (or 1/2") posts. They are probably 
typical Italian although the cable driven system as i remember was used by Lotus 
first.

Last Sunday I showed the car in Eyes On Design and met a very nice gentleman 
who retired from Chrysler and worked on their various products at DeTomaso. He 
had a lot of interesting information. I asked him to email me, I have his, 
and I will pass that on also.

I escaped rain again by the skin of my teeth, my wife had the garage door 
open and i rocketed
into my driveway and into safety in record time as the show is only six miles 
away at the home of Edsel and Eleanor Ford.

He claimed to once be at a dinner with both Ferrari and DeTomaso.

He also said that in the early phases of the Mangusta program DeTomaso tried 
to fit a number of engines into the car, even some sort of Ferrari engine, 
finally settling on the available low cost emission friendly Ford. Apparently the 
early plans for the Mangusta was as a racing car.

More to come later on that one.

All the best,

Dick Ruzzin





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