[DeTomaso] Wait...what?

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/15/09 21 20 48, asajay at asajay.com writes:


> Makes me think of a Vector, but the butt end just looks well.... butt
> ugly to me.  Much better from the front.  :)
> 

It's a fairly well-known car; Sam Foose fell in love with the Alfa Romeo 
Carabo, which was built on a Tipo 33 Stradale chassis:

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/2287/Alfa-Romeo-Carabo-Concept.html

It was an absolutely stunning concept car in its day, and definitely was 
showing the way forward for sports/GT car design; the later Countach, Lotus 
Esprit, BMW M1 and Pantera all were influenced to a certain degree by the 
thinking displayed by Bertone's Carabo.   There were literally dozens of concept 
cars which espoused some of the same design principles, constructed within 
a relatively short time:

http://www.lotusespritturbo.com/Supercars.htm

Apparently some guy wanted to buy the Carabo but Alfa wouldn't sell it to 
him, so he came home and had Sam Foose build one of his own.   Although it's 
obviously heavily influenced by the Carabo, it's not exactly the same 
anywhere.   Note that the ad for the car states that it uses a Pantera drivetrain; 
it doesn't specifically indicate that an entire Pantera was used in the 
construction, and in fact given that the resultant car is substantially lower, 
and also has no roof, it stands to reason that it is probably a completely 
custom-built car, that just has a few Pantera bits in it.

It's very much a car of its age, and given that I was playing with Hot W
heels and Corgi cars that looked like this when I was a kid, I rather like it!

Mike


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