[DeTomaso] Carrozzeria Maggiora history

Peter Havlik peterhavlik at me.com
Thu Dec 9 14:55:19 EST 2010


Mike:

I will let those who know better than I answer this question. Back in October of 2005, George Pence posted the following history of the chassis manufacturers used by De Tomaso for the Pantera:
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... while Ford built Panteras they were contractually obligated to supply Panteras to deTomaso for the European market. Ford & the deTomasos parted company on Sept. 8, 1973. Ford stopped producing Panteras around July 1974, the last Pantera shipped to the US was chassis number 7380. Ford closed the deTomaso Automobili factory and sold the remaining unfinished coaches to Alejandro deTomaso, who opened another factory under the name deTomaso Modena and continued assembling GTS Panteras, at a much slower pace, using the coaches he purchased from Ford. Those cars have chassis numbers 7501 to <7700.

As the coaches purchased from Ford ran out (about 1976), deTomaso contracted Carozzeria Maggiora to manufacture GTS Pantera coaches. The relationship between Carozzeria Maggiora & deTomaso lasted less than 2 years. Those cars have chassis numbers 9001 to <9099.

After the relationship with Carozzeria Maggiora terminated, deTomaso contracted Carozzeria Embo in 1978 to manufacture Pantera coaches. Carozzeria Embo manufactured all the remaining Pantera coaches, including those of the Pantera Si. The coaches manufactured by Carozzeria Embo have chassis numbers 9101 to 9562, and 9601 to 9641 for the Pantera Si. For the first 2 years, Carozzeria Embo only produced GTS Panteras. 

All the GTS, GT5 & GT5-S coaches manufactured by Carozzeria Embo have the squared off rear wheel houses. 
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Franz Krump who, as you know, is a De Tomaso expert living in Austria and who has owned many De Tomaso cars, posted the following confirmation of this history:
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Hi George.
Perfect, I couldn't report it better.
The Maggiora chassis had serious quality problems, that's why they restarted after such a short period with the Embo chassis.
A guy in Switzerland owns #9175 and it is also an early 1980 GTS, so I think #9189 is the same.
Franz
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Charles, you will remember this exchange because you then wrote:
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I can't add much to what has already been said regarding the squared-off engine bay... When Ford and DeTomaso divorced in '73, Ford, in a moment of spite, destroyed the tooling required to stamp out the car, figuring that DeTomaso wouldn't be able to continue manufacturing cars without the tooling. So instead of stamping out that area in one large die, they had to fabricate the area, welding panels together, more or less. Hence the straight, welded panels in the later cars. Again, it isn't model-specific, but instead when Alejandro ran out of stamped panels, everything from that point on was manufactured, regardless of model
Charlie McCall
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I have had some personal correspondence with George and Franz that suggests no Panteras may have been assembled in the transitional year of 1976, and that the first Maggiora coach vehicle was built in 1977. Further, it would appear that De Tomaso's leftover parts from the Vignale coaches were handed over to Maggiora to use, so the Maggiora coaches can be a mixture of Ford era stampings and the new style. For example, I have on record a Maggiora-era Pantera with squared off wheel housings but the old-style narrow license plate opening. George estimates that some 80 Maggiora Panteras were built even though he also says the VIN numbers allocated to them went from 9001 to 9099. 

The Maggiora years are the least well documented period in De Tomaso history, and it would be nice to get some first hand information from someone to corroborate all this speculation.

- Peter

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Message: 11
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 18:54:36 +0100
From: Charles McCall <charlesmccall at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Shel's Garage
To: <MikeLDrew at aol.com>, <julian_kift at hotmail.com>,
	<rob at dumoulins.net>, <patrick.q.lee at rbc.com>
Cc: detomaso at realbig.com
Message-ID: <E1B3489FEC924DEFA8F06C59A908A489 at Sisteplant.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"

You are thinking of Maggiora, I think, who came between Vignale and Embo. 

Charles McCall
1985 DeTomaso Pantera GT5-S #9375
"Raising Pantera Awareness Across Europe"
http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=2323

-----Mensaje original-----
De: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] En
nombre de MikeLDrew at aol.com
Enviado el: mi?rcoles, 08 de diciembre de 2010 7:11
Para: julian_kift at hotmail.com; rob at dumoulins.net; patrick.q.lee at rbc.com
CC: detomaso at realbig.com
Asunto: Re: [DeTomaso] Shel's Garage


In a message dated 12/7/10 21 26 54, julian_kift at hotmail.com writes:


> 
> As far as I could establish the changeover occurred around late 83, so on 
> the first 275 or so Embo bodied Panteras DT probably used up old stock
Ford 
> parts on the e-brake.
> 

I think the last Ford chassis were used up in '77.   Who made them in the 
period between Vignale and Embo?   I know there was an interim manufacturer 
but can't remember the name?   Not many were made, under 100 cars I think?

Peter?

Mike



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