[DeTomaso] Never heard of it - Detomaso content.

MikeLDrew at aol.com MikeLDrew at aol.com
Tue Feb 12 19:28:08 EST 2013


In a message dated 2/12/13 15 26 38, montecarlo296 at yahoo.com writes:


> Been searching uk ebay, and found a postershowing a DeTomaso 1600 Ghia.
> I've never heard of it. Anyone any ideas/foresight?
> 

>>>Yoo betcha!   This is a great story that Tom Tjaarda told me over lunch 
one day, in Monterey.

De Tomaso was always trying to dream up publicity for his small collection 
of companies.   One day late in 1971, he was zipping around town, when he 
happened upon a small prototype shop that was constructing (in secret) the 
prototype for what would become the Fiat X1/9.   He raced over to Ghia, 
literally grabbed Tom from his drawing board and said, "Come with me!"   They raced 
back there, and just walked all around the car for a few minutes (it was 
sitting outside in an alley for some reason).   

They then tore back to Ghia, where Tom was instructed to make a blatent 
copy of the design.   Ghia's craftsmen were very fast and talented, and they 
whipped out the De Tomaso version in no time (less than two weeks if my memory 
of the story is correct), and set it atop a prototype race chassis that had 
been shown at the Turin Auto show a year earlier, intended for a race car 
that never materialized.    They then showed the completed car at the 1971 
Turin show.   The Fiat X1/9 wasn't shown until the same show, one year later, 
leading many to charge Fiat with stealing De Tomaso's idea!

There was never any intention of putting the De Tomaso Ghia 1600 into 
production--it was just an exercise in "Screw you!" from a tiny company to a 
competing corporate giant....

Mike


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