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StarLight Garage presents another classic one-off racing car, a car that remains untouched for almost 40 years somewhere in a corner of the DeTomaso factory.
This one-off is was a ambitious project by Alejandro de Tomaso and Carroll Shelby to produce a racing car that was able to compete in the Can-Am Challenge and the FIA GT-class.
DeTomaso had just launched the Vallelunga road car with its unusual backbone chassis, which used a diminutive four cylinder Ford engine as a stressed member. One of the biggest complaints about the svelte two-seater was the lack of power. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to get more power was to fit a compact and powerful American V8 engine. This is probably where Shelby entered the story as he supplied a competition version of the small-block Ford V8. We can only guess, whether Shelby believed the V8 engined DeTomaso could be a possible replacement for the aging Cooper based King Cobras, but he certainly took the project seriously.
To accept the more powerful engine, De Tomaso made only minor modifications to the design of the backbone chassis. Unlike the more familiar backbone chassis used by Lotus, the Italian variant did not have an Y-fork to support the engine and suspension. Well ahead of his time, De Tomaso used the engine as a fully stressed member. It left observers in period wondering what would happen to the engine and its internals once force was applied to it. Their worries were justified, but ironically it was the central spine chassis itself that did not prove to be rigid enough. The suspension followed a more familiar pattern with the exception of the rear mounting points; brackets on the clutch housing instead of somewhere on the chassis. The rolling chassis was exceptionally light due to its minimalistic design, which would later (in better executed form) would become the norm particularly for single seater racers.
Shelby asked his designer Peter Brock to pen a roadster body for the new DeTomaso racing car. The finished designs were sent to Italy to be turned into aluminium by local metal workers. The same design was also used to body the last of the King Cobras, known as the Lang Cooper. In January of 1965 De Tomaso took the wraps off the 'Sport 5000', which used a mock-up chassis and a poor interpretation of Brock's design.
Disappointed by the Italians' work, Shelby sent his designer over to personally supervise the construction of the body for the first running car. Brock worked alongside Medardo Fantuzzi in the Fantuzzi workshop. The result was a very low body, dominated by a large, moveable rear wing and partly covered rear wheels. The body also featured full doors to make it eligible for GT-racing. After being mated to a fully rolling chassis, the new racing car was christened DeTomaso P70.
Again it is uncertain when and why, but some time in 1965 Shelby withdrew his backing of the project. It is generally accepted that all his efforts were needed to turn the Ford GT40 into a Le Mans, which he duly did. With Shelby out of the picture, De Tomaso had to look for another backer. In coach builder Ghia he found an unlikely sponsor, which led to the car to be renamed to 'Ghia DeTomaso' before the Turin debut. Alongside the striking red racing car, DeTomaso also showed a rolling chassis, powered by a V8 engine at Turin. The P70 / Ghia DeTomaso was shown again in February of 1966; probably the last time the car was shown in public. At the time of the Road & Track article Brock had left Shelby and set up his own design firm. He was also going to be the distributor for the car in North America. The rear body treatment of the P70 was later used in the Brock design Suzuki Hino racing car.
While the original P70 was never raced, a second example was built much along the same lines, complying with the latest regulations. Dubbed the Sport 5000, it was first fielded at the 1966 Mugello 500 km for Roberto Businello. The Sport 5000's name was derived after its 5-litre engine with light alloy cylinder heads, pistons and connecting rods which along with four Weber carburetors, special cam, cam timing and ignition timing allowed the small-block Ford to produce up 475 bhp at 7300 rpms.
Sadly, the race ended after only a single lap and the car was not raced again. The project was abandoned but it did lay the foundation of the subsequent Mangusta road car, which also featured a backbone chassis and a small-block Ford V8.
Specifications
Country of origin: Italy
Produced in: 1965
Numbers built: one-off
Introduced at: 1965 Turin Auto Show
Designed by: Peter Brock for Fantuzzi
Engine
Configuration: Ford V8
Location: Mid, longitudinally mounted
Construction: Cast-iron block, aluminium alloy head
Displacement: 4.73 liter / 288.6 cu in
Bore / Stroke: 97.5 mm (3.8 in) / 70.0 mm (2.8 in)
Valvetrain: 2 valves / cylinder, OHV
Fuel feed: 4 Weber Carburettors
Aspiration: Naturally Aspirated
Power: 475 bhp / 354 KW @ 7300 rpm
BHP/Liter: 100 bhp/liter
Drivetrain
Body: Aluminium
Chassis: Steel backbone chassis
Front suspension: Double wishbones, coil springs over tubular shock absorbers
Rear suspension: Reversed lower wishbones, top links, twin trailing arms, coil springs over tubular shock absorbers
Steering: Rack-and-pinion
Brakes: Ventilated discs, all-round
Gearbox: 5 speed Manual
Drive: Rear wheel drive
Dimensions
Weight: 660 kilo / 1455.1 lbs
Length: 4084 mm (160.8 in)
Width: 1765 mm (69.5 in)
Height: n/a
Wheelbase: 2362 mm (93 in)
Track (fr/r): 1359 mm (53.5 in) / 1384 mm (54.5 in)
Performance figures
Power to weight: 0.72 bhp/kg
THE OTHER DETOMASOS ARE HERE:
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