[alfa] Re: alfa-digest V10 #35

[George Graves <gmgraves@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nope. Tjarda designed the PANTERA, not the Mangusta. The Mangusta is 
pure Bertone years Giugiaro.

A little background. According to the Winter of 1969 issue of 
'Automobile Quarterly', The 'U.S. Version' production Mangusta was a 
disappointment with a Ford 302 V-8 and a single Autolite 4-bbl 
carburetor for 230 HP @ 4800 RPM. This power train gave a 0-60 time of 
7.7 seconds, and had a top speed of 133 MPH with a price-tag, F.O.B. 
Anaheim California (the importers), of $10,950. The European version 
used a Ford 289* with the Shelby Cobra Holly 4-bbl for 306 HP and would 
do 0-60 in 5.9 seconds, and had a top speed of 152 mph.

Th reality of the car is that they weren't very good. Stunning looking, 
they had really SLOW steering (4.5 turns lock-to lock) and they got 
really light in the front end at anything approaching 120 mph (IIRC) 
and became very squirrely. The U.S. version is not much faster than a 
stock Alfa GTV-6. The production cars suffered numerous electrical 
gremlins, were totally unreliable, and the chassis is rust prone in 
places where rust = chassis failure (according to British magazine 
'Sports and Classic Cars') and is therefore a serious safety issue. A 
beautiful body but it simply wasn't meant to be. That's why De Tomaso 
cut his losses with the Mangusta and redesigned the concept as Tjarda's 
Pantera - nowhere near as good looking, but obviously more produceable.

* The show car had a Ford 289 with 4 2-bbl Webbers for about 350 HP.

George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0 'S'



On Apr 13, 2004, at 10:20 PM, alfa-digest wrote:

> Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 19:16:38 -0400
> From: RonHorowitz <RonHorowitz@domain.elided>
> Subject: Subject: [alfa] Car in Kill Bill II
>
>> Can anyone ID the car that David Carradine drives in the new Kill Bill
> movie?
>
> DeTomaso Mangusta. IIRC, the car was designed by the American Tom 
> Tjarda
> while he was at Ghia. A couple of months ago, the car was advertised 
> for
> sale in the San Luis Obispo area. IIRC, the owner was asking something 
> like
> $45k.
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