De Tomaso Guarà

Front view of De Tomaso Guarà

The De Tomaso Guarà was a sports car by Italian automobile manufacturer De Tomaso. It was the last model that was sold under the name De Tomaso. The Guarà was at the Geneva Motor Show in 1993 as a coupe and - considered much more - presented as Barchetta; and followed up with a cabriolet version. Initially engines from BMW were used; 1998 De Tomaso equipped the vehicles with Ford engines from then. The Guarà was made in a period of ten years in only 34 copies; the significant financial problems, among which De Tomaso suffered since the early 1990s, were offset by the inclusion of a regular, secure production.

The concept

The De Tomaso Guarà should start in the 1990s, the successor of the now more than 20 years old De Tomaso Pantera, which were presented in a 1990, had to sell externally heavily revised second series only in a few copies. The initiative to develop the De Tomaso Guarà goes back to the company founder Alejandro de Tomaso; However, after he had suffered a stroke in February 1993, the project under the leadership of his son Santiago was completed.

The De Tomaso Guarà was designed as a high performance sports car with mid-engine drive. He was a development of the Maserati Barchetta, the Maserati 1991 - was primarily designed for competition purposes - at that time still owned by Alejandro de Tomaso. Accordingly, the concept of Guarà revealed many influences from racing: With glass or aramid fiber reinforced plastic and other composite materials form the outer skin, which is stretched over a tubular frame. It rests - similar already at De Tomaso's first road model, the Vallelunga - on a central tube frame made of aluminum, which were connected several subframes. The construction of the frame corresponds largely to the Maserati Barchetta. At the landing gear were found inside spring-damper elements as in Formula 1 and Champ Car race car.

Body versions

Unlike the second series of the De Tomaso Pantera and unlike the last Maserati models of De Tomaso era, the body of the Guarà was not designed by Marcello Gandini. For the design rather the Turin designer Carlo Gaino was responsible. He designed a low and pronounced round vehicle body. The vehicle's front was folding headlights, and on the vehicle flanks large, showy air intakes found for the arranged behind the driver seat motor. The rear overhangs were kept small, was located above the engine cover a large area rear spoiler, which was integrated into the body. Three different body styles were derived from the basic design:

• The most common model was a two -seat coupe with a fixed roof. Three coupes were converted subsequently into Spyder on customer request and with the approval of the work of the resident in Bastiglia body manufacturer Bacchelli & Villa, a 2011 coupe replenished had a targa top.

• Even before the coupe, the Barchetta was presented an uncompromisingly open vehicle for competitive missions: they had no roof, and the minimum front windshield only fulfilled the function of a wind deflector. The Barchetta was run with helmet. She was consistently focused on lightweight construction. All the comforts of serving components were removed.

• A third version was a Spyder, an open version with fixed windshield. The soft top was folded down completely. In the open state, the folded roof was under a plastic cover behind the seats. This version was only possible with the BMW engines initially used. The Ford engines used from 1998 were significantly larger and prevented the use of a top compartment.

The drive technology

Initially, the Guarà models were powered by a compact, high-performance BMW engines. De Tomaso Thus turned away from the approach followed for nearly 30 years, to use high-volume Ford engines. From 1998, however, De Tomaso returned to Ford engines. This change was primarily economic reasons: The Ford engines were indeed significantly larger and heavier and also less sophisticated than the BMW engines, but they cost only a third of German engines.

BMW engines

Used between 1993 and 1998 De Tomaso BMW eight-cylinder engines of the type M60B40. The engines had a displacement of 4.0 liters, had two overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. The power amounted to 286 hp; by changes to the engine management, the performance could be increased to 304. Whether this version was actually delivered, is doubtful. The work also announced an even more powerful version with an Alpina engine; but it was not realized. The engines were connected to a manual six-speed transmission from Getrag, for the different gear ratios were available, and depending on the customer's desire optimum acceleration values ​​or the largest possible maximum speed allowed.

The volume of production of the BMW Guaras is unclear in detail; most sources predict that by 1996 15 cars with BMW engine were prepared to which were added three or four more copies to 1998.

Ford engines

Starting in 1998, Ford engines were used exclusively. The eight-cylinder engines were prepared by Visteon in Canada. They had a displacement of 4.6 liters, reported two overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder and made 305 hp. In 2000, De Tomaso announced the development of a stronger version with turbocharging, which should make between 375 hp and 430 hp. The project was never realized for lack of money.

As part of the transition to Ford engines and the transmission was changed. The Getrag unit was replaced with a manual six-speed transmission from ZF Friedrichshafen; Moreover, there was a modified differential.

The changes led to an overall negative on the weight of the car from: Fitted with Ford engines Guarà weighed 200 kg more than their predecessors with BMW engines. Together with a significantly higher center of gravity, which resulted from the greater height and the higher weight, the Ford Guaras were significantly less handy than the BMW models.

Production

The first vehicles - especially coupes - came in 1994 in the sale. Production was interrupted again and again in the following years. As of 2000, only a few vehicles were produced; they had in the work ordered separately and are paid in advance. By 2005, the Guarà was available in Italy and in Switzerland and Austria on the paper sheet; but actually ended the regular production in 2004, when insolvency proceedings are de Tomaso was opened. The last vehicle in 2004 commissioned but not completed until 2011 during the ongoing insolvency proceedings as a coupe with a targa roof and delivered to an Austrian customer.

An export to the U.S., in the Alejandro de Tomaso initially great hopes had set, the factory never took place. The U.S. importer of De Tomaso got a vehicle without engine and delivered without a chassis number.

The production of each model is distributed without consideration of subsequent conversions as follows: