De Tomaso Announces Its Comeback With Achingly Beautiful P72

As part of the company’s 60th anniversary celebrations, De Tomaso is giving us this: the P72.

If you are sitting reading this thinking, ‘Hmm, the car looks familiar’, then you’re not far wrong - the P72 has been inspired by the P70 – a prototype race car powered by a Cobra V8.

It was the work of Alejandro De Tomaso, Carroll Shelby and Peter Brock who joined forces in the early Sixties. Unfortunately, the three parted company and the project had to be canned.

Performance and technical information is pretty thin on the ground, but what we do know is that there are no fancy automated shifters in the P72 but rather a good old-fashioned manual.

Naturally, the car is pure theatre and has generated significant interest during its time at the Goodwood Festival of Speed where it is being show to the world via live ‘demonstration’ runs. It sits on the same trick carbon fibre chassis that underpins the Apollo Intensa Emozione.

The interior epitomises craftsmanship at its finest and is a real thing of beauty. There are six softly backlit analogue dials, the biggest being the speedometer, while the top half of the squircle-shaped steering wheel is finished in expensive carbon fibre and the lower half in soft grained leather.

The bucket-seats are also upholstered in tan hide and feature an intricate diamond cross-stitch pattern.

Another highlight is the machine milled gear knob that operates the gear linkage. This has been left ‘open’ so that you can sit in awe and admire how the various components work.

If you like the look of the De Tomaso P72 (come on, who doesn’t?) and have a spare £674,000 (or €750,000 going by today’s exchange rates) kicking about in your bank account, then deposits are now being accepted.