Now that I mentioned it in another thread, I will ask about that as I have wondered about its fate. I saw it when it was still a pushmobile, in a trash pile inside the plant. The dashboard was painted on! So I was quite surprised decades later when I saw it in Italian Car magazine as a running driving car. Does anyone have that article? Does it say it was put on a running Mangusta chassis? I don't think the original pushmobile chassis would have been practical, it having diffrent exhausts, a different engine, wider than normal wheels (more inset) etc. The car evolved through several showings at one time saying Ghia 5000 on the back on plexiglass. The color was a dark gold metallic, same on the wheels with the script all black (presaging the many car companies that had blacked out trim). Does the Italian CAr story say who bought it? Has it been sold since. I think if it hasn't had a chassis change it could be a million dollar car since the first of anything is usually worth the most.It might have been sold in the package deal where someone bought something like twelve DeTomaso prototypes in one fell swoop.
The article in "Italian Cars" magazine (issue #2 1990) does not say anything specifically about the car photographed for the article. It's more a history of the Mangusta model, with quotes taken from other magazines of the time. It does appear to be a running example, but the odometer only reads 47 miles.
If a car was not running when it was a pushmobile and is put on a production chassis, is it still the same car? Or is it production car chassis' serial number? On the other hand if the show car body was melded with the production car chassis by the factory you could say it was a factory built Mangusta.
i was at the factory in 97. i saw the car in the warehouse. although i didnt see it run, i believe it was converted to a runner. the interior was different losing the single plane glass and replaced with off the self guages. other details are different also since the intial PR photos.. cheers hf
I say if there was a 20-year period in which the pushmobile lay fallow and it was put on a produciton chassis, now my spotlight shines on whether the chassis had a chasiss number on it already. I have been to the DeTomaso factory and saw how they had junk stored everywhere , even Vallelunga junk, so I can see that they had an un-numbered Mangusta chassis if you want to give them the benefit of the doubt. But I want to give my World War II airplane example: If North American finished a P51 the day after VJ day do you call it a WWII plane or a WWII-era plane. I say "era" because it was made about the same time as the war, but not during the war. So I think if this car ever went to auction, there would have to be some 'splainen' to do why the engine compartment and dash look so different than the car that wowed them at the auto show decades before. But being that it's the same automaker and they never sold the car, you could always say it is what they say it is...
