Allen Nugent wrote:
> >Fe***ris ARE Fiats! :)
>
> Blasphemer! Would you say that Jaguars are Fords? Or that
> Lotuses are Protons?
>
> Actually, Ford tried to buy Ferrari during the '50s, but Enzo
> backed out at the last minute. Ford bought Pantera instead.
Heh, heh. How I love to wind people up! Henry Ford II took an
Italian bride in the very early 1960s, and Henry wanted to impress the
young woman - he wanted to buy an Italian car company. Enzo at the
time was trying to sell the automobile side of Ferrari. Enzo actually
hated building cars for the road, wanting to build only race cars.
For Enzo, the road cars were a way of paying the bills for his racing
efforts.
Henry saw this this and thought that Enzi also wanted to sell his
controlling interest in the racing effort, and so sent (I think) a
very young Lee Iacocca to negotiate with Enzo. Henry knew that racing
results sold cars. The negaotiations went badly as both sides wanted the
racing factory and Enzo withdrew from the table in a rather heated
manner. Henry was left with egg all over his face. So what do to,
but beat the Italian maestro at his own game. Henry turned to
Shelby, but the Cobra was getting a little old, and not really up to a
full-on assault in Europe. The GT40 was born.
The Ford GT40, built at a cost of $11m in 1960s dollars, had one
purpose - beat Ferrari at Le Mans. The rest is history.
Henry's next idea was to market the GT40 to the masses, but it was a
little on the *ahem* expensive side. Lee had made some friends in
Italy during his negaotiations with Enzo, one of them being the young
entrepeneur Alejandro DeTomaso.
Alejandro arrived in Italy from Argentina in the late 1950s, and
worked his way up through the racing ranks of Maserati to finally race
OSCAs with some success. But he wanted more, he wanted to market cars
head-to-head with Ferrari. His first car was the Vallelunga, the
worlds first production mid-engined car powered by a Kent crossflow
in one of the most beautiful bodies ever designed. Tom Mateo,
designer of the Miata, owns one and considers it the most beautiful
car ever designed. This was 1964 or so. Alejando's next car in 1966 was
the Mangusta, a mid-engined Ford 289-powered spine chassis car with body
designed by Giugiaro (sp?). The name Mangusta (Mongoose) was a
playful gesture towards Carrol Shelby and his Cobra. As beautiful
as the 'Goose was, it was no Cobra beater.
Lee knew of this marriage between Italian design and Ford motors, and
suggested to Henry that he knew of a company that could produce a GT40
look-alike in short order. Remember this was a time of the
Corvette XP-2 (?) and AMX mid-engined prototypes, and Ford
wanted to be the first kid on the block. Henry said GO.
A deal was struck between Ford and DeTomaso (Alejandro at this time
had bought the Ghia studios) so that DeTomaso would provide Ford with cars.
In 18 months, the design genius of Dallara (chassis) and Tom Tjaarda
(body) had the Pantera rolling off the production line in 1970.
As a footnote, Americans were not prepared for Italian exotics that
were sold through Lincoln-Mercury dealerships, and relations soured
between Ford and DeTomaso. As a part of a buyout agreement in 1974 between
Ford and DeTomaso, Ford returned DeTomaso to Alejandro, and Ghia was
sold to Ford.
DeTomaso continues to this day the only automobile manufacturer in
Italy that is 100% owned by the founding family. As I write this,
Alejandro is in poor health, but his son continues with the tradition.
Now, Allen, you ask me if I can call Jaguars Fords? Consider this;
Enzo SOLD Ferrari cars to Fiat while he was still alive. What would
we think of Jaguar had Sir William Lyons sold it when he was alive?
No, Lyons had been dead 4 years before Ford came to the fore and
bought controlling interest in Jaguar. These and the other companies
you name are now run by international committees, not men.
Yes, Jaguar is Ford and Lotus is GM.
TVR is TVR and Morgan is Morgan, thank God!
Shane Ingate in San Diego
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