Once an ambassador of the "Italian musclecar," a hybrid between the gorgeous Italian car designs of the 1960s and 1970s and American V-8 power, De Tomaso has been struggling to come back from its bankruptcy for more than a decade now. The Modena-based firm went into liquidation in 2004, 11 years after discontinuing the iconic Pantera model to replace it with the Guara, a carbon-fiber-bodied supercar using a Maserati, Ford and BMW parts. Since then, both former Fiat exec Gian Mario Rossignolo and Automobili Turismo e Sport bought the rights to the name in an attempt to revive the company. Unfortunately, the highly anticipated comeback has yet to happen. But there’s some good news coming from Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, which reports De Tomaso has a new owner after being bought by a Swiss investment group.
Switzerland’s L3 Holdings won the rights to the De Tomaso name with a bid of €2 million ($2.19 million as of 03/23/2015) over rival offers from Italy’s Eos Group and China’s Consolidated Ideal TeamVenture, the report adds. The new owners allegedly want to hire 360 employees and open a new manufacturing facility near Turin, Italy by 2021. The plant would be used to build a new mid-engined sports car, but details are scarce as of this writing. The report goes on to say that L3 Holdings is closely tied with Genii Capital, the Luxembourg-based investment firm that runs the Lotus F1 team.
Continue reading to learn what the future will bring for De Tomaso.
De Tomaso Sold To Swiss Company, New Sports Car Coming In 2021 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 23 March 2015 17:00 EST.
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