De Tomaso Announces Global Expansion and New European Production Facility

Further strengthening the P72 Programme story, the final P72 production will be conducted by capricorn, in a new state-of-the-art facility at the legendary Nürburgring.
In the pursuit of perfection, we spare no expense to ensure the highest level of engineering, quality and safety on our vehicles. Despite the complexities caused by COVID-19, our team has been diligently working to find the most efficient path forward as we, along with the rest of the world, were forced to navigate the unknown. Whilst it was our original intent to produce the P72’s in America, the disruptions of COVID-19 would not permit us to maintain our targeted timelines. Thus, we are proud to have taken a strategic business decision to produce our pre-series and production P72’s in collaboration with capricorn at the new co-branded Nürburgring facility. Nevertheless, we retain our current US partners, facilities, powertrain operations and initiative to expand our North American presence.

This decision further solidifies our philosophy of a relentless pursuit of excellence, expanding our internal team whilst embracing strategic world-class partnerships. Our modern approach and ethos has always been rooted in having the humility to seek the best partners in the world whilst exercising transparency for those who help us achieve our goals.
“Since our revival of De Tomaso there has been a large focus on the P72 and its development programme which is progressing very well. In addition, we have been making extensive progress on our business development, setting a strong foundation for our future expansion of De Tomaso. Today we are proud to announce a new strategic partnership which reaffirms our philosophy, strengthens our core competencies and ensures the highest level of quality for our future offerings. Our P72 will not only be developed on, but also produced at the legendary Nürburgring, providing unrivaled experience, quality and value for our clients. ” — Norman Choi, Chairman — De Tomaso Automobili

“Our approach to automotive allows us to push the bounds of the possible, leveraging the strengths and scale of our strategic partners to deliver and expand in a measured and sustainable manner. The partnership allows us to collaborate with a proven, world-class leader, streamlining our operations and supply chain as with capricorn we can internalise our composite, componentry and foundry operations without creating unnecessary burdens. This permits us to retain our true essence as we continue to incorporate the pinnacle of design, engineering, craftsmanship and materials in vehicles that reinforce our principles and carry true-provenance.” — Ryan Berris, CEO/CMO — De Tomaso Automobili

Meet ‘capricorn’
Industry Leaders behind Le Mans Winning Porsche 919 Development
Our strategic partnership with capricorn is quite expansive as they will be responsible for not only our composites, chassis, suspension and castings, but also for the production of our P72 ‘pre-series’ prototypes and production vehicles.

capricorn is a world-class, specialist supplier in the automotive industry with six production facilities in four countries (Germany, France, Italy and U.K.) and is responsible for producing world-class chassis’ for programmes such as the Le Mans winning Porsche 919 LMP1, amongst other notable achievements. A list of capricorn’s successes can be found here.
“I am very proud of this partnership with De Tomaso as it is a proper rebirth of an automotive icon. Our teams share similar spirit, with a no compromise approach and motivation to solely use the best possibilities – any time and any place – to ensure extraordinary quality. The scope of our working relationship will allow us both to grow and succeed together, as our skillsets are complementary.”— Robertino Wild, CEO/Founder — capricorn Group

capricorn is not only expert for the development and production of complex fibre composite components, but also in use of the high-quality prepreg-autoclave and hot pressing technology to produce serial and prototype parts for the automotive industry, motor sports, medical engineering and aviation.
capricorn is a full-service provider, from engineering to logistics, all production stages of the parts are carried out here. And what makes this so special is that everything is produced in-house, enabling unrivaled production depth.

It is the direct response about success or failure in motor sport that drives capricorn to develop the right solutions within a defined time frame every single day. capricorn has been successfully delivering their Made in Europe products to the world of motor sport for decades – including FIA Formula 1 World Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship, FIA World Rally Championship, FIA World Touring Car Championship, Rally Dakar, NASCAR, GP2 Series, GP3 Series, MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 – to name but a few.

P72 ‘Chassis Update’
All-New Production P72 Chassis & Suspension
Our original intent was to use the carbon chassis we developed in our previous projects as the basis for the P72. However, over the course of our P72 development we found areas on which to improve, which resulted in us developing an all-new carbon chassis that provides occupants an additional 100mm of legroom and over 50mm of added headroom without changing the exterior proportions of the vehicle whilst respecting homologation requirements.

Our entirely new chassis and suspension geometry not only increase safety and ensure the highest quality standards, but lower the P72’s center-of-gravity (COG) considerably. Naturally, co-developed and built by the responsibles behind Porsche’s 919 Le Mans Winning LMP1 effort.

The all-new De Tomaso platform, has been engineered to not only meet, but to exceed respective FIA and homologation safety requirements and features a carbon mono-cell which provides occupant protection without the requirement for a roll-cage. The new chassis features a modular design, increased torsional rigidity, symmetrical design (offered in both left and right-hand configurations), and weight reduction versus the prototype platform.

P72 ‘Wind Tunnel Testing’
Location: Toyota Formula 1 Facilities
Despite the majority of automotive programmes being conducted in digital form these days, we still find it important to validate our engineering and simulations in the physical world.
Over the course of our development programme it was paramount to retain our exterior design and proportions which made the engineering tasks for our aerodynamicists quite complex as the majority of their work had to be focused on the underside of the vehicle.
Whilst our simulation aerodynamic reports (CFD) and development had shown positive, we wanted to validate a precise correlation to real-world values to ensure the highest level of occupant safety. This led to the decision being made in October 2021 to test a full-scale 1:1 model of the P72 inside a wind tunnel. And not just any wind tunnel – Toyota’s Formula 1 wind tunnel located in Cologne, Germany, arguably the most sophisticated wind tunnel in the world.

P72 Programme
The Journey to Production
We are now commencing the builds of our final ‘Pre-Series’ Prototypes as we have now completed the engineering for our production vehicle packaging. In the coming months, we will begin to debut a series of all-new ‘Pre-Series’ Prototypes and will then conduct the final stages of vehicle development, calibration, validation and crash testing prior to the start of production.

Thanks to the dedicated efforts of our team and world-class partners, P72 deliveries are set to commence in the first half of 2023.
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About De Tomaso
Founded in 1959 by racer and visionary Alejandro de Tomaso, De Tomaso Automobili is an iconic European American brand with a rich history, bold reputation and treasured European sophistication and luxury. Often known for its most successful model, the Pantera (1970-1993) and its decades-long partnership with Ford, the company’s deep roots in the American automotive landscape also include collaborations with automotive legends and visionaries such as Lee Iacocca, Carroll Shelby, Peter Brock and Tom Tjaarda. De Tomaso, known also as an M&A specialist whereby, in the 1960-1970s, it acquired names such as Ghia, Vignale, Innocenti, Moto Guzzi, Benelli and owned Maserati from 1975-1993. In 2014, Ideal Team Ventures (ITV), widely known for its rebirth of Apollo Automobil, acquired the rights to De Tomaso, leading to the company’s revival introduction in 2019 of the coveted P72, which pays homage to De Tomaso’s P70 racing car in a tribute to the brands 60th anniversary. The P72’s are currently in the final phases of their homologation programme and production of the P72 is slated to begin in 2023. For more information, please visit https:// detomaso-automobili.com

About capricorn
capricorn is a specialist supplier in the automotive industry with six production facilities in four countries across Europe and their headquarters in Düsseldorf, Germany. Every single one of capricorn’s businesses has evolved from motor sport and consequently developed over the years. It is the direct response about success or failure in motor sport that drives capricorn to develop the right solutions within a defined time frame every single day.Individually customized products of the highest quality in a very short timeframe is the level of service capricorn is committed to providing. That’s why highly motivated specialists work at capricorn, using their expertise, innovative materials and technologies, as well as plenty of passion to deliver excellent work for their clients. And that’s what wows capricorn’s clients – who are all from the motor sport elite and the OEM automotive and processing industry. capricorn has developed into a technology partners also in series production in the automotive industry as well as entered the aviation and medial applications markets. capricorn has been successfully delivering their Made in Europe products to the world of motor sport for decades – including FIA Formula 1 World Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship, FIA World Rally Championship, FIA World Touring Car Championship, Rally Dakar, NASCAR, GP2 Series, GP3 Series, MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3 – to name just a few. For more information, please visit https:// www.capricorngroup.net/en/