De Tomaso P72 gets a 5.0-liter Ford V8 with 700+ horsepower

All the comments the Hong Kong-based Consolidated Ideal TeamVentures (CIT) have made about resurrecting the De Tomaso brand have stressed the company’s focus on staying true to De Tomaso’s intentions and the values of his car company. The first proof of that came in CIT deciding to pay homage to the practically unknown De Tomaso P70 with the P72, instead of going for the slam dunk with a Pantera facsimile. The second proof comes in the choice of engine for the P72: Ford’s 5.0-liter Coyote V8 further developed by De Tomaso and Roush Performance. From De Tomaso’s first road car, the Vallelunga, to his last, the Guarà, he used Ford engines.

Final output figures will come in north of 700 horsepower and 608 pound-feet of torque thanks to a Roots-type supercharger. Yes, that’s less grunt and gumption than one gets from the 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, a coupe that costs one-tenth the P72’s 700,000 euros ($842,000 U.S.). But the men behind the project say blinding power figures are “irrelevant to ethos of this project and what we are trying to achieve.” In the words of general manager and chief marketing officer Ryan Berns, “In our opinion the market is now over-saturated with commercially driven ‘limited edition’ models primarily marketed on performance metrics. We have grown tired of this notion and thus took a contrarian approach with the P72.” The point with this car, rather, is “the provenance and the overall experience as a brand and for our clients.”

We can’t judge all of that yet, but the engine looks good on paper. Roush Performance tweaked the two four-lobe rotors in the supercharger for faster operation, better airflow and thermal efficiency, and less noise and vibration. The supercharger provides the power and response De Tomaso wants, along with regulation compliance in the U.S. and Europe. Yet the engine’s still in development as De Tomaso works to reduce the apparent presence of the supercharger, stressing an “old-school American V8 soundtrack” and the naturally aspirated spirit of the Sixties. Roush also added dry-sump lubrication, and it’s planned that the engine’s redline will lie beyond 7,500 rpm. Power gets sent to the rear axle through a six-speed manual gearbox, and we’re told to expect an audio clip soon of the “symphonic exhaust system” that exits atop the rear deck. If done right, the sound “brings one back in time as if they were on the starting grid at Le Mans in 1966.”

Miller Motorcars is the U.S. dealer for anyone still interested, but it seems this is a matter of snoozing and losing; De Tomaso will only build 72 examples of the P72 – hence the name – and the car already has more than 72 people standing in line for the chance to buy.