Exactly 60 years after De Tomaso was founded – and 15 years after the original iteration of the company folded – the automaker marked its return with the gorgeous P72. The svelte coupe debuted at the 2019 Goodwood Festival Of Speed with a Ford V8 engine boasting upwards of 700 horsepower (515 kilowatts).
But that was just the prototype, and now we wait anxiously for the first of the 72 production examples to hit the road, which should happen sometime next year. In anticipation, De Tomaso rolled a beautiful baby blue prototype onto the lawn of the Concorso D'Eleganza Villa D'Este in Lake Como, Italy last weekend – further whetting our appetite for this fantastic supercar.
Photographed here by Freddie Atkins, who goes by the username TFJJ on Instagram, the images show the P72 both static and in motion along the shores of Lake Como. This isn't the first we've seen this particular shade of blue on the P72, admittedly; the same prototype spent some time in Florida for The Amelia, the Miami Concours, and elsewhere over the past few years.
That baby blue exterior opens up to a contrasting white interior with quilted leather on the seats and a matching diamond-patterned aluminum on the center of the steering wheel and surrounding the instrument cluster. Even the aluminum gear lever boasts the same diamond pattern.
De Tomaso initially planned to build the P72 and all future vehicles at a production facility in the US. Unfortunately, pandemic-related disruptions forced the company to look elsewhere, with execs finalizing a new manufacturing plant and a test facility near the Nurburgring in Germany.
As mentioned, the first examples of the De Tomaso P72 should make their way to customers in 2023. The company is planning a limited production run of just 72 units globally, each one with an estimated asking price of around $890,000 (€750,000).
