In truth, there was never really any semblance of stability for De Tomaso as a car maker, between the several flops of the early years and the broken ties with Ford, it was just one long roller coaster ride.
Being one of their customers must have been interesting, especially if you bought a Pantera through a Ford dealership back in the 70s only to go back to them later on with no De Tomaso, or support for their cars in sight. In the 80s they found a rhythm with Maserati and made some of the best Pantera models in those years, but by the 90s, the long 20 year Pantera production run was finally at an end.
They needed something fresh to spark interest in the brand once again, and they pinned their hopes on the Guara, their all new mid-engine supercar.
10 The Last De Tomaso
As it happened, all those hopes were at least to some extent misplaced. As a company, they always seemed to be on the verge of bankruptcy, but somehow found investors or sales in the 11th hour.
The Guara would actually turn out to be their last hour in business terms, but it was actually a great way to sign off.
9 Outlandish Design
Penned by the same man who designed the Maserati Barchetta, Carlo Gaino, it looked every bit like a prototype racer with its low, wide profile.
Those looks are not by accident, this was supposed to be a road going version of the Barchetta, it was not supposed to be a De Tomaso at all, but when Fiat bought Maserati that plan went out the window and the Guara was born.
8 BMW Power
The BMW V8 seemed like a shrewd choice, being an all aluminum construction it kept the weight right down.
Strangely, the engine went in pretty much bone-stock, so it was making the same power as it would in the average 90s 540i, which was around 280 horses. When you consider all the top-notch race derived components, including a Getrag transmission, this was a truly bizarre decision.
7 Loud Interior
As a roadster the lack of refinement could easily be overlooked as the loud, raucous nature of the car would form part of the appeal.
For those who expected more refinement from the coupe version would have been in for a shock as that lack of refinement was still there in full force, the noise of the V8 and Getrag behind you almost deafening.
6 Unusually Wide
It is not something you can necessarily pick up in photos, the best way to put it in perspective is reading the dimensions.
The car is 165 inches long, and it is 79 inches wide, meaning to say it is half as wide as it is long. Those strange proportions will make one way alleys an event, especially if somebody is parked on the curb!
5 Rose-Jointed Suspension
The car has an unusually wide track for a very specific reason, it has race spec suspension underneath that composite shell.
It is the same kind of suspension you would find on F1 cars, which isn’t by accident at all, as this was exactly what the Barchetta came with.
4 Sharp Handling
As a direct result, the handling is pretty much what you would expect it to be, incredibly precise.
It also didn’t have power steering, so the driver could have maximum feel, all good and well on track but on bumpy urban roads at low speeds it would be a handful. The heavy steering was a workout and its precise nature made it feel twitchy.
3 Rare And Expensive
Only around 50 of these exotic supercars were made (why they can’t say for sure is beyond us, most sources say 52 though), when they were being sold new they had a sticker price of over $100,000.
Over the past couple decades anything made by De Tomaso has been getting more valuable and since the company finally went into liquidation in 2004 these have steadily been getting more expensive.
2 Slower Than Its Rivals
It got from 0-60 in 5 seconds, so it's not like it was slow, it was just slower than pretty much all the other supercars in this price bracket. It really feels like the car wasn’t finished, that V8 needed a proper tune, a decent exhaust and a different map.
All it got was a red line of 7,000 rpm which counted for nothing, with the power dipping considerably after 6,500 rpm. The BMW engine was swapped for a supercharged Ford V8 from 1998, but even though we don’t have any performance figures for those cars, it is safe to say the added weight of that engine will offset the extra horsepower, at least in terms of acceleration.
1 The End Of An Era
It was and still is an impressive car, it is also achingly rare now, so it certainly won’t be getting any cheaper.
Not that it ever was “cheap” or even “affordable,” it has just gotten too expensive for anyone to actually go out and thrash it on a track, which is pretty clearly what it was designed for.