Built in the early winter of 1969 under special order for William (Bill) Mitchell who was the Vice President of Design for General Motors. He had seen the Mangusta prototype at the Turin Show in the fall of 1968 and he asked Alessandro De Tomaso to build one for him, but not with a Ford engine. His reply was that Mitchell should send him whatever engine that he wanted and that he would have it installed in a Mangusta at the factory in Modena and sent to him.

Bill came back to Detroit and called Zora Arkus Duntov. He told him that he needed an engine for a car that he had bought in Italy. Zora asked him what engine that he wanted and Bill told him that someone would get back to him. He then called Doug Patterson who was the engineer in charge of all of the Specialty Vehicles at Design Staff, including Bill’s personal cars, of which there were many. Doug, a racing and aerodynamic expert had been in charge of the Chrysler NASCAR racing programs and had recently been hired at Design Staff after they quit racing. He was hired to be responsible for all special vehicles and also to manage the newly developing aerodynamic program at Design Staff.

Doug did some research and found out that the Chevrolet 327CI small block engine with 350 HP was going to be introduced in the Corvette in the 1970 model year. Although the horsepower was much higher that the Mangusta’s Ford engine, Doug felt that the lightweight small block would work well in the car. Production engines were not yet available but many of the parts were.

After speaking to engineers at Chevrolet, Doug defined an engine that would work well with the light weight (2957 pounds) and high traction that were available in the Mangusta. He asked for the 327 c.i.. block which would have the four bolt main bearing caps, the 350 high compression heads, but 327 rods and crankshaft. This combination would diminish the torque but would tend to rev more quickly. The appropriate heads and a hydraulic cam and lifters were available and It was topped off with a four barrel Quadrajet carburettor. The engine was run on a dynamometer to be checked out and then sent to De Tomaso in Modena.

Cooling components were left the same as the Ford powered cars, two small electric fans behind the radiator. A simple three-quarter inch thick aluminium plate was all that was required to mate the ZF gearbox with the Chevrolet engine.

The car was flown to the United States in May 1970 and delivered to Design Staff at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. The carburettor had been stolen shortly after the engine arrived in Italy so the car had never been run by the factory. Doug and his people got the car running in short order and Bill Mitchell looked at it and expressed his desire to drive it soon. That meant ASAP. He did not like the look of the 70 Series Dunlop tires so a set of Good Year 60 Series was installed.

Much to the chagrin of the in-house accountants at Design Staff, Mitchell had bought three cars on his trip to the Turin show, and promised builders to buy another when it was ready.

Two were designed by Giugiaro, the Mangusta, in bright orange and the complementary yellow Maserati Ghibli. Bill also bought a silver Lamborghini Espada, a sensational four place coupe designed at Stile Bertone. About the same time Chevrolet Division bought a silver Mangusta and a red Lamborghini Miura, also designed at Bertone. Later it was discovered that Mitchell had also promised two ex-Ferrari engine engineers that had started their own company to build a mid-engine sports car, that he would buy one of their first cars. This promise was made at a late night dinner with Carlo Renzi, the brother in law of Sergio Pininfarina at Le Gato Nero, a popular restaurant in Turin frequented by the upper echelons of the Italian motor industry. It was a very conventional Ferrari-esque looking car called the ATS. That car would eventually appear in the executive garage as the Mangusta left Mitchell’s fleet of toys.

Bill Mitchell’s favourite cars, the ones that he drove personally, were always parked on the north end of the executive garage. All of the newly acquired vehicles appeared as soon as they were available, the three cars caused a sensation, even though they were in the presence of many of Mitchell’s outstanding special vehicles and show cars. Practically every designer in the building made at least one pass a day through the garage to see the latest Italian design stars. The three cars were all leading edge from a design standpoint and that is why he bought them. All had dramatic proportion and a new shear form language first expressed by Giugiaro that would have a profound influence on every designer at GM, as well as the rest of the world. The flat surfaces complemented by gentle curves and sharp edges was very much in contrast to the current design culture of the day that prevailed on the global automotive design scene.

Finally, Doug had the car ready for Bill to drive, he passed the message on to Sybil, Bill’s secretary and had the car parked in the garage. The preparation had been done quickly and some things that were to be discovered later were not corrected. That night Bill came down about six thirty, it was a beautiful sunny Michigan evening. He drove the car around the manmade lake at the Tech Center, back into the garage and never got into it again.

He was very upset to say the least. He thought that De Tomaso, who had a notorious reputation for being underhanded had played some kind of trick on him. He could hardly get into the car, it was so low, actually 43-inches high. As he sat in the seat, the rear view mirror was behind his head. It was the hardest riding car that he had ever driven and the 60 series tires did not help. One of Bill’s design assistants, Clare Machichan would drive the car most of the time until it was soon decided to sell it and buy the ATS.

Several reasons existed that prevented Bill from driving the car in the enjoyable manner that he expected. Dick Ruzzin discovered after purchasing the car that all of the front and rear suspension bolts had been tightened down and not released in preparation for Bills first drive. Doug surmised, after it was discovered that it may have been done for the air shipment, to prevent the car from bouncing in transit. The new tires made the ride worse. Also, the seat cushions, like those in all exotics of the times, were on the floor of the car and the seat backs, although they were adjustable by concealed screws, were almost vertical, causing Mitchell to sit with his forehead almost contacting the top of the windshield.

Mitchell’s unhappiness with the car was not the only reason to get rid of it. Chevrolet and Design were both studying mid-engine cars and would eventually show several to the public as Corvette concepts or studies. Remember that Chevrolet also bought a Mangusta and a Miura. Some of us had heard that Ford had made an alliance with De Tomaso to build a Ford-powered sports car that would be imported into the United States. Henry Haga’s Chevrolet Three Studio was working on a mid-engine Corvette proposal and John DeLorean, the Chevrolet General Manager and GM Vice President kept asking Hank to bring the Mangusta every time that the mid-engine Corvette was taken outside for his review.

That was a problem. Hank did not mind the comparison, the Mangusta was without question a beautiful car and already considered a design icon even though it was brand new. Its presence would encourage the studio and the supporting Chevrolet engineers to push harder for an aesthetic solution that would exceed that of the Mangusta. The problem was that there were a number of key elements in the aesthetic and physical makeup of the Mangusta that could not be entertained by Chevrolet, thereby creating a very unfair comparison, the last thing that you need when you are designing a car.

The Mangusta was small, it was 43-inches high and it looked light and fast. The interior package was much tighter than one that would be acceptable for the average Corvette customer, the headlights were too low to be legal, they were exempted along with other safety items for importation and the car did not have even a pretense of usable bumpers. Also, the body was part unibody and part frame which would be costly and difficult for Chevrolet.

The low weight was also enhanced by the generous use of aluminium for major body panels. The Mangusta also had a sixty-seven degree windshield angle, far too speedy for a production car of the times. It was the steepest angle of any car produced. GM designers had been told for years that a windshield steeper than sixty degrees was not achievable or practical.

Hank complained to Bill about DeLorean’s requests for the Mangusta and it was immediately sent to the Design warehouse for storage, out of sight of DeLorean, to await disposition. At that time GM sold evaluation vehicles that it was finished with by first having three dealers submit sealed bids, establishing a high bid, then offering the car to interested employees as first choice for that price. If no one wanted it, it was then sold to the high bidding dealer.

One of the engineers that I was working with saw a sale notice on a bulletin board and told me that I should buy it. At that time I had an XKE coupe that I had spent a considerable amount of time improving and was very happy with it. Besides I did not know what it would cost and really did not have any money to spend. I heard that several designers were interested in the purchase and decided that I should put my name in to buy it, assuming that I would not ever really have the opportunity. At least I could say that I had tried.

It turned out that three of us, all designers, in a building of 1200 people, wanted to buy the car. The other two designers lived in the same apartment building and only one of them secretly wanted it. Accounting decided to have a drawing to see which of the three of us would get the car. I was invited to attend by phone but was too busy to go as I was getting a show together for Ed Cole, a two passenger Vega based sports car, oddly enough in ignorance of the Ford mid-engine program I called it the Pantera.

The call had interrupted the work I was doing and I completely forgot that things were getting very serious regarding the Mangusta. Later I received another call and was told that I had won the raffle. I replied, ‘What raffle?’ I was getting in deeper and deeper.

I had won the opportunity to buy the car and could take until Tuesday after the Labor Day weekend to give notice, one way or the other. That night there was a retirement party for one of our sculptors that was quite widely attended. Everyone had heard that I had the chance to buy the car. I had pretty much decided that I could not do it based on cost but by the time the party was over I had been convinced many times over that I had the chance of a lifetime. I left for home thinking that somehow I had to find a way.

I had not had a single thought about how the car would run. I was told by someone that it had a Chevrolet engine and I could only focus at that time on the way that it looked. In retrospect, that was not surprising since most of my life had been concerned with aesthetics. I later called Doug and discussed the car with him. I had worked with him on the first aero projects and respected his opinion, he said that it was a good car and that I should buy it.

My wife was not pleased to say the least when I finally brought myself to explain the opportunity to her the next morning. I had until the day after Labor Day to decide and when she asked me what colour the interior was I had to admit that I did not know, I had not really looked at the car closely. On Saturday morning I took my youngest son Greg, who was six, in to look at the car. Security opened the door to enter the room where it was stored and I stopped as Greg walked up to it. ‘Wow’, he said, ‘I never saw a car that I could see over the top of!’

We got inside, the red leather interior smelled new and it had 1241 miles on the odometer. The familiar looking Chevrolet V8 was behind the passenger compartment, buried low in the engine bay. It took me about a week to sell the Jaguar to my neighbour and get financing and insurance. I then owned a Mangusta, at that time the most admired car design in the free world. Thanks to its Chevrolet engine, it was also very fast.