ARTICLE - My Mangusta Adventure

by DICK RUZZIN

Approximately 400 MANGUSTAS were built in Modena, Italy by DeTomaso Automobile. Bodies were supplied by Ghia and both the exterior and interior were designed by young designer Giorgetto Giugiaro.

All were built with Ford engines except chassis number MA-670, my Mangusta. It was 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 Alexandra DeTomaso to build one for him, but not with the standard Ford engine. His reply was that Mitchell could send him whatever engine that he wanted and that he would have it installed in a Mangusta at the factory in Modena, and sent back to him.

The Mangustas Ghia body was sent to the DeTomaso factory and a 350 horsepower Corvette engine from General Motors was installed. Cooling components were left the same as the Ford powered cars, two small electric fans behind the radiator. A simple three-quarter inch thick aluminum plate was all that was required to mate the ZF gearbox with the Corvette engine.

The car was flown to the United States and delivered to Design Staff at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.

Much to the chagrin of the accountants at Design Staff, Mitchell had bought three cars on his trip to the Turin show.

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.

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, also.

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.

Giugiaros Mangusta design would have a profound influence on every designer at GM, as well as the rest of the world. The sheer surfaces complemented by gentle curves and sharp edges was very much in contrast to the design culture of the day that prevailed on the global automotive design scene. To buy the ATS, Mitchell decided to sell the Mangusta. I received the chance to buy it through a raffle that was held in the company.

I had not had a single thought about how the car would run. I was told by someone that it had a Corvette engine, but 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.

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 to decide quickly whether to buy it or not and when she asked me what color the interior was, I had to admit that I did not know.

On Saturday morning I took my youngest son Greg, who was six, in to look at the car. We got inside, the red leather interior smelled new and there were twelve hundred and forty-two miles on the odometer. The familiar looking Corvette V8 engine was behind the passenger compartment, buried low in the engine bay. I decided that I had to buy it.

A week later I owned a Mangusta, at that time the most admired car design in the free world.

DRIVING THE CAR
It is a real thrill that I have never gotten used to. It is very fast and at the same time is easy to drive. The Corvette engine is wonderful, it revs like a whip to 6500 RPM easily and also gets decent fuel economy. It is now thirty-six years old, still very beautiful and very fast.

THE MANGUSTA DESIGN
The reason that the design has lived so well for so long is the fact that the design choice is very well made, a timeless simple theme that is beautifully executed with a great deal of sophistication and skill by the designer, Giorgetto Giugiaro.

He is the most skillful and prolific designer in the world today. He is a terrific artist and very enthusiastic about design, a very nice and unpretentious person. One of the most beautiful car design sketches that I have ever seen is one that he did, it was shown when the Alpha Sud was launched to the press at the Turin Show in 1971.

The whole ITALDESIGN-GIUGIARO organization, the press people, designers, engineers, are all great to work with. His son Fabrizzio is taking over the transportation design business, but you can still see the hand of his father Giorgetto in the surfaces, proportions and volumes of cars that have been recently designed, like the Alfa Romeo Brera.

From one car designer in the USA to another in ITALY, I thank you Giorgetto for the happiness that you has brought me for many years, through my Mangusta.

BELLA. Dick Ruzzin, 8-21-2005

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