Italian sports car brand De Tomaso to be relaunched at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show
By Steph, 11 Feb, 2011. 0 Comments
De Tomaso SLC Teaser
The Italian sports car brand De Tomaso will be relaunched at the Geneva Motor Show seven years after it fell into bankruptcy. The brand, which is owned by former Fiat marketing executive Gian Mario Rossignolo, will reveal a Pininfarina-designed concept for a premium large crossover, dubbed SLC (sport luxury car) that would compete against the BMW 5-series GT and Lexus RX-450h. The four-wheel-drive SLC will go into production next year using two gasoline engines, a 550-hp V-8 and a 300-hp V-6, and a 250-hp V-6 diesel unit.
It won’t be sold as the SLC, but the final name still has yet to be decided. Rossignolo is planning to produce 3,000 units annually of the SLC large crossover, as well as 3,000 luxury sedans and 2,000 coupes. These models will be built at the De Tomaso Automobili S.p.A. plant, a former Pininfarina S.p.A. factory near Turin.
For the last six years, Rossignolo has been working on the promotion of his business plan for a three-model range of aluminum vehicles based on an innovative construction technology dubbed Univis. Rossignolo said that Univis needs about 30 dies to build a vehicle. Former Argentinean racing driver Alejandro De Tomaso founded the De Tomaso brand in 1959 in Modena. In the 1960s and 1970s, the brand released three coupes: the 1963 Vallelunga, the 1966 Mangusta and the 1970 Pantera.
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