De Tomaso Mangusta: One of a Kind Story 

The car is extremely beautiful!

My dad used to own a sports car yard called Ace Motors in Chullora Sydney Australia. And he used to bring home awesome cars every now and again. I would sit on top of our kitchen bench and wait in anticipation for him to drive up our driveway. I was always excited to see what he would bring home. One evening while I was waiting for him, I heard this menacing sound coming down the road (Epping hwy) and was thinking to myself "I bet thats dad" And then I saw it, this low, red, aggressive looking beast of a thing creeping up the driveway. I ran as fast as I could to get a closer look. I was yelling, "dad dad dad, what is it??? He said, "it's a De Tomaso Mangusta, Get in and well go for a drive down to McDonalds" I dont think I have every been as excited as I was at that moment. I'll never forget it til the day I die. What and awesome experience and what an epic car!!!

Interesting that this piece was shot in Bloomfield Hills. In the early 70's, my father was a Buick dealer in Redford Township. He had a customer interested in trading in a Mangusta. My dad brought the car home (Bloomfield Hills) on night and we cruised down Woodward. The most exciting automotive experience of my life!

Mangusta more like me gusta

I remember riding in this car to catechism on Saturday mornings. Dick lived next door and would drive my brother and I and his 2 kids all in the passenger seat, those were the days! But most of the time his wife drove us in their Corvair.

My grandfather owned the same car but he got his rims gold plated and gold pin stripes on the car and his car was red as well! He also met the factory manager when he went to Italy to get a replacement windscreen

This beauty is simply gorgeous and in awesome condition! The side view is breathtaking. I love the Pantera but I have to admit the Mangusta shape is a step above. Thank you very much to the lucky owner Mr Ruzzin and to you to share this work of art!

I'm Stephen Adkins. In 1969 or '70 my dad, Roy Adkins, bought two wrecked Mangustas...one burned (red) unit from Oakland area, and one crashed unit...the one crashed while being delivered to Steve McQueen (orange). Roy assembled a nearly complete car (then painted Cadillac metallic cinnamon gold) from the parts of the two wrecked cars. Roy then sold the car in the LA Times classified section to a doctor in LA...he trailered it back to LA from our home in Los Altos, CA.

Great video! Think the Mangusta, along with the Lamborghini Miura, are the sweetest looking exotics on the planet. Saw a Mangusta, back in 1976, in East Hampton, NY. Wish it was my black C5 Corvette doing the filming.

Quite possibly the most gorgeous car ever designed and built. Even more beautiful than the LP400 Countach, the Mangusta can be truly loved from any, and every single angle. There is no way you can look at this thing and not fall in love. To me, it is mind-boggling the shape has not be recycled by a modern car maker.

You need the story of why DeTomasso wanted to build the Mangusta....namely that Shelby had approached him and made a deal for DeTomasso to upgrade the Cobra which Shelby backed out of. DeTomasso was angered by this and decided to build a car to defeat the Cobra...The Mangusta (Mongoose...the only animal that can kill a cobra). the story is much more detailed with retaliation by Shelby and much more. That story would have spiced this piece up quite a bit.

Love the Mangusta!

Brings back good memories of being outside of the Goodwood Revival festival England,in the car park, and heard a really sweet V8 approaching only to see the mangusta pull up next to my van. It was a sight for sore eyes, the guy spoke to me for a good while and I knew it was going to be a great festival!!! What a lush,unique example.

My dad had one he raced it in the Silver State Classic Nevada Open Road Challenge. I know it was made for those short Italian's because my dad's head was touching the roof right under 6 ft tall. When you rode inside of it sounds completely different than any of the audio you can get on here it just purrs like a big cat and I'll never forget it. It's one of the lowest production cars ever made and it had so many problems and broke down all the time but it was definitely great to be a kid riding in that thing. That's cool that my dad raced it.

1 of 1. A unicorn. The only Mangusta with a GM (Chevrolet) engine from the factory. Should be worth a million.

I truly appreciate all of the time and effort you've invested to share this interview with us - it's a great story!

AHHH its so refreshing, a throw back to my youth and era when car designers have the heart and imagination to produce automobiles that can make the heart flutter just by looking at them. One of my all time favorites, the Mangusta and Pantera! Unfortunately....I did not become rich to be able to afford them. Maybe in the next life.

really enjoyed hearing the story of this car. thanks for posting. the mangusta has such a stunning design line ... nothing else looks this clean and beautiful. the motor sounds so strong too. #1 dream car to me. so special ...

Great history lesson, nice video of driving and sounds, no stupid music. Well done. The rarest of the rare.

my compliments for your video and storytelling from Italy. Thanks for remembering the Alejandro De Tomaso genius!

Really needs to go to Italy and drive through the Alps, some Matt Monro playing on the stereo. I know that was a Miura but this is almost a beautiful.

I was a car design student at Art Center in LA when it was introduced in Europe. Strother McMin our teacher saw it there and brought back pictures. He was in love with it as were all students. Such a pure perfectly proportioned form.

WOW fantastic car and great story about it. I am glad that someone who loves cars have it and take special care for it. It looks stunning!

Beautiful and elegant car. Thank you for sharing the story !

Love this Story,..Great Job and Very Nice Car. Congratulations on owning such a car for all the years and keeping in such Pristine Condition

Beautiful car. I always loved the Mangusta; any car that is less common and looks cool but rather unusual, with power, is a thrill. Some diehard Ford fans may not like that a Chevy motor is in there, but with all due respect, the Chevy engine sound matches the cars looks even better. This design has a nice blend of "exotic understatement" and modernity that contradicts its age. Ford's sound is more hot rod snarl to me, and Chevy's has a smoother, muscular note that doesn't demand "look at me".

Art on wheels! Thanks for sharing.

utterly beautiful car

I just found you here on you tube. Love the car and the story. Thank you for bringing it to me. hope to see more.

Sounds like heaven.

I like the Argentinian flag on the logo

What a brilliant little film and story. Stunning car and nice to see it has been owned by one guy for all these years. Stunning.

Gorgeous car!

The most beautiful De tomaso car.

Beautiful car!

What a beautifull car! the body shape is unique!

amazing! now that's a true classic sportscar lover! :-)

what a great channel on obscure cars. nice work

Quelle voiture magnifique ! Merci

Most beautiful car ever built

It's great seeing the places that this car is driving by in Oakland county Michigan.

One of the best looking cars ever made.

Thanks, it's evening... amazing car !!

Interesting car and story, I've always wanted to know a bit more about these forgotten cars...

Great succinct and well informed video

Dick you´re my kind of guy ! Keep on driving and enjoying that beauty :)

thank you for story and the video! amazing ;)

Very nice car. I find the Pantera even more beautiful. Entertaining and informative video.

Amazing car,Thats my dream car !!!!

What a GEM 💎

Never heard of this car before but it's gorgeous!

Amazing video!

I have had black #700 since 1975...still looks very exotic today...you rarely ever see them anymore. Great for driving in a straight line...don't race it on that winding mountain road!...the Pantera handled that much better.

My 71 Pantera came from Michigan. A university professor owned it. It won best of show at a car show that looks like it was held near where this video was shot. (judging by the buildings).

*FASCINATING! , I WOULD NEVER HAVE KNOWN THAT!* ,, *IT SOUNDS EXACTLY THE SAME! AS THE FORD CLEVELAND ENGINE!!!!*

Wow DT, I like this format- you should go find owners of special and unique cars (since you already meet so many at the car shows) and set them up to tell the story of their car- much like how you did here, except make it a little series.

A dream car the Mangusta is...

Amazing car!!

Awesome 👍👍

What Mr Ruzzin fails to mention is how he "fixed" the factory flaws of the function-follows-design of the Mangusta. Akin to the Lamborghini Miura, handling at speed can be quite a handful, in particular in the case of the Goose, understeer can reveal as oversteer quickly takes over, and vice versa. This is due to the cruciform design as I understand and the fixes were remarkably simple. Dick shares these upgrades with any owner who drops the dime to reach out. He is a true gentleman and I've enjoyed our brief visit and hope the future owner of my example will make my car up to the standard of daily driver it deserves. I am absolutely passionate about Italian design and American Iron to afford the git-along to avoid 8 and 12 choke Webers and retail prices for Italian motor parts now mostly being offered by the various VW franchise makers who simply wish "old Lambos" and Bentelys and their owners" didn't exist. Good to see so many positive comments! Social media too often brings out the negative in negative commenters.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="136">2:16</a> OK, now I know that I'm a bonifide Giugiaro fanboi because I completely adore the shape and interior of all of these cars.

great info, cool video =)

This was filmed at St. Hugo! I recognize it because I live right down the road!

Nice!

Looks like a Miura a little bit, is just art this car 😍😍😍

TAKE THE GRAYLIND CHALLENGE PLEASE!!! THIS IS THE BEST CAR EVER SEEN

Growing up in the late 1960s, Lamborghini's Miura was "The Car" on my bedroom wall but DeTomaso's Mangusta nearly displaced it. 2 beautifully styled cars, it would be a difficult choice if I won the Lottery. Maybe if I'd won enough, I could have *both* in the garage!

You have some realy nice video s and excellent taste of cars!!

The Mangusta is a wonderful car, as far as body shape goes. I read somewhere that its main issue was a certain lack of body stiffness, due to its monobeam structure, which is probably among the reasons someone here notes that the Panthera drove better. Thanks for showing this.

Prettiest sports car ever. Period

Love is real Nostalgia x x x

cars so cool bro

I saw this EXACT SAME car at a car show!

Absolutely gorgeous car. One advice to the video producer: mono the voice track. It's a bit annoying how it keeps swinging between the channels.

Great Auto-Sport Italian Legend

Beautiful toy love the history of it and out of curiosity do you go to the Woodward Cruise?

i never realized how pretty this car is. awesome vid! what audio set up did you use for <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="478">7:58</a> ? thanks!

This is the car of Thor, lord of thunder.

De Tomaso Mangusta : One of my fav. Badass car in the entire world 🇮🇹 🇺🇸 💪🏼 ❤️,,, wow my dream is to own one of these Gem one day, but i can't afford it 😓 Sono troppo povero 😅

In my Pontiac Firebird research, I found where it was stated that John DeLorean had a De Tamasso Mangusta, which became the inspiration for the 1970 Firebird body style. Could John De Lorean's Mangusta have also had a GM engine?

Lovely car and fantastic drive! A one off with a chevrolet engine...unique ...!!! 👌😀👍🚘

Chevy powered dream car!

Beautiful car . Never knew one was made with a Chevy engine

That naughty Bill (of Kill Bill) had one. Sheer class

nice wheels

In 1966 or 67 not sure, 6 all aluminum De Tomaso Mangustas , came to the USA to BMD - British Motorcar Distributors in Long Beach California port, to be gone over before going to the dealers, red, yellow, pearl lime green, pearl orange, pearl white, I think blue, anyway there was at least a 1000 or more cars at any one time there so they hired a bunch of kids to move around all the cars, I was a mechanic, we were watching the Mangustas come off of the truck each one was driven inside the warehouse to a closed off area, one of the kids took the orange pearl Mangusta, Mangustas have a bad ass sound, he floored the throttle down the lot to the other end of the warehouse but couldn't stop and slid in the gravel into the wire fence, everybody's mouth dropped, the right fender was junk the hood was repaired, it took over 4 months to get the Mangusta parts to finish it off. They had a good painter and it took 2 tries to match the orange pearl, Phil was the forman a nervous guy normally smoked 4 packs a day, now ?. The kid was fired on the spot, after that specialty cars got driven by older staff members. 😆😆

Thanks for sharing,how much do they sell for ?

How much for the Megusta.

btw - with the center-hinged, twin boot access panels to the motor, can you work on the motor w/out dropping it out of the car beyond oil changes and new plugs? What were the 'modern updates' mentioned? Thanks!

what size gm motor?

Nice Goose. I heard the real reason why Bill Mitchell sold the car because Bill was simply too tall for the car. The windshield rake as much more angular than the Pantera making the windshield closer to the driver’s face than the Pantera’s windshield.

Extremely beautiful exterior, 1969 clearly was quite a year when it comes to car design, but I'm less moved by the interior. I wonder why Mitchell got rid of it so soon after buying it...

Mr. Ruzzin.....ever toy with the idea of taking your "Goose" to a fun day @ Nurburgring? Jimi Stevens Bridgewater.............Thanks Again for Your fantastic documentation of the 'Spooky Girl" I Love......my Obsession>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Were you driving in Pontiac in this video? I thought some of the video looked like it was on Telegraph.

wooow

AMC made a very similar car, the AMX 3. Never went into production, but 5 prototypes were made.

air cleaner house is gorgeous....noticed the wing louvres opened up too.....i think detomaso was so broke that he had to opt to leave the louvres dummies for the sake of tooling costs......i know the prototype car had vent windows that were operable, but that didn't make it to production. The grille nacelle is a bit different on Mr. Ruzzins car also, where the partitions are between the inner lights and the air intake for the radiator. Factory or done by Mr. Ruzzin to improve airflow?

Just realized that Mr Ruzzin's car is sans side marker lights....clean.....Did you do that Dick or is that the way She was delivered new?......another thing i did on mine was to shave the parking lights out of the chin and stuck round ambers behind grill i know one of those three "Geese" in Michigan....weber IDA 48's and a 38" roofline....a 70.......8MA-1134......am i warm?

I was wondering why it was missing that incredible Mangusta exhaust note, until he explained that it's the only one with a Chevy motor.

All the Italian ISO’s had a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray engine! 5 or even 7 litres! 🙋🏼‍♀️🏎🏎