Bella Mangusta: The Italian Art and Design of the De Tomaso Mangusta.

By Dick Ruzzin

When we reflect upon the history of Italian coachbuilding and design, it is impossible to ignore the De Tomaso / Giugiaro Mangusta. It was stunning from every angle; in both art and engineering, it challenged and defined every aspect of motor car design in the mid-1960s while solving the problems associated with midengined design with beauty, grace, and authority. By the dictates of its creator, the Mangusta would be a race car for the street, its chassis based on a contemporary competition car. By the hand of one of the greatest automotive designers in Italy, it would be wide, low, sleek, and of perfect line.

Ex-GM Designer Dick Ruzzin knows this well, as did others whose lives were devoted to automotive architecture. The Detroit doyens of design, William L. Mitchell at GM and Gene Bordinat at Ford, realized immediately that the Mangusta was one of the most advanced and beautiful cars in the world. Both ordered a specially tailored Mangusta for their personal use, and Mitchell had his equipped with a Chevy V8.

Ruzzin has owned the ex-Mitchell Mangusta for the last forty-seven years. He spent years in Turin and interviewed many of those who still remembered how the Mangusta came to be created. Writing with passion, experience, and knowledge, Ruzzin has expertly authored the only book specifically about the design of the Mangusta.

—Pete Vack, Editor and Publisher, VeloceToday.com, LLC

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Reading about Dick Ruzzin's Mangusta reminds me of two of the most unforgettable characters I ever met. They are, of course, Alejandro de Tomaso and William L. Mitchell.

Once known as Europe's most profligate creator of exotic sports and racing prototypes, Argentinean emigre de Tomaso had a phase of fondness for backbone-framed cars that gave birth to the Mangusta, magnificently styled by the young Giorgetto Giugiaro. The mercurial Alejandro finally made good as a car manufacturer—with a little help from the Italian government.

A car enthusiast from his bald dome to his Bond Street shoes, Bill Mitchell arranged for GM Styling to buy the latest sports cars to help him persuade GM's often hidebound management that more exciting cars might be good for business. His Chevy-engined Mangusta was a perfect example. Ironically its successor in de Tomaso oeuvre was the Pantera, launched by Ford like an arrow at the heart of GM.

Now Dick Ruzzin brings his own enthusiasm for great automobiles to this presentation of an esoteric example from the golden age of Italian sports cars, deeply informed on all aspects of the Mangusta as only a passionate owner can be.

—Karl Ludvigsen

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514489154

Dick Ruzzin

The subject of the book is the design of an automotive icon. I am a car designer and have owned one of the subject cars for forty-seven years. I am well-known by people in the specialty car community.

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 by Dick Ruzzin. 732660

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016907002

ISBN:   Softcover      978-1-5144-8916-1

              Hardcover   978-1-5144-8917-8

              EBook           978-1-5144-8915-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner..

Rev. date: 09/01/2016

Xlibris

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34-P1050934.tif

In this dramatic shot the engine air cleaner can be seen through the windshield and the rear firewall glass when the engine covers are open.

The De Tomaso logo, T, is inspired by the deTomaso cattle brand as used on the family ranch in Argentina. My design analysis is that the T is presented as hand drawn with a branding iron and the top horizontal stroke with two vertical hash-marks represents a cow. The vertical stroke represents the front leg of a cow bent at the knee and its hoof, the back slightly shorter than the front. The logo is placed over a vertical representation of the Argentine flag in white and sky blue. The T replaces the yellow sun in the center of the flag.

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The center of the Mangusta steering wheel, machined steel with the De Tomaso logo and bolted to the steering shaft like a race car.

INTRODUCTION

Creative design is a much more difficult task than simply putting functional elements together. It addresses the historic and natural human attraction to all beautiful things and the universal and timeless human desire to possess those things, sometimes, simply because they are beautiful.

In the grand and storied history of the automobile, few can claim this attraction.

This is my first book, I hope you enjoy it and that it helps to enhance your dialogue with people keen on automobiles as quoted and hoped for by Alessandro de Tomaso in the Mangusta owners manual.

Time has shown that one thing is clearly certain. Giorgetto Giugiaro’s Mangusta is one of those rare and beautiful things with an aesthetic attraction that many cannot resist, simply because it is beautiful….

The Mangusta was created at a time when car design and production was much simpler than today, allowing Giugiaro, who had left the security of employment at Ghia, to seek work on his own. He proposed the Mangusta design to one of his recent past clients at Ghia where he had worked for a short time.

A young man with a family to support, the proposed Mangusta design was done at home on Giorgetto Giugiaro’s kitchen table.

BELLA.

Dick Ruzzin

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The De Tomaso emblem on the Mangusta, here located on the satin black steel wire screen of the front grill is bright and unique in Italian automotive culture. The emblem is a spirited representation of the De Tomaso company and of Alessandro de Tomaso the person. The same type of screen is used in the back of the Mangusta and on race cars still today.

Research, Text, Photography ,Drawings and Graphic Design Theme by Dick Ruzzin.

SPECIAL THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book is dedicated to artists of all kinds, who add great value and joy to our lives every day.

AND

To everyone at Pasteiner’s on Woodward Avenue, headquarters for the Detroit car culture,

AND

Pasta,

AND

For their special and generous help in making this book possible.