De Tomaso Guarà

The De Tomaso Guarà is a sports car and the last project the founder and owner Alejandro de Tomaso put into the market. Presented at the 1993 Geneva Motor Show, the Guarà was initially available in coupé body-style. Later a roadster and an open-top barchetta bodystyle became available. The latter corresponds to the coupé but without roof and proper windscreen; a small air deflector protects the passenger and the driver from the passing wind and the car had to be driven while wearing a helmet.

Development

The Guarà is based on the Maserati Barchetta Stradale prototype from 1991 which was meant to be the street-legal variant of the track-only car. A take-over of Maserati by Fiat prevented Alejandro de Tomaso from realising such a variant of the Barchetta manufactured by Maserati as Maserati ceased production of the Barchetta under its new owner. The car was thus manufactured by De Tomaso and was named Guarà. The Guarà was designed by Carlo Gaino of "Synthesis Design" who also designed the Maserati Barchetta.[2]

Specifications and performance

Fibreglass, Kevlar, and other composites make the body shell, fitted to a backbone chassis made from aluminium.[8] The suspension is a reminiscent of Formula 1 and IndyCar technology with independent upper and lower wishbone with pushrod front and rear end suspension having rose-joints designed by famed Formula 1 car engineer Enrique Scalabroni. The Guarà is known for its highly agile handling which makes it a bit too "nervous" for the average driver. It also has no luggage space at all, as the area under the front is utilised by the racing-style suspension. The large, distinct wheels were manufactured by Marchesini.[9][10]

Early variants of the Guará used the 4.0-litre BMW M60 V8 engine shared with the BMW 840Ci. This was due to Ford's inability to supply engines for the car. The engine was modified by De Tomaso and had different accessory belt routing.[10] The engine has a power output of either 286 or depending on the tune. A six-speed manual transmission made by Getrag was used to drive the rear wheels and it had a gated shifter for easier gear changes. The engine has a red-line of 7,000 rpm. Later variants switched to the Mustang Cobra's 4.6-litre cast-iron block V8 engine as BMW had phased out the M60 engine.[11][12][13] The Ford engine has a power output of 305 PS. The brakes are from Brembo and were non-servo assisted. The brakes were similar to those used on the Ferrari F40. Like its predecessors, the Guará did not have a power-steering system as it increased weight.

The interior is upholstered in leather and has racing bucket seats with optional six-point racing harness. Most of the interior components were sourced from BMW. The Guará had the steering and pedals manually adjusted according to the owner's preferred driving position.

The Guará had a dry weight of 1200 kg and had a power-to-weight ratio of 236 PS per tonne with the BMW engine. The Guará could accelerate to in a claimed 5.0 seconds and had a claimed top speed of 170 mph.[5][14]

manufacturer	De Tomaso
aka	De Tomaso Barchetta
production	1994–2004 52 produced
assembly	Italy: Modena
designer	Carlo Gaino at Synthesis Design‡R1R‡
class	Sports car (S)
body style	2-door barchetta 2-door roadster (spider) 2-door coupé
related	Maserati Barchetta
layout	Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive
engine	4.0 L BMW M60B40 V8 (1993–1998) 4.6 L Ford Modular V8 (1998–2004)
transmission	6-speed Getrag manual
wheelbase	2610 mm
length	4190 mm
width	2030 mm
height	Coupé: 1200 mm Barchetta: 1033 mm
weight	Coupé (BMW engine): 1200 kg Coupé (Ford engine): 1400 kg Barchetta: 1050 kg
predecessor	De Tomaso Pantera
successor	De Tomaso P72

Development

Production and sales

Specifications and performance

External links

References