The Italian supercar company’s new self-appointed mission: to "restore the romance, beauty, passion, and elegance in the luxury American automotive industry."
BY ALEX GOY
Supercar manufacturer De Tomaso has announced that it will leave its European roots behind and relocate its design, corporate, and production facilities to the United States. The boutique automaker has decided that, rather than wait for someone else to take the plunge and build handcrafted artisan supercars in the U.S., it’ll move its operations here and build them itself.
According to De Tomaso, the move, dubbed Mission AAR (for "American automotive renaissance") comes from "a love for and discontent with the American automotive industry." It says it wants to "restore the romance, beauty, passion, and elegance in the luxury American automotive industry." How charitable.
Historically, De Tomaso has had strong links with the U.S. auto industry, as current CEO and CMO Ryan Berris points out: "We can never forget where we came from. De Tomaso has a deep history with American automotive—Shelby, Iacocca, Brock—it’s about telling untold chapters of American automotive history. This is about showcasing how De Tomaso will carry itself in the future. There’ll be crossover with the rest of the world, sure, but we’ll be doing broad hiring in America."
The company’s view on recent U.S. automotive efforts seems dim, then, and rather than wait to see if the nation’s car industry can turn itself around, De Tomaso wants to bring the fight to the States. Berris goes on to explain that the firm’s mission is to fully embrace homegrown American skills, and give people who might only get to stare longingly at a Ferrari from a distance a shot at supercar making in their home country.
He envisions the long-dormant supercar company as nothing less than a national savior. "De Tomaso is and shall continue to be a purpose-driven brand that stands for much more than its product," Berris said. "How can we give back to the community in a true, honest way? There’s such deep talent that deserves an opportunity, that glimmer of hope. So many people look across the pond and dream of what could be and there’s so much undiscovered talent, we want to bring people in on this side of the Atlantic."
While the company seems to be going on the attack, Berris does acknowledge that the tiny De Tomaso has its limitations. The brand will seek to partner and collaborate with U.S. industry in building new vehicles. De Tomaso views its core competencies as "romantic designs with world-class engineering, hand-built by skilled artisans," per its press release; the plan is to compliment those skills by working with established industry players to fill in the gaps. (It’s yet to be seen whether the major American automakers will take De Tomaso up on the offer.)
On our call, Berris offered the example of electrification: It would make no sense for De Tomaso to build its own electric powertrain when others out there have already got it down. (A mere example, it seems; the company has no plans to release an EV.)
Berris revealed some key points about De Tomaso’s Mission ARR. "In the age of social media there’s an oversaturation. What happened to the posters on your wall? Now it’s all on your phone—what are you going to do with that? The teaser images we put out are all about creating true art forms, depicting a story of items that are going to be on concours stages for decades to come, of the mechanical rather than the digital."
He also noted that, when the limited-run P72 supercar was revealed at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the company already knew it was going to move to the U.S. The fact that none of this information leaked out, in today’s media environment, is frankly astonishing. It makes you wonder what else the company has going on.
De Tomaso’s goal doesn’t appear to be huge volumes, logos slapped on anything with a spare inch of space, or breathily trading on race wins from decades ago. It wants to create something lasting and it wants to do it in America. To hear Berris tell it, the company will not stop until automotive enthusiasm is saved: "How are we going to carry the spirit which caused us to fall in love with cars for younger generations? It’s about trying to do our part. We want to make an impact, be known, and be remembered. Hopefully current owners appreciate this too. De Tomaso is truly back and with it we shall bring back the romance while addressed a void that has plagued us for quite some time."
De Tomaso is in the first phase of Mission AAR, and Berris is keen to point out that there are far more to come. That means more cars beyond the limited-run P72, though he remained tight-lipped on what they might look like. "De Tomaso was a disruptor himself. It’s an incredible story and we want to carry on that tradition. This is part of that. There will be other models, but we’re not ready to reveal them. We’re building a brand, reviving, and this is further reinforcing it. This is something that’s much more. We have a long-term strategic plan that will unfold in due course."
We suspect Alejandro De Tomaso would be proud. For one, after a falling out with Carroll Shelby, he named a car "Mangusta"—the Italian word for mongoose, one of the only animals on earth that’s unaffected by snake venom. Alejandro liked to stir things up a little bit, and he wasn’t averse to making bold, sometimes megalomanic proclamations—a trait that’s as strong as ever in the latest iteration of his company.
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