This is the second De Tomaso car in my garage, a 1996 Guara Coupe.
The Guara Barchetta (without roof and windshield) was first presented to the public in 1993, the Coupe in 1994 and the Spider in 1999.
It is a very rare car, because they have made only 10 Barchettas and 40 Coupes. 3 of these Coupes were converted to Spider versions and only 2 Coupes were RHD cars.
The first cars were delivered to the customers in 1996 and production ended last month.
This car is complete different to all Panteras.
It has a backbone chassis layout like the classic Mangusta from the sixties, but it is well developed with modern materials. The central tunnel is formed of aluminium/honeycomb sheet with ribbed cast aluminium bulkheads. The engine is bolted in longitudinaly as a non stressed member between them and another casting which forms the bell housing.
The gas tank with a capacity of 90 Liters is placed inside the central tube of the chassis.
It has a very lightweight body, completely formed of Carbon and Kevlar materials, so the whole car has a weight of only 1200 kg.
The body styling was created by Carlo Gaino, who runs a design studio in Turin. He has also made the design for the Maserati Barchetta of the early ninties.
The impressive looking and F1 inspired suspension was designed by the factory of Enrice Scalabroni, who had also made the suspensions for the Williams F1 cars. They have very long wishbone arms with dampers and coil springs placed horizontaly in the rear and vertical on the central tube instead on the wheels in the front.
The engine is a 4.0 Liter BMW V8 with 304 HP. This engine has absolutely no problem to make this lightweight car fast.
The gearbox is a Getrag 6-speed box sourced from the Audi RS2.
The exhausts are made of stainless steel and wear catalytic converters.
The wheels are 18" Marchesini cast Magnesium type with central lock. The tyres are Michelin 245/40 ZR 18 in front and 285/35 ZR 18 in the rear.
The cabin is cladded full in fine leather and is much more spacy than the Pantera. The driving position and the ergonomics are perfect in this car.
Handling and cornering is amazing. There is absolutely no understeer and you can make any corner at any speed like on rails. It feels like a large scale go cart and makes much fun, especially on secondary roads or on the track.
High speed stability is perfect and breaking is phenomenal with the 6 piston Brembo brakes with their huge, ventilated and cross drilled discs all around.

This car was featured in the March 2005 issue of the british "Auto-Italia Magazine". 6 pages with 13 pictures.
For back issues go to:
www.auto-italia.co.uk

Our car, #0007 was built in 1996 and delivered to a sportscar dealer in Germany October this year. It was their demonstrator car for several years. We bought it as new with only 1176 km on the clock in November 2002.

TECHNICAL DATA:
BACKBONE CHASSIS WITH CARBON AND KEVLAR BODY
OVERAL LENGHT 4190 mm
OVERAL WIDHT 2030 mm
OVERAL HEIGHT 1200mm
WHEELBASE 2610 mm
FRONT TRACK 1630 mm
REAR TRACK 1660 mm
WEIGHT 1200 kg
FRONT WHEELS 8.5Jx18" WITH 245/40 ZR 18
REAR WHEELS 10.5Jx18" WITH 285/35 ZR 18
ENGINE BMW 4.0 LITER V8 WITH 4 OVERHEAD CAMSHAFTS AND 32 VALVES
HYDRAULIC LIFTERS
COMPRESSION RATIO 10:1
ELECTRONIC MULTIPOINT FUEL INJECTION SYSTEM
ELECTRONIC IGNITION
HORSEPOWER 304 HP AT 5500 rpm
TORQUE 431 Nm AT 4300 rpm
GEARBOX GETRAG 6-SPEEDSYNCHROMESH PLUS REVERSE
DIFFERENTIAL SELF BLOCKING
CLUTCH HYDRAULIC CONTROLLED DRY SINGLE PLATE
TOP SPEED 270 km/h (170 mph)
0-62 IN 5.0 sec.