Qvale Mangusta
Encyclopedia
The Qvale Mangusta is a sports car
Sports car
A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....

 produced in limited numbers in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 by the automaker Qvale
Qvale
Qvale was an independent Italian car manufacturer founded in 2000 by the American Kjell Qvale's son, Bruce Qvale. Qvale's sole product was the Mangusta, originally the De Tomaso Biguà. Kjell Qvale founded British Motors in 1947 in San Francisco, California and is very well known in the automotive...

 between 2000 and 2002. During development and early production, it was badged as the De Tomaso Biguá in Europe, in North America it was badged De Tomaso Mangusta after the De Tomaso car
De Tomaso Mangusta
The De Tomaso Mangusta is a sports car from Italian automobile manufacturer De Tomaso produced between 1967 and 1971.-History:The Mangusta replaced the Vallelunga model, on which its chassis was based. The word "Mangusta" is Italian for "Mongoose", an animal that can kill cobras...

 built between 1967 and 1971.

The Mangusta uses a front mid-engine, rear-wheel drive layout, and is powered by a Ford
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

 4.6L DOHC V8
V8 engine
A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....

. It was offered with either a BorgWarner
BorgWarner
BorgWarner Inc. is a United States-based worldwide automotive industry components and parts supplier. It is primarily known for its powertrain products, which include manual and automatic transmissions and transmission components, , turbochargers, engine valve timing system...

 T45 5-speed manual gearbox or a 4-speed automatic.

History

In 1993 and 1994, Maserati
Maserati
Maserati is an Italian luxury car manufacturer established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters is now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993...

 technical director Giordano Casarini made a number of business trips to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and, while there, first saw the TVR Griffith
TVR Griffith
The TVR Griffith, later models being referred to as the Griffith 500, was a sports car designed and built by TVR starting in 1991 and ending in 2002....

. He was impressed by the style and sales success of such a low-production-volume car.

Alejandro de Tomaso
Alejandro de Tomaso
Alejandro de Tomaso was a racing driver and industrialist from Argentina. His name is sometimes seen in an Italianised form as Alessandro de Tomaso. He participated in two Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on January 13, 1957...

 had meanwhile suffered a stroke in 1993. After a period of recovery, de Tomaso asked Casarini (whom he considered a trusted friend) what should be done with the De Tomaso company. Casarini suggested that De Tomaso make "an Italian TVR", pointing out the positive design elements that made the Griffith attractive. Alejandro de Tomaso negotiated with the Maserati chairman to release Casarini to De Tomaso, so that work on the design could begin.

Casarini intended to use an existing, inexpensive V8 engine that would reduce the purchase and maintenance costs of the car. In the tradition of De Tomaso cars, he wished to use a Ford V8 and explored the possibility of using the new Ford Modular
Ford Modular engine
The Ford Modular engine is Ford Motor Company's overhead camshaft V8 and V10 engine family, which has been produced in 4.6L, 5.0L , 5.4L, and 6.8L variations. Contrary to popular belief, the Modular engine did not get its name from its design or sharing of certain parts among the engine family...

 4.6L V8, but discovered that Ford was not yet ready to sell it to manufacturers.

Casarini learned that TVR was investigating the possibility of using differentials made by Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n company BTR Automotive in its cars. When communicating with a supplier for the differentials, he was directed towards Holden Special Vehicles
Holden Special Vehicles
Holden Special Vehicles is the officially designated performance vehicle partner of Australian automobile manufacturer Holden. Established in 1987 and based in Clayton, Victoria, the company modifies Holden models such as the Commodore, Caprice and Ute and markets them under the HSV brandname.-...

 (HSV), who indicated that they would be able to offer engines and transmissions. At this stage, the De Tomaso project was given the internal code name "ETX".

Soon after Casarini's communications with HSV, Ford Motor Company contacted him with the news that they would indeed be able to supply the Modular V8, along with transmissions, ancillaries, and electrics.

Alejandro de Tomaso had been a fan of the design work done by Marcello Gandini
Marcello Gandini
Marcello Gandini is an Italian car designer, widely known for his work with the automotive design house Gruppo Bertone, notably his design of the Lamborghini Countach. Together with Giorgetto Giugiaro and Leonardo Fioravanti, Gandini forms a noted triumvirate of Italian car designers, all born in...

, so Gandini was called to Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....

 to discuss the job of styling the new De Tomaso project. To show him the character and feel of the desired product, Gandini was driven around in a TVR Griffith. He was ultimately commissioned for the styling job, and was given the instruction that the folding roof mechanism on the De Tomaso be similar to the multi-position roof used by the Griffith.

A prototype of the car was displayed at the 1996 Geneva Motor Show as the De Tomaso Biguà, though it still needed development before it would reach full production. The company required capital to continue, and an initial appeal to the Italian government failed due to the declining health of Alejandro de Tomaso. Eventually, the company approached the Qvale family, who, led by Kjell Qvale
Kjell Qvale
Kjell Qvale is a Norwegian-American business executive. Qvale is one of the key figures in the creation of the Jensen-Healey. Qvale became the first distributor for Jaguar on the Pacific West Coast. Qvale is one of the founders of the San Francisco Auto Show.-Early life:Kjell Qvale was born in...

, had been a North American importer for Maserati. Qvale agreed to fund the development of the car, with the agreement that the final product would be sold under the De Tomaso brand, as the De Tomaso Mangusta.

At one point, the Biguà prototype car was crashed by a Ford engineer in Modena. The incident damaged a curbstone, and the De Tomaso company was forced to pay a fine to the City of Modena (though the city did not repair the damage until years later.)

In 1997, the Qvale Modena SpA company was established to produce the Mangusta. Bruce Qvale led the project of developing a production facility, which involved the renovation and modernization of a building in Modena. The building was "elegantly and comprehensively furnished, [with] marble everywhere", and certified ISO 9001 compliant.

Design and technology

The chassis
Chassis
A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...

 of the Mangusta was designed by former Formula 1 designer Enrique Scalabroni, who had worked for Dallara
Dallara
Dallara Automobili is an Italian chassis manufacturer for various motor racing series, being most notable for its near-monopoly in Formula 3 since 1993...

, Williams F1, and Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari is the racing team division of the Ferrari automobile marque. The team currently only races in Formula One but has competed in numerous classes of motorsport since its formation in 1929, including sportscar racing....

. Each chassis is formed of welded laser-cut
Laser cutting
Laser cutting is a technology that uses a laser to cut materials, and is typically used for industrial manufacturing applications, but is also starting to be used by schools, small businesses and hobbyists. Laser cutting works by directing the output of a high-power laser, by computer, at the...

 steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

 sections, and was then galvanized
Galvanization
Galvanization is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, in order to prevent rusting. The term is derived from the name of Italian scientist Luigi Galvani....

 by Vaccari & Bosi. Body panels were constructed of resin transfer moulding (RTM) plastic by Stratime Cappelo Systems of Villers-Cotterêts
Villers-Cotterêts
Villers-Cotterêts is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France.-Geography:It is located NE of Paris via the RN2 facing Laon...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

; this same company had provided bodywork using the RTM technology for the Alfa Romeo SZ
Alfa Romeo SZ
The Alfa Romeo SZ or ES-30 is a high-performance limited-production sports car/road-concept car built between 1989 and 1991 with partnership via Centro Stile Zagato, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo and Centro Stile Fiat...

 and the Lotus Elan M100. The panels were then painted by Italian company Rovercoat S.p.A. before they were fitted to a car.

The first simple mock-up of the chassis design was done by Casarini and Scalabroni assembling pieces of packing cardboard to show the basic layout. Scalabroni placed emphasis on high torsional rigidity
Stiffness
Stiffness is the resistance of an elastic body to deformation by an applied force along a given degree of freedom when a set of loading points and boundary conditions are prescribed on the elastic body.-Calculations:...

 of the chassis, which was particularly important as the final design would not have a structural roof. The design also emphasized safety
Automobile safety
Automobile safety is the study and practice of vehicle design, construction, and equipment to minimize the occurrence and consequences of automobile accidents. Automobile safety is the study and practice of vehicle design, construction, and equipment to minimize the occurrence and consequences of...

: significant impact energy during a front-end collision is dissipated by lateral movement of the engine. In tests, the Mangusta chassis showed a torsional stiffness of 1,450 kg/m/deg, which was more than four times the typical stiffness of an open car at the time.

Both the front and rear suspension
Suspension (vehicle)
Suspension is the term given to the system of springs, shock absorbers and linkages that connects a vehicle to its wheels. Suspension systems serve a dual purpose — contributing to the car's roadholding/handling and braking for good active safety and driving pleasure, and keeping vehicle occupants...

 on the Mangusta uses double wishbones
Double wishbone suspension
In automobiles, a double wishbone suspension is an independent suspension design using two wishbone-shaped arms to locate the wheel. Each wishbone or arm has two mounting points to the chassis and one joint at the knuckle. The shock absorber and coil spring mount to the wishbones to control...

 with coil spring
Coil spring
A Coil spring, also known as a helical spring, is a mechanical device, which is typically used to store energy and subsequently release it, to absorb shock, or to maintain a force between contacting surfaces...

s and anti-roll bars
Sway bar
A sway bar or anti-roll bar or stabilizer bar is a part of an automobile suspension that helps reduce the roll of a vehicle that is induced by cornering or road irregularities. It connects opposite wheels together through short lever arms linked by a torsion spring...

.

The Mangusta uses a unique roof mechanism referred to as the "roto-top", designed by Gandini and inspired by the folding roof of the TVR Griffith. The roto-top features a center removable panel (similar to normal targa
Targa top
Targa top, targa for short, is a semi-convertible car body style with a removable roof section and a full width roll bar behind the seats. The term was first used on the 1966 Porsche 911 Targa, and it remains a registered trademark of Porsche AG....

 configurations) but also allows the rear section to electrically rotate (on a forward pivot) out of sight into a cavity behind the seats. This transforms the car into a full convertible
Convertible
A convertible is a type of automobile in which the roof can retract and fold away having windows which wind-down inside the doors, converting it from an enclosed to an open-air vehicle...

.

In the Mangusta's interior, most visible surfaces are covered in leather. Visteon
Visteon
Visteon is one of the world's largest suppliers of automotive parts. The company formed in 1997 and spun off from the Ford Motor Company in 2000. In 2005, Visteon moved to new headquarters in Van Buren Township, Michigan...

 Automotive Systems was selected as the supplier for the interior electrics. The alloy wheels for the Mangusta were produced by Antera.

Production and launch

The first De Tomaso Mangusta was completed on November 10, 1999. On January 6, 2000, at the Los Angeles Motor Show, Bruce Qvale announced the return of the De Tomaso brand to North America with the new Mangusta. Also announced was the Mangusta's entry into racing, with Qvale Motorsports entering a car sponsored by Tommy Bahama
Tommy Bahama
Tommy Bahama is the Seattle-based manufacturer of casual, men’s & women’s sportswear, denim, swimwear, accessories, footwear and a complete home furnishings collection. The brand is owned by Atlanta-based Oxford Industries. Tommy Bahama is available at Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Sak's Fifth Avenue,...

 into the BF Goodrich Tires Trans-Am Series
Trans-Am Series
The Trans-Am Series is an automobile racing series which was created in 1966 by Sports Car Club of America President John Bishop. Originally known as the Trans-American Sedan Championship it has evolved over time from its original format as a manufacturers championship for modified racing sedans...

. The Mangusta went on sale for 78,900 USD on January 20, 2000, with a single ordering option of 18-inch alloy wheels.

As the Mangusta was being launched, Alejandro de Tomaso was independently pursuing another design project (which was to recycle the De Tomaso Pantera
De Tomaso Pantera
The Pantera was a sports car produced by the De Tomaso car company of Italy from 1971 to 1991, the last one being delivered to a customer in 1992.The word "Pantera" is Italian for "Panther".-History:...

 name). Because the De Tomaso company was being financially supported by Qvale at the time, this caused disharmony between Qvale and de Tomaso that ultimately resulted in the decision to discontinue their cooperation on the project. The De Tomaso Mangusta was renamed the "Qvale Mangusta", and production continued.

Twenty-nine cars were manufactured for the purpose of crash-testing
Crash test
A crash test is a form of destructive testing usually performed in order to ensure safe design standards in crashworthiness and crash compatibility for various modes of transportation or related systems and components.- Types :...

 and homologation
Homologation
Homologation is a technical term, derived from the Greek homologeo for "to agree", which is generally used in English to signify the granting of approval by an official authority...

. Also, a partially completed right-hand-drive Qvale Mangusta was shown at the British Motor Show in October 2000. Ultimately, 284 cars were sold.

Reaction

Automotive journalists and testers praised the car for its performance and handling, and for the utility of the roto-top. Some build quality issues were noted on early cars, and the reaction to the unconventional styling was mixed.

Lacklustre sales figures in 2000 prompted Qvale to reduce the price of model year 2001 cars by nearly 10,000 USD, which the company announced on October 13, 2000.

Connection with MG

In the summer of 2000, After BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...

 had sold the MG Rover Group
MG Rover Group
MG Rover was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium in 2000....

 to the Phoenix Consortium
Phoenix Venture Holdings
Phoenix Venture Holdings , also known as the Phoenix Consortium, is a British company formed by four businessmen...

, Bruce Qvale contacted one of the Consortium directors, Nick Stephenson, and proposed forming a European distribution deal for the Qvale Mangusta. Soon after, Stephenson and his colleagues began to consider the possibility of using the Mangusta platform to develop a high-performance halo car to grow the MG brand.

On February 28, 2001, Stephenson and his colleague Peter Beale began negotiations with Qvale Modena to purchase Mangusta production assets. A contract was drawn, and on June 19 of that year, the announcement was made that the deal was complete (with account reports indicating that the price was £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

7 million.)

Under the MG Rover group, the Qvale Mangusta platform was developed into the MG XPower SV
MG XPower SV
The MG XPower SV is a sports car which was produced by MG Rover. Manufactured in Modena, Italy and finished at Longbridge, UK, it was based on the platform of the Qvale Mangusta, formerly the De Tomaso Biguà.-History:...

.

Specifications

  • Layout - Front-engined, rear-wheel drive convertible
    Convertible
    A convertible is a type of automobile in which the roof can retract and fold away having windows which wind-down inside the doors, converting it from an enclosed to an open-air vehicle...

  • Top speed - 158.5 mph (255 km/h)
  • Acceleration - 0-60 mph: 5.3 sec
  • Engine displacement - 4601 cc
  • Engine type - Normally aspirated aluminum DOHC 4-valve V8 with 9.8:1 compression
  • Peak power - 320 bhp @ 6000 rpm
  • Peak torque - 314 lbft @ 4800 rpm
  • Transmission - BorgWarner
    BorgWarner
    BorgWarner Inc. is a United States-based worldwide automotive industry components and parts supplier. It is primarily known for its powertrain products, which include manual and automatic transmissions and transmission components, , turbochargers, engine valve timing system...

     T45 5-speed manual
  • Brakes - Brembo
    Brembo
    Brembo S.p.A. is a manufacturer of automotive brake systems, especially for high-performance cars and motorcycles. It was established in Bergamo, Italy in 1961. Soon after the company was formed, it specialised in disc brakes, which were exclusively imported from the United Kingdom at the time...

     ventiled discs on all wheels with ABS and traction control
  • Suspension - double wishbones, coil springs (front and rear)
  • Steering - power assisted rack and pinion
    Rack and pinion
    A rack and pinion is a type of linear actuator that comprises a pair of gears which convert rotational motion into linear motion. A circular gear called "the pinion" engages teeth on a linear "gear" bar called "the rack"; rotational motion applied to the pinion causes the rack to move, thereby...


Options

  • Available exterior colors
    • Silver-gray metallic
    • Santorini blue pearlescent
    • Polar green pearlescent
    • Mangusta green metallic
    • Corallo red pearlescent
    • Tigre yellow
    • Midnight black

  • Available interior colors
    • Black
    • Tobacco
    • Cappuccino

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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