First Mangusta

Hey Doug! Good questions. The prototipo is in our view, priceless. It is either in the hands of a private collector or the DeTomaso family retained it. The car was re-framed at some point. The body was placed on a running Mangusta. We have seen later Mangustas with sunroofs, such as the Dino Martin Mangusta with the front end shaved off after slamming into a truck. The Fox Mangusta built by PI Motorsports had dropped floor pans, between 2-3" to accomodate its 6 foot plus owner.

The Fox Mangusta - Las Vegas Concours Winner in 2002.

The Prototipo has the glass roof? Why did that never make it into production at least as an option?
Is lowering the floor pans in the Mangusta the only way to get more leg room?
Who owns the Dino Martin car?
The Fox 'goose is absolutely stunningly beautiful.
How well can it run with no heat shields?
300hp is the most you can put in the car?
That would be difficult for me to live with.

Mangustas are in my opinion absolutely stunning, that car is just gorgeous.

quote:

Originally posted by PanteraDoug:
I remember seeing the "show car" Mangusta. It had a mocked up instrument panel and virtually a glass roof.
Does anyone know if that car was ever sold to anyone or if that roof was ever built into a "production" 'goose?

Does anyone know if the 'goose can have it's leg room altered (added to) like the Pantera can?

Doug the prototype to which you refer never caught on. They showed it at the LA auto show but reaction was mixed. It was one that got away too. It was photographed ten years later on the streets of Milan, and the owner drove it every day. He fabricated a removable hard top, maybe because he broke the glass?? Who knows. He had also put a really gay looking hood scoop on it. Totaly screwed up the car.
But looking at the photos, it looked a lot like what they did with the new Spider versions of the Ferrai 430 and the Guiraldo spider. It had lovers on a flat back end that Ferrari later used on their testerossa.
Realy sad what happened to that car.

I have no idea why the glass roof was not offered in later cars. The owner of the Dino Martin car's name is Steve Shuler. He lives in Australia but used to reside in San Clemente. We did a story on him and his car years ago in PI. He races a hemi-powered home built special called the Hagemeister Special at the Monterey Historics each year. Really fine person.
The Fox Mangusta has approximately 500 HP and the owner is preparing an even more powerful motor for the car. It has quite a few structural components to strengthen the car including a sub-frame under the passenger compartment.
The seats are already pretty low but I could imagine making them thinner and bolting them to the floor instead of using tracks. The pedals could go forward with a lot of fabrication. Is that why you wanted a glass roof? To poke your head out? Being only 5'5", I finally appreciated being short when I got into DeTomaso cars. I have watched tall men struggle to get into these cars and considered myself lucky to be short (but there are few other instances).

I don't know about the Mangusta but in the Pantera, lowering the floor pans really doesn't give you more leg room, just head room.
The pedals have to be moved forward for leg room.
It doesn't appear that the Mangusta has the same "ease" as the Pantera.
I was just trying to clarify the situation.
My only other solution would be to have my legs shortened at the knees or go to handicapped hand controls.