Return to Form: New De Tomaso Hypercar Receives a 700+ HP Supercharged V8

One of the highlights from the Goodwood Festival of Speed was the resurgence of the De Tomaso brand when they unveiled the P72, a homage car to the P70 prototype racer. Initially, the plan was to have a screaming V12 in the back of the P72, but now De Tomaso will be putting a Roush developed 5.0 liter supercharged V8 Ford Coyote engine into their hypercar. The P72’s new power plant will output upwards of 700 horsepower and 608 pounds feet of torque. This is much more fitting as De Tomaso has historically used big American V8’s, so this change in plan further proves De Tomaso’s new owner’s intentions to stay true to the brand heritage.

However, De Tomaso isn’t focused on making the fastest or most powerful hypercar. Chief marketing officer Ryan Berns expounds on that, “In our opinion the market is now over-saturated with commercially driven ‘limited edition’ models primarily marketed on performance metrics. We have grown tired of this notion and thus took a contrarian approach with the P72.” Their “contrarian” approach seems to mean making a modern hypercar reminiscent of historic racers, which is partly why they’re tweaking this engine for a better sound. They’re working on making the supercharger as quiet as possible to retain the naturally aspirated sound of the 60s, specifically the goal in mind is an “old-school American V8 soundtrack.” Can’t go wrong there, right?

If a big American V8, a six-speed manual transmission, and 800 horsepower with drop-dead gorgeous looks is exactly what you want then you could purchase De Tomaso’s first hypercars for $842,000—a low cost, really, when you look at the prices of other hypercars today. Although it’s likely too late as De Tomaso will only be making 72 of these beauties, hence its name. However sad that may be, take consolation in the fact that De Tomaso will soon be releasing audio of their meticulously engineered exhaust note.