Corvette History

A Mangusta Corvette? Not Exactly….

Scott Kolecki··
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Did Bill Mitchell Own a One-Off Mangusta Corvette? Not Exactly….

On Friday, April 23, 2021, I had the good fortune of visiting the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky for the annual “Corvette Bash.”  While I was there, I took time to tour the Museum (as I do every time I am at the NCM).  To my surprise and delight, I stumbled across a new vehicle on display in the Museum’s rotunda.  The car – a bright red DeTomaso Mangusta – was parked amongst a variety of rare and unique Corvettes.

Why, you might ask, was a 1969 DeTomaso Mangusta, traditionally powered by a Ford engine, be on display at the National CORVETTE Museum?  The answer might surprise you.

Built from 1967 until 1971, the De Tomaso Mangusta was the direct predecessor to the more popular and longer-lasting Pantera. Only 401 Mangustas were built during the car’s five-year production run, and of those, approximately half are still known to exist today.  Both the Mangusta and the Pantera were built as a joint venture between DeTomaso and Ford.  The cars were built in Italy, but were equipped with a Ford 289 cubic-inch V8 (for sale in Europe) or a 302 cubic-inch V8 (when sold in the United States.)  All that is but one.

Bill Mitchell's 1969 De Tomaso Mangusta equipped with the Chevy 350 V8 engine.
Bill Mitchell’s 1969 De Tomaso Mangusta equipped with the Chevy 350 V8 engine.

The 1969 DeTomasa Mangusta with chassis number 8MA-670 was equipped with a 350 cubic-inch small-block Chevrolet V8 engine rated at 350 horsepower – the same engine that was to be introduced in the 1969 Chevy Corvette.   The car was specially built for GM’s Vice President of Design, Bill Mitchell, who had previously seen the Mangusta at the Turin Auto Show in the fall of 1968.  Mitchell had been so enamored with the car that he’d contacted Alesandro DeTomaso and asked him to build a special Mangusta just for him.  But with one stipulation – the car COULD NOT have a Ford engine in it.  General Motors would never approve of such an atrocity.  Fortunately for Mitchell, DeTomaso was happy to accommodate the request and agreed to installed whatever engine Mitchell desired in his one-of-a-kind Mangusta.

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