De Tomaso Deauville (1971-85)

The De Tomaso Deauville, designed by Tom Tjaarda (then in force at the Ghia), was a large four-door sedan first exhibited at Turin Motor Show 1970. The car was powered by the same 351 in³ (5763 cc) Ford Cleveland V8 as the De Tomaso Pantera, rated at 300 hp. The car had a top speed of 230 km/h (143 mph) and featured styling similar to that of the Jaguar XJ.

The Deauville had an independent rear suspension very similar to that used by Jaguar, and ventilated discs in all four wheels. It shares its chassis with the Maserati Quattroporte III.

Only a total of 244 Deauvilles were produced. The main reason was the price; at £8,992 in the UK, the exclusive Deauville not only cost around four times as much as a 4.2-Litre XJ6, it was more expensive than the contemporary Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. The Deauville’s Italian heritage and relative rarity has only served to ensure its desirability in the eyes of collectors. There were three Deauville variants: the early series 1 (1971–1974), late series 1 (1975–1977) and the series 2 (1978–1985).

One Deauville station wagon was made for Mr. De Tomaso's wife. There were also two armoured Deauvilles produced, one for the Belgian Royal Family and the other for the Italian government. The latter is on display in the Museo delle Auto della Polizia di Stato in Rome. (revolvy.com & bonhams.com)

Series 2 (1978-85)

Series 1 (1971-77)

(Photos from ruotevecchie.org, classicdriver.com, 

bonhams.com & powercars-br.blogspot.ca)

Innocenti Spider (1961-65)

In 1959 Innocenti signed a licence agreement with the British Motor Corporation (BMC) to manufacture their version of the Austin-Healey Sprite. Alongside this Innocenti had ideas to make a small sports car, the same size as an Austin Healy Sprite MkI (photos below), but they didn't believe the 'unique' looks of the Frogeye would appeal strongly enough to the Italian market. So in order to get around this Carrozzeria Ghia was commissioned to design a completely new body design to integrate with the Sprite MkI platform.

Designing the Innocenti 950 was the first complete car project for Tom Tjaarda (De Tomaso Pantera, Ferrari 330GT 2+2 Berlinetta) who had just started at Ghia. The car was then to be manufactured by OSI in Turin, a company which had been set up by Ghia in 1959. The Innocenti 950 was launched at the November 1960 Turin show, but series production only began in 1961.

The original Innocenti 950 Spider had the Frogeye's 948 cc engine with 43 hp (32 kW), 624 of these were built. Later in 1961 an uprated 46.5 hp (35 kW) was installed. In February 1963 the 1098 cc "S" model, which provided 58 hp (43 kW), was introduced. This also had front disc brakes to cope with the extra power. The Innocenti Spider could also be fitted with a removable hardtop. 

A total of 4,790 Spiders (950’s) were manufactured up until February 1963, when the Innocenti 'S' was introduced with an 1100cc engine, disc brakes and revised rear suspension. Just over 2,000 Innocenti 'S' Spiders were produced between February '63 and February '65, making a total Spider production figure of 6,864 in four years. (innocentispider.co.uk)

Innocenti 950 Spider (1961-63)

Innocenti Spider S (1963-65)

(Below White) Innocenti C Coupé (1966-68)      (Below Red) Innocenti Spider (1961-65)

Austin-Healey Sprite "Frogeye" Mk I (1958-61)

(Photos from innocentispider.co.uk, commons.wikimedia.org, wikiwand.com & flickr.com)