Trademark Filing More Evidence De Tomaso is Plotting a Return

Remember De Tomaso? The Italian carmaker responsible for the Mangusta and Pantera supercars, and even the second-best looking generation of the Maserati Quattroporte? Well, they might be back.

De Tomaso, founded by Argentine Alejandro de Tomaso, started building cars in 1959. They originally built racing cars and prototypes and were even briefly majority-owned by Ford. Their most iconic car is the 1971 Pantera. The wedge-shaped car with a Ford 351 Cleveland V8 that has only recently started to get the attention from collectors that it deserved.

In 2004, the company went into liquidation. It was sold in 2009. The new owner’s plan failed to get funding, and the company was back up for sale by 2012.

SEE ALSO: Owners of De Tomaso Name File Patent for New Pantera Design

Then, in 2015, a bankruptcy court approved a sale to Chinese consortium Ideal Team Ventures, for just €1,050,000. The company said then that it was planning to build cars in China using the name.

Last August, Ideal Team Ventures changed its name to De Tomaso Automobili Limited, registered in the UK. And now they’ve filed for a new trademark that suggests a return to old form. Though hopefully without the financial troubles.

“Modern Day Time Machine” is the slogan they’ve attempted to register, with the filing happening just yesterday. AutoGuide found the application in EUIPO records, and the trademark applies to motor vehicles.

While it’s still pending, in 2016 the company also filed new trademarks for Pantera, Mangusta, and the De Tomaso name and logos. So it sounds like the company is planning a return of something that resembles, or is at least inspired by, it’s products of the past.

The second-best looking Quattroporte, by the way, was the 1979-1990 third-gen car. It was based on the De Tomaso Longchamp’s underpinnings, engineered during De Tomaso’s ownership of Maserati. An angular stunner you’ve likely never heard of before.