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accompany him and made it clear that
Brock would be on his own and should
not expect any assistance from him.
If there was animosity from
DeTomaso, there was absolutely none
from Medardo Fantuzzi. In broken
English, he explained how his fabrica-
tors would build the body. They would
not need blueprints, which Brock had
supplied in quarter-scale, in inches.
They worked in the metric system and
could not convert each measurement
from inches. Instead, they would work
by eye. “
Perocchio,
” as Fantuzzi said.
Rather than building an elaborate
plywood buck over which the body
would be formed – as American and
British builders did – the Italians con-
structed a “maquette.” Brock had no
idea what that was but he would
quickly find out. One of Fantuzzi’s
younger apprentices was sent on a bi-
cycle to a local construction site to get
a coil of spring steel wire. Construction
companies used the wire to reinforce
concrete but it was perfect for the fab-
ricators to use in constructing a wire
frame which would reveal the body
concours. It only took them a couple of
days to form it into a perfect represen-
tation of the body Brock had designed.
“
Perocchio.
”
Once the maquette was com-
pleted, the fabricators hand-formed
pieces of aluminum into the body
shapes using an old stump. They
pounded the metal into a rough form,
leaving dimples the size of golf balls.
Then, using flat hammers and hand
anvils, they worked the dimples out
and before long the panels fit exactly
the contours of the maquette. Brock
was amazed that such a crude process
could yield such perfect results.
After a couple of weeks, as the
body was nearing completion,
DeTomaso finally showed up to in-
spect “his” project. He was thrilled
with what he saw. A short time later
Brock received a late night phone call
from Shelby, telling him the project
had been terminated and to leave im-
mediately for home. It turned out that
DeTomaso had called Shelby to tell
him that the new lightweight 427 en-
gine he had been developing would not
be ready on time. Shelby knew that
without it the car would simply not be
competitive. He quickly moved on. He
would have his hands full with the
new GT40 project and Brock would be
busy designing a 427-powered Day-
tona “Super” Coupe.
Both Shelby and De Tomaso re-
mained irritated at each other. Nei-
ther Shelby or Brock would ever get
credit for the P70 from DeTomaso. The
car was completed and shown at the
1965 Turin Auto Show as the “Ghia
DeTomaso 5 Liter.” DeTomaso had, by
then, acquired Ghia, the Turin coach-
builder, and the car was touted as the
product of a DeTomaso-Ghia collabo-
ration. The fact that the body had been
designed in California by Peter Brock
and built by Fantuzzi in Modena was
never mentioned.
Two bodies had actually been built
by Fantuzzi, based on Brock’s design.
Both the P70 and the Sport 5000
looked very similar and both had been
painted blood red, so they were often
confused with each other. In order to
complete the P70, DeTomaso installed
a 5-liter Ford V8 with Gurney-Weslake
heads and Weber carburetors when it
went to Turin because he had never
completed the 7-liter small block. After
the show it was placed in storage in
DeTomaso’s shop, where it remained
until his death in 2004.
The Sport 5000 was modified by
DeTomaso and, powered by a 475
horsepower small block Ford, was en-
tered in the 1966 Mugello 500km race.
It jumped ahead of a Ferrari 250LM at
the start, due to its significantly
lighter weight (1,760 lbs) and in-
creased downforce due to the Brock-
designed adjustable rear wing.
However, after the opening lap an elec-
trical short retired the car and it never
raced again. In 1967 it was listed as an
entry for the 12 Hours of Sebring and
the 1,000km race in Monza but it did
not appear at either event. It re-
mained at DeTomaso’s shop, occasion-
ally being displayed in his museum.
After 40 years the car resurfaced after
DeTomaso’s death when his estate
sold it to a Belgian collector.
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Spring 2016 32