Have You Ever Heard Of – The Qvale Mangusta?

The first issue you’re going to have with the Qvale Mangusta is how to actually pronounce Qvale Mangusta. Kewvayle? Kervarlee? And once you’ve deciphered that little conundrum you’ll then encounter problem number two… finding one. You see, just 284 of these spicy little sportsters were ever built, but lucky for you lot we have one coming to auction right here at Car & Classic. We are so good to you.

Known colloquially as the Italian TVR, the Qvale Mangusta (pronounced kevahli – you’re welcome), is a V8-engined, two-door sports car that was conceived by Maserati’s technical director Giordano Casarini with help from Alejandro de Tomaso. Designed by Marcello Gandini and with a chassis by Formula 1 designer Enrique Scalabroni there was a heck of a lot of talent involved. With such big names behind the project then it was sure to be a huge success, right? Ahem, we’ll get to that later…

Casarini had visited the UK a few times in the early ’90s and was enchanted by a certain car that caught his eye, and indeed won his heart. That car was the TVR Griffith and Casarini was so impressed by the styling of Blackpool’s finest as well as how well it sold for such a low volume production he immediately set about developing a new car in the spirit of the Griffith upon his return to Italy. At the same time De Tomaso was at a crossroads. Having just recovered from a stroke he asked his pal Casarini what his next step should be with regards to his company and Casarini just so happened to be sitting on his Griffith-inspired sports car idea at the same time so the two friends joined forces and began work on what would become the Mangusta.

The dynamic duo needed a skilled designer to bring their project to life and De Tomaso had just the man in mind for such an endeavour: Marcello Gandini. So the story goes, to convince Gandini to take the job he was driven around in a Griffith; the very car that was the catalyst for the Mangusta in the first place. Much like Casarini, Gandini liked what he saw and so signed up to put pen to paper.

OK, so if this was a joint project between Casarini and De Tomaso, where the hell does the Qvale part come from? Well, a prototype was cobbled together and shown at the Geneva Motor Show in ’96 but further investment was required in order to continue development of the car and get it ready for production. Already shot down by the Italian government, Casarini and De Tomaso then turned to Norwegian-American business magnate Kjell Qvale with caps in hand.

Qvale was already successfully ensconced in the automotive world as a North American Jaguar distributor and importer of the original De Tomaso Mangusta (among others), a car not to be confused with the Qvale Mangusta, which was actually at this point called the Biguà. Naming shenanigans aside, however, Qvale agreed to invest in the project meaning the car could be finished and enter production in ’99. Yay.

Things were looking good. Casarini had secured a deal with Ford to use its new modular 4.6-litre V8 (after toying with the idea of using engines from Holden in Australia) and the first De Tomaso Mangustas rolled out of the newly built Qvale factory in Modena in November of ’99. He tells us: “We started with 45 people in a very well set plant in Modena, in the building where the Maserati Reparto Corse is now“.

Things would quickly head south for the Mangusta, however, as the relationship between De Tomaso and Qvale soured due in part to Qvale’s perceived belief that De Tomaso wasn’t as invested in the project as he was. Casarini mentions knowingly: “They were two prima donnas, they both had strong characters”.

Qvale subsequently ditched De Tomaso and went solo, taking his football with him in the form of the Mangusta, and going home. Production continued on but De Tomaso wouldn’t sanction the use of his name, even after a number of Mangustas had already been released into the wild bearing the badging, all of which had to be recalled and re-named as Qvales. Boys and their squabbles, eh?

Technically the car was decent. It had plenty of power from that Ford V8 (315bhp to be precise) and it handled well due to an inherently balanced chassis thanks to it’s front mid engine, rear-wheel drive layout. The trouble was it was a slippery fish to market. It was expensive, there were some build quality issues to begin with and the styling was esoteric to say the least meaning it really didn’t sell very well at all and after only 284 were built the project was shut down.

But, in a bizarre twist of fate the Mangusta would live on in the form of the bonkers but brilliant MG Xpower SV, after the Phoenix Consortium – who had bought the MG Rover Group – purchased all of the Mangusta assets from Qvale in order to develop a new performance MG model based on that car’s platform to help re-energise the brand.

The fallout of all of this is an incredibly rare, Italian-designed V8 sports car with impressive performance credentials, and as mentioned earlier we have a late model, five-speed manual example available for your bidding pleasure via our auctions platform.

Presented in sleek black with contrasting leather interior this Mangusta has covered less than 15,000 miles since new. Mechanically sound and comprehensively maintained we’re sure its original 0-60 time of 5.3 seconds and top speed of 160mph are both still very much intact. Everything reportedly works as it should, including that trick Gandini-designed “roto-top” roof that was inspired by the TVR Griffith.

Make no mistake, these do not come up for sale often. A hidden gem of a car and one of Italy’s best kept secrets the Qvale Mangusta is definitely one for those that appreciate a little exclusivity, not to mention an excellent little sports car that’ll get you from A to B as quickly as you’ll ever need, all the while drawing fascinating looks from passers by trying to figure out exactly what the hell it is.