Bordinat's Mangusta
by Wallace Wyss
Photos by P.I. Motorsport

The Bordinat Mangusta had a rubber tipped nose, probably a hint at a bumper that would keep the body lines and still absorb energy, since laws about energy absorbing bumpers were coming up. Ironically Pininfarina's GTC/4 used the same idea in the production car, introduced in 1971.

A Rare Italian-American Hybrid Surfaces for Sale in California
Detroit auto executives are sometimes enthusiasts, though usually they are quite happy to merely be given a new car, or leased one on a super deal, every few months.

Gene Bordinat was born in 1920, worked for GM before moving to Ford in 1947.

They like to spend their big bonuses on hunting lodges, cruisers and the like. The ones who own their own special cars are fondly remembered by car enthusiasts as being real car guys. That would include William L. Mitchell, former VP of Design at GM, who went so far as to have cars custom built for him by Design. A less well known enthusiast who was active in creating special cars for himself at the same time is the late Eugene Bordinat of Ford. He was styling director during the go-go Sixties when Ford turned on the cash funnel to fund racing in every type of motorsport, from Indy racing to drag racing.

Most important was the more than $10 million they spent to win LeMans, which they did for four years running66 through 69.

The rear shows different treatment of the rear valance, in this case horizontal bars instead of the chain mail grid that the production Mangustas use. No doubt the production version allowed more cooling air in. Bordinat's car was probably a pre-production Mangusta.

The Urge to Go Italian During the time Ford was running at LeMans, Henry Ford II, grandson of the first Henry Ford, was CEO of the firm and a car enthusiast in his own right. He was married to a fiery Italian, Christina Vettore, and at one point is said to have given her a Maserati Ghibli coupe. Her comment was to point at the Ghia badge on the side and say something to the effect of Ford could never build anything as classy as the Italians.

Well, that was like prodding HFII with a fiery brand and the next thing you know he is telling his minions to go out and buy Ghia, the carrozzeria that designed the Ghibli.

Actually Ford had tried as far back as the early Sixties to buy an Italian automaker, only that time it was Ferrari. But the deal fell through after two weeks of intense negotiation, some say because Enzo Ferrari didnt want that Ford oval on his cars next to his proud prancing horse. He sold out the production car side of his operation in 1969 to Fiat.

The rubber bumper guards were added by Bordinat's styling crew in a further attempt at making a 5-mph bumper. But the Mangusta , designed in 1966, just didn't adapt to bumper laws easily. But the main reason it was nixed was that, after Ford engineers and designers inspected the assembly line, it was judged too hand built to be built in the quantities Ford would need it built.

Back to the Ghia deal. In Italy, Alessandro de Tomaso, a former race driver turned car builder in 1959, had somehow become head of Ghia Carrozzeria. He had the most talented designer in Italy, Giorgetto Giugiaro, on the drawing board and Giugiaro came up with a beautiful mid-engine car design for a company called Iso.

But it was done on spec, Giugiaro and Iso engineer Giotto Bizzarrini hoping Iso owner Renzo Rivolta would go for the idea of a sports car companion for the Giugiaro-designed Iso Fidia four door with similar styling cues. But Rivolta didnt want it. So DeTomaso thought it was a shame to throw away particularly when it was just right for a chassis he had sitting around from a race car project that went sour that he had going with Carroll Shelby. The result was the exciting Mangusta show car. DeTomaso showed it at the same time Lamborghini brought out their Miura.

And both cars went into production, relatively untested. The Mangusta turned out to have a myriad of flaws,such as a too flexible spine frame which caused it to go into sudden oversteer if pushed too hard around a corner. Some 35 years later, owners are still refining their Gooses, doing the development work DeTomaso should have done.

Bordinat Enters
When HFII put pressure on to find an Italian car builder with a classy name, Bordinat thought of Ghia which had already built previous Ford show cars such as the Futura which became, in its old age, the Batmobile.

Bordinat bought a Mangusta, and titled it under his own names. He championed the idea that Ford bring in the Mangusta just as they had brought in the A.C.Cobra from 1962 to 1967. But after Ford sent two designers to inspect the Ghia facilities, the bad news came backthe car was built in an uneven inconsistent manner that required way too much hand work. Plus the press in the U.S., particularly Sports Car Graphic, was roasting the Mangusta for its squirrely handling.

Bordinat got as far as fitting his own Mangusta with a rubber nose similar to the Ferrari 365GTC/4 and big bumper guards that might have got it past the upcoming 5-mph front bumper regulations. His own car also has a different grating in the rear, and once had white wheels.

The interior is basically stock, though at least it has the later Mangusta air con vents in the dash where some had a clumsy air conditioning box underneath the dash. The wood and leather steering wheel was way ahead of its time, with some luxury cars using that today. The radio speakers in the console are aftermarket.

Ironically the aforementioned William L. Mitchell also went ga-ga over the Goose and ordered one for himself, insisting it have a Chevy engine installed in place of the meek and mild Windsor 302 Ford V8. He got the car and tried to squeeze in it, but as he was a man of considerable girth, he couldnt fit, and angrily ordered the car sold. A lucky GM designer, Dick Ruzzin, ended up with the car and has prized it ever since. P.I. International, a firm in Orange, California that specializes in the DeTomaso brand, particularly Panteras and Mangustas, has been assigned the sale of the Bordinat car and says it is one of the best they have have represented. In a way it is unique because , even though it was owned by

Engine close up. The blue color indicates that this was a stock Ford engine, right off the same shelf that supplied, can you believe it, the Maverick--a meak Windsor 302 though it is rumored European models got the 289 that was in the Mustang. The Mangusta came out at the same time as the Lamborghini Miura but had a less suited engine for high performance driving.

Bordinat, it was an internal factory show car for awhile, being painted and repainted and fussed with as Bordinat tried to whip up company interest in it.

But as history records, Ford went thumbs down on the Mangusta and instead ordered up over 6,000 Panteras though all Ghia could show them of the Mangustas planned successor was a one-fifth scale wood model. It turned out the Pantera had teething troubles as well, but the enthusiastic owners have solved them all, and they are more popular today than they were in their original era.

Ford buys Ghia
So Ford bought the Pantera, and bought Ghia , and even got another old name in coachbuilding, Vignale, thrown in with the deal. They then used Ghia from 1969 to the present day to build prototypes for them, many many prototypes, some of which were recently sold at a Christies auction in Dearborn.

More important they got bragging rights to use the Ghia badge on any Ford that had been blessed with Ghia labors, such as the Cortina, Granada, dozens of models. In fact they so overused the name Ghia in the U.S. that they stopped using it because they had de-valued it and may be planning to re-introduce it if they can restore its image.

The Mangusta Fleet
Of the 401 Mangusta reported to have been built, there are approximately 300 left. They are not cars you can drive everyday, being so low to the ground that it is easy to crack the precious transaxle case on a speed bump. But they are spectacular cars to drive on a Sunday afternoon, and still turn heads though they are now well over 30 years old. One, the one-off spyder built for the Turin Show, has even graced the lawn at the prestigious Pebble Beach concours, while Panteras are still not allowed there because they are, after all, too common to compete in such rarified an atmosphere.

P.I. Motorsport (www.pim.net/bordinat.html) is entertaining offers, knowing it will take a particular individual to want to own what, in effect, is a sub-rosa factory prototype, i.e. an unofficial prototype, owned by a man who was one of Detroits greatest car enthusiasts.