De Tomaso P900 revealed – £2.5m V12-powered supercar with a 12,300rpm redline
Iconic name reveals new project fitted with an all-new bespoke V12 engine and track-focused aero
De Tomaso has joined the ultra high-end, multi-million pound, track-only hypercar market with this, the P900. Limited to just 18 units, the $3 million (just under £2.5m at current exchange rates) vehicle offers the startling numbers of 900hp and 900kg (dry), ensuring suitably dramatic performance.
Since showing its P72 hypercar at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2019, De Tomaso has certainly been busy. It has entered into a strategic partnership with the highly respected German engineering firm Capricorn GmbH, and is about to open a new facility based at the Nurburgring, where the P900 and its other cars will be designed, developed and validated.
The P900 is evidence of that working relationship bearing fruit. Inspired by the discovery of original drawings that showed De Tomaso founder Alejandro De Tomaso had dreams of creating his own V12 back in the 1960s, it combines a new carbonfibre tub chassis with a naturally aspirated V12. However, this isn’t the V12 that was seen in the P72 back in 2019, but rather an all-new engine designed specifically for De Tomaso by Capricorn. It’s a 60-degree V12, of 6.2-litre displacement, that revs to 12,300rpm and when combined with an Xtrac sequential gearbox makes for a powertrain package that weighs just 220kg. De Tomaso is claiming it to be the lightest, shortest V12 to yet reach production.
The P900 features an active ‘DRS’-capable rear wing and extensive underbody aero management as well as the wings visible in the imagery, all apparently validated in an F1-spec windtunnel (believed to be the former Toyota F1 facility). Although the first cars will be ready in the summer of next year, the powertrain will take longer to develop and isn’t expected to be fully signed off until late 2024. Therefore, if any of the 18 buyers can’t wait that long De Tomaso is offering an interim powertrain solution that features a re-worked Judd V10. P900 buyers can also choose to join ‘De Tomaso Competizione’, a driver’s club that will organise and help run the car for owners at circuits. While track-only at this stage, this might change in the future.
Meanwhile, the P72 is nearly ready for production, with the first units expected to be completed in the spring of next year. It too has an all-new carbonfibre chassis, and a new suspension setup, courtesy of Capricorn, but retains the manual gearbox. The biggest change, perhaps, the swap to a new V8 engine from the previous V12. Initially sourced from Ford, the engine is so heavily modified by Rouch and Capricorn that De Tomaso consider it to be one of their own. This also draws a greater connection to De Tomaso's most famous model, the Pantera.
