De Tomaso Sport 5000 Spyder by Fantuzzi: The One-Off That Raced Only Once

Lone Racer - Some cars are built to win championships, others to make a statement—and a rare few manage to do both, even if their time in the spotlight is heartbreakingly short. The De Tomaso Sport 5000 Spyder by Fantuzzi sits in that last, most elusive category: a one-off creation with the style of a dream, the engineering of a racing thoroughbred, and a story that blends ambition, artistry, and a little bit of tragedy.

The DeTomaso Sport 5000 Spyder by Fantuzzi differed from its P70 Spyder companion with a taller windscreen featuring a wiper and more conventional doors to meet FIA racing regulations. (Picture from: AmazingClassicCars in Facebook)

Its roots stretch back to a man whose own life read like a film script. Alejandro de Tomaso, born into a wealthy and politically connected family in Argentina, was more than just a talented racing driver—he was a man on the run, having fled to Italy in 1955 after being implicated in a plot against President Juan Perón. In Modena, the beating heart of European motorsport, he married American heiress Isabelle Haskell, herself a racing enthusiast and the granddaughter of General Motors founder William C. Durant. Surrounded by Italy’s finest craftsmen and engineers, de Tomaso set out to create machines that were as daring in design as they were in performance. 

The 1965 De Tomaso Sport 5000 Spyder by Fantuzzi, a singular prototype with an open-top design featuring covered rear wheels and a driver-adjustable rear wing, embodied cutting-edge aerodynamics. (Picture from: AmazingClassicCars)

His early masterpiece, the 1963 Vallelunga coupe, might have been powered by a humble Ford Cortina engine, but its pressed steel backbone chassis and advanced engineering gave it the agility and stiffness of a purebred racer. That success lit the fuse for a bolder project: in 1965, the P70 Spyder. Conceived with American racing icon Carroll Shelby and designer Pete Brock, it was meant to storm the Can-Am series and European endurance races. The chassis carried the DNA of the Vallelunga, but with a snarling Shelby-tuned 289-cubic-inch Ford V8, a Colotti five-speed transaxle, and a futuristic Fantuzzi-crafted body.

The 1965 De Tomaso Sport 5000 Spyder by Fantuzzi has a stripped-down cockpit with blue bucket seats, a wooden steering wheel, and a simple race-ready dashboard. (Picture from: RMSothebys)

The partnership with Shelby, however, crumbled when he left to focus on Ford’s struggling GT40 program. Yet de Tomaso didn’t abandon the vision entirely. He pressed on, giving birth to a sibling machine: the Sport 5000 Spyder. Built on the same backbone chassis as the P70 but tailored to meet FIA rules, it gained a taller windscreen, wipers, and conventional doors. Fantuzzi’s curves remained, but now they framed a car destined for official international racing.

The 1965 De Tomaso Sport 5000 Spyder by Fantuzzi powered by a snarling Shelby-tuned 289-cubic-inch Ford V8, a Colotti five-speed transaxle. (Picture from: RMSothebys)

Its big day came on July 17, 1966 at the Mugello 500 KM in Italy. Behind the wheel was Roberto Bussinello, a trusted De Tomaso ally and works Alfa Romeo driver. The race was grueling, the competition fierce—and heartbreak struck early when a mechanical failure forced the lone Sport 5000 Spyder to retire. That single outing would be both its debut and swan song.

The 1965 De Tomaso Sport 5000 Spyder by Fantuzzi used a mock-up chassis with a poor interpretation of Pete Brock’s design, prompting a dissatisfied Carroll Shelby to send Brock to Italy to personally oversee the construction of the first running car’s body. (Picture from: RMSothebys)

After Mugello, the unique chassis SP5000-001 returned quietly to Modena, gathering dust for nearly forty years until de Tomaso’s death in 2003. From there, it passed into the hands of a Belgian enthusiast before finding a new home with a collector in the United States. Unlike its sibling P70, which has been fully restored, the Sport 5000 Spyder remains strikingly original, almost as if frozen in time. | 9vKqTl4Xp-E |

Today, this one-of-a-kind car is more than a relic—it’s a living snapshot of what Italian sports prototype racing could have been if Shelby had stayed in the project. Its untouched condition tells of an era when craftsmanship, courage, and collaboration were everything. Though it raced only once, the De Tomaso Sport 5000 Spyder by Fantuzzi has achieved something few cars ever do: it has transcended the track to become pure legend, a singular piece of motorsport history that will always inspire those who believe in chasing impossible dreams. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | RMSOTHEBYS | RMSOTHEBYS IN X | AMAZINGCLASSICCARS | AMAZINGCLASSICCARS IN FACEBOOK | ULTIMATECARPAGE ]

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