Demise
Unfortunately the chassis wasn't torsionally sound for engines with higher torque, a problem made worse since some welding in the backbone, fabricated in Italy, was faulty, and drive train vibrations were a constant problem for those cars. Only 53 production cars were built (58 including aluminum body prototypes and race cars) before it was replaced by the De Tomaso Mangusta. The Mangusta used the concept of the Vallelunga chassis, significantly re-engineered to take a Ford 302 engine, all packaged with a body by Giorgetto Giugiaro.
One enthusiastic young owner of the Vallelunga was Ricci Martin, son of the late entertainer Dean Martin. Ricci obtained the red car around the time of his sixteenth birthday in 1969, but his brother wrote it off a few months later in a road accident. Ricci's mother went to some effort to locate a replacement car in an auto showroom in Milan, Italy, and she also arranged for the new car to be air-freighted to California. Of further interest, a few years later Ricci Martin sold the replacement Vallelunga after purchasing a version of its successor, the Mangusta. The Ricci Martin car (VIN 807DT0116) did not die, however. It was generally restored by machinist K. Krohncke in San Jose, California sold to a collector in Southern California in 1980 and now lives in Florida.
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