Monaco Moment: De Tomaso P72’s First Customer Car Revealed

The new De Tomaso P72 didn’t sneak into Monaco; it strolled in like jewelry on wheels. Crowds slowed. Cameras woke. In a place where Ferraris are background noise, this deep-blue coupe — Aurelian Night with rose-gold accents and matching wheels — still managed to stop people in their tracks.

Seen here and there, not stalled in a museum

It’s the actual first customer car, not a prototype or factory demonstrator, and yes, the same machine was filmed in Frankfurt last month, wearing a German plate. That fact says a lot: the owner chose to drive it, to let that handcrafted V8 sing under real traffic lights rather than hide the car away for safe-keeping. You get the sense this P72 is meant to be used, not just admired under ropes.

The P72’s story is a long one. The concept first teased the world at Goodwood in 2019. What followed was nearly seven years of painstaking engineering, a change to a bespoke carbon-fiber monocoque, powertrain tuning, and the kind of global supply-chain headaches that have tested nearly every niche automaker since the pandemic. Orders were taken back in mid-2019 and buyers paid an initial deposit of about €44,000 to secure their place in the queue. Later, milestone payments — non-refundable — typically added up to roughly 35 percent of the car’s final price during the build process.

That final price landed at €1.6 million, a big jump from the roughly €750,000 starting estimate announced at reservation. For some customers that wait and the rising cost were part of the bargain: exclusivity, hand-made details, and a total run capped at 72 cars, a number the model’s name proudly implies.

Retro looks, modern bones

Underneath the retro-styled, coachbuilt silhouette is modern hardware. The P72 uses Ford’s 5.0-liter Coyote V8, tuned to around 700 horsepower and about 820 newton-meters of torque. What makes purists smile is the drivetrain pairing: a six-speed manual and a mechanical limited-slip differential driving the rear wheels. That combination keeps the experience analog and visceral — gearshift, clutch, and all the small, thrilling errors that make driving memorable.

Still, Monaco’s narrow streets are not a proving ground. Traffic and speed limits mean the P72 on city asphalt will be admired for its presence rather than its performance. If the owner wants to find the car’s limits, they’ll need a racetrack, or perhaps a closed event where the coupe can breathe and be properly sampled.

What remains interesting is how a boutique marque managed to shepherd such an ornate car from concept to customer, despite years of delays and rising costs. That the car is being driven across Europe tells a secondary story about ownership culture in the hypercar era: for some buyers, possession includes the pleasure of use, not only the prestige of parking it under a cover.