QVALE
Bruce Qvale son of Kjell Qvale heads Qvale which is one of the top most Italian car manufacture company and it came into existence in 2000. Qvale produces only one product that is Mangusta, originally known as De Tomaso Biguà. In 1947 in San Francisco, California Kjell Qvale founded British Motors and is popular amongst the automobile industry. On the west coast Kjell was the first distributor for Jaguar and was also one of the founders of the San Francisco Auto Show.
Bruce Qvale vice president and CEO of San Francisco British motor car distributor- started Working in a family’s vehicle business of import and export, In 1976 Bruce even initiated the distribution of British Leyland vehicles. Later in 1980 in west coast Maserati distribution was headed by him. Apart from distribution he started running retail outlets in San Francisco and Beverly Hills.
Qvale is currently, the largest single American distributor. Their cars prove to be the best handling of the race. In Britain and America qvale’s cars are successful, and there it is distributed by Jensen Motors Inc, and it is a subsidiary of BMCD. Qvale reaches a network of 45 Jensen dealers throughout the US and Canada.
Marcello Gandini, exclusive designer of Lamborghini and Maserati designed mangusta. In 1996, in Geneva mangusta it was launched in market. Due to financial problems De tomaso searched for a business partner and tied up with Bruce Qvale. That was how the De Tomaso Biguà was renamed as Mangusta.
Qvale mangusta is a sports car with three position coupe / Targa/ full Convertible body style and comprising 4.6L Ford Cobra SVT V8 with Brog Warner T45 5-speed manual (or optional automatic transmission) Transmission and 105.1 in (2669.5 mm) wheel base. It’s length, width and height was 105.1 in (2669.5 mm), 74.8 in (1899.9 mm) , 51.8 in (1315.7 mm) Respectively. Its curb weight is 3,351 lb (1,520 kg).
Later Qvale and De Tomaso took two different paths. Qvale acquired the factory and the car’s production. De Tomaso did not agree and denied to use his name. In spite de tomaso’s denial the first Mangusta’s were delivered to their customers with De Tomaso badges, which later changed dealers for the official Qvale logos.
Mangusta tagline states “Mangusta wasn’t built in a day”. There was power oversteering to play with. Brakes were powerful but contrary, the Ford-sourced power steering was too light for European driving style, and it even lacked a sharp turn-in feeling. On the other hand Mangusta was a well balanced and competent to drive fast without asking for much effort and attention. It was not as concentrated or as exciting as many European sports cars, but Qvales’ eyes were always looking to the US market because there people required a bit more driving ease instead of driving fun.
Between 2000 and 2002, Qvale was all over the market and continued benefits of a good position it built approximately 270 cars, maximum of which were exported to the USA. Due to less popularity of brand name, unusual design and slowing economy the graph of company fell down and it became really difficult for the company to exist.
So In 2003, Qvale sold the rights of the Mangusta to Britain’s MG Rover Group. In 2004, MG launched the MG SV and SVR which was designed by MGSR (MG Sport & Racing, the racing division of the MG Rover Group), the SV was a remake of mangusta as its structure, suspension, engine and gearbox were more or less same. Apart from some fitting and pre-delivery customisation the car was largely built in Italy.
- Nitika Malhotra
Tags: car brands, car manufacturers, cars, italy, qvale, qvale models, sports car manufacturers, sports cars
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