De Tomaso is most famously remembered for its muscular Pantera sports car (top) while the company's final model before liquidation was the Guarà, also Ford V8-powered, which was built in tiny numbers in coupe and barchetta format.

Gianmario Rossignolo's ambitious plans to set up an new Italian automotive brand are edging ever closer to reality with the news that he has bought the rights to the famous De Tomaso name which will be used to denote the cars to be built at his newly acquired Grugliasco factory.

The former Telecom Italia chief has secured the rights to the name of the company set up 50 years ago by Alejandro de Tomaso through his project called GMI (Grandi Marchi Italiani - "Great Italian Brands"). One of the Italian auto industrial's most famous and flamboyant figures from the post-war era Alejandro de Tomaso was well known for his deal making abilities and the most famous sports car to bear the blue-and-white badge of his name was the 1970s icon, the Pantera, built thanks to much support from Ford and of which 7,260 were turned out between 1970 and 1991. De Tomaso passed away in May 2003 aged 74. Almost exactly a year after his death the car company that he had founded was put into liquidation and despite sporadic interest in the last five years no buyer had been found.

Rossignolo's plan, to build an innovative aluminum-bodied SUV using time saving (and consequently-cost saving) techniques used to fabricate this metal, edged a set closer last month after the buisnessman took control of Pininfarina's Grugliasco factory in a 15 million euro deal financed by FinPiemonte-Partecipazioni S.p.A., a finance company controlled by the Piedmont Regional Administration, which will rent the premises back to him for the next six years, after the ailing Italian design house was forced to wind down its car building operations.

He plans to build a series of lightweight vehicles, starting with an SUV targeted at production of 3,000 units per year, which will be designed by Pininfarina. The Italian businessman, who is also a former CEO of Fiat's Lancia division, had in fact been in the frame to buy another failing Turin-based design house and contract manufacturer, this time Bertone, two years ago. However with a deal on the table and having been agreed by all parties, Bertone CEO Lilli Bertone abruptly changed course at the very final moment and instead favoured the alternative plans of Italian business turnaround specialist Domenico Reviglio, the founder of Gruppo Prototipo, although this plan too was ultimately rejected by the Turin court appointed to salvage a future for Bertone.

The proposed SUV, which is set to be called Tosca, will be quickly followed by a sedan and a coupé with production targets of 3,000 and 2,000 units a year respectively. The De Tomaso-badged cars will be positioned up against top-end Audi and BMW models while edging into Porsche territory. Tosca is planned to be launched at the Geneva Motor Show in 2011. Rossignolo's two sons will be key players in the unfolsing GMI project, Gianluca will take charge of commercial matters with Eduardo steering the development of the plan.