ATS 2500GT: built by rebels

By Mick Walsh

| 1 Dec 2025

Classic & Sports Car – ATS 2500GT: mutiny in Maranello

There is nothing quite like a determined and disgruntled staff walkout to develop fresh ideas.

When Carlo Chiti led a talented group of disaffected Ferrari engineers out of the gates of Maranello to form Automobili Turismo e Sport SpA, the chunky Tuscan’s ambitions to upstage his old boss were way too zealous.

But such was Chiti’s contagious confidence, he convinced his backers that ATS could develop both a winning Grand Prix car and an exotic gran turismo to wipe away Enzo’s smug smile.

The ATS 2500GT’s bodywork was built by Carrozzeria Allemano in Turin

The Formula One fiasco has coloured the reputation of ATS but its even lesser-known mid-engined road car was way ahead of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati when it wowed the press at its 1963 Geneva Salon debut.

Light and beautiful, this 220bhp Latin rocket was in a different class to the new Gallic mid-engined road car, the Djet, launched by René Bonnet at the Paris Salon a year earlier.

The handbuilt ATS berlinetta was luxuriously appointed inside its low, sexy form, styled by ex-Bertone chief stylist Franco Scaglione and built by Carrozzeria Allemano in Turin.

With a tubular chassis, independent suspension all round and disc brakes, it totally upstaged rivals on the 1963 show circuit.

The new pretender was claimed to be good for 150mph – or 160mph if you coughed up the extra $940 for the alloy-bodied superleggera version.

Depressingly, just as this mid-engined marvel was creating such a stir at shows, ATS was haemorrhaging internally as finances dried up and staff left the grand Bologna base.

The 2500GT’s sleek profile is just 45in high, and the Kamm tail followed early 1960s fashion

High taxes and inflation in Italy helped to strangle the bold newcomer and, after just eight 2500GTs had been hastily built, it was all over.

By autumn 1964, Chiti was already working for Alfa Romeo where his supercar ambitions later resulted in another Scaglione-styled beauty, the Tipo 33 Stradale.

ATS 2500GTs rarely come out of hiding today and, other than a few sightings at American concours events, or a replica for sale in Italy, they remain behind the closed garage doors of reclusive collectors.

But in August 2006, one of the first show cars emerged in a timewarp state to stun enthusiasts at Pebble Beach.

One Japanese car stylist spent the whole day studying and photographing this superbly preserved, steel-grey beauty.

The owner was Tom McGough, a Minnesota architect with catholic taste in motors, ranging from pre-war Willys to rare Italian classics.

Tom’s collection includes Australian-built models and, such is his passion for Willys, he is designing four high-performance hot-rod concepts for the prestigious Ridler Award, including a Ferrari 575-powered creation.

The ATS 2500GT’s plush interior with gold-rimmed dials

Tom’s broad automotive interest has led him to many events, but a Scaglione tribute at Pebble Beach in the 1990s switched him on to ATS.

“It was parked next to a Ferrari 250GT SWB and I couldn’t take my eyes off it,” he recalls. “From every angle it looked fabulous.

“As I read more about it, the car captivated me even more. Created in 10 months by the best Italian race engineers and the greatest stylist – from then it was my dream to own one.”

After scouring magazine adverts for months, Tom finally spotted one for sale in 2000, with Fantasy Junction in Emeryville, California: “It turned out to be a parts car, but that just made me even more determined to find one.

“Then in 2002 Bruce Milner agreed to sell me a non-running 2500GT he’d acquired as a guide to restoring his incomplete GTS, chassis 2006.”

On seeing the car, Tom couldn’t believe his luck. Not only had it driven just 1800km, but it remained in amazingly original condition: “During the preservation we discovered that the gearbox pinion had failed due to heat-treating problems and that was why the car had covered so few miles.

“I made the decision to keep it original and for the following few years it just sat in my garage. I even built a wall around the car to protect it from my young kids, who just wanted to sit in it.”

Chrome vents cool the ATS 2500GT’s V8 engine

While the ATS awaited the time and money for its renovation, Tom continued to research the history of this remarkable machine.

Chassis 2003 was possibly one of two GTs finished to a higher specification to attract customers on the European show circuit.

These cars featured full leather interiors, powered windows, twin brake servos and a radio. Confusingly, this early chassis carries engine number 11 and a Chiti-designed racing transaxle.

The mixed road/race specification of chassis 2003 illustrates the rocky state of affairs at the Bologna factory on Via Pila.

After display at the 1963 Paris Salon, the car was sold to Parisian Ferrari/Maserati dealer Maurice Thepenier and it was rushed back to the works to be finished.

Story has it that Thepenier convinced a rich, polo-playing rake living in Cannes that the seductive ATS was just the car for roaring around the Côte d’Azur.

Tom tracked down a former Ferrari mechanic, François Sicard, who had worked for the Paris garage and recalled various problems with the car.

Twice the clutch failed, first en route from Bologna to Paris and again when Sicard attempted to drive it to Cannes.

‘Just imagine a Jolly Club-liveried ATS 2500GT, festooned with spotlights, with Arnaldo Cavallari pushing hard on the Monte or Tour de Corse’

“We always brought our cars from Italy by road and had drivers going all the time to Maserati and Bizzarrini,” Sicard told Tom.

“There was a problem with the clutch from Italy and we repaired it. Then I drove it to Cannes. The clutch burned out again, and by the time I got to Nice it was undrivable.

“The new owner give me a nice tip and put me on the train back to Paris. He later returned the ATS for repair and then decided that he didn’t want it back.

“The clutch was aggressive and, with the non-synchro ’box, it was really a race car. But the rest of the ATS was nice to drive and well balanced. I recall the suspension was stiff.”

The ATS then remained untouched for the following 20 years until American collector Tom Price acquired it as part of a package of exotics including a Ferrari 250GTO, two Bizzarrinis and the ex-Aga Khan Maserati 5000GT.

During shipping from France to Seattle the ATS received minor nose damage but, once in America, Price immediately sold it to Paul Forbes.

The body was repaired but no serious attempts were made to make it run.

The ATS 2500GT’s fabulously patinated paint and chrome are original

Bruce, the next keeper, had the fuel system, cooling and hydraulics rebuilt, but the odometer remained unmoved.

Finally, with the car’s sale to Tom McGough, the ATS found an owner committed enough to restore it to working order.

Finding a specialist sufficiently sensitive to preserve the car’s condition, as well as sort it, was one of the delaying factors, but the turning point was the involvement of Tom Rasmussen of Odyssey Restorations.

Better known for his work on pre-war machinery and passion for early air-cooled Franklins, Rasmussen was immediately fascinated by the Italian exotic and the challenge of refurbishing it.

“Once we’d determined that 2003 was the first show car, with largely original mechanical and cosmetic components, we decided to preserve the car in as near to factory fettle as possible,” says McGough.

“To guide us, we hired a museum expert, André Audette from Ottawa, Canada, to consult with us on the initial conservation masterplan.

“Our philosophy was guided by the Venice Charter of 1964, which advises on ‘conserving and restoring monuments to safeguard them no less as works of art than as historical evidence’.”

The ATS 2500GT’s owner, Tom McGough, at the wheel

“Its approach seemed perfectly applicable to the ATS,” continues Tom. “Our goal was to save as many factory components, surfaces, textures and finishes as possible.

“The Charter also recognises the original purpose of the object, and we agreed that returning the ATS to reliable operating condition was desirable because it would generate interest and promote conservation.

“We also determined that original components that left the factory in non-working order should be made to operate.”

Yet the plan to just change the oil, adjust the mechanicals and carefully clean the supercar pioneer for display in the Preservation Class at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance turned into a much more challenging project.

Although the V8 engine had covered just 1800km, the team decided to rebuild it.

“We fitted new pistons and valves, including titanium rods to reduce the internal stresses,” says Rasmussen. “All the original parts were carefully packaged up.”

On the dyno, the gorgeous all-alloy 90° V8, with its phalanx of double-choke Webers, fulfilled all the ATS factory figures: “It just loves to rev, and at 7000rpm delivered 202bhp.

“The torque curve is also very flat. We could have pushed it a bit further, but didn’t want to risk it. With 100bhp per litre and weighing in at only 1800lb, the specification was remarkable for its era.”

The ATS 2500GT’s neat rear lights

As Odyssey Restorations’ staff carefully stripped the car, they discovered much about its history.

Almost zero wear on the brake pads confirmed the low mileage, while its rushed construction was proven by various unfinished features.

The electric windows would never have worked because the tracks were badly designed, and much of the complex wiring harness had never been connected.

The brake servos were wrongly hooked up and would not have functioned, either. “From the paint on many of the nuts,” says Rasmussen, “it was clear that the car had never been apart. Such a unique project was a real privilege.”

When the transaxle was stripped, Odyssey discovered that the ring and pinion were broken, with three teeth missing, but mysteriously they were not inside the casing.

ATS road cars were listed to have all-synchro ZF five-speed units but, probably due to late delivery and more likely financial problems, 2003 was fitted with a racing design by chief engineer Chiti.

This featured an ATS casing with Colotti straight-cut gears.

That’s fine if you are works driver Phil Hill or Teodoro Zeccoli, but hardly practical around the centre of Paris or Cannes. Little wonder the car continually had driveline problems.

The ATS 2500GT’s steering is light and sharp

Other than new seals for the brakes and clutch, plus a replacement Becker radio – the original was missing – the rest of the car is wonderfully patinated.

The paint, leather, carpets, chrome and even the loom were all carefully conserved.

Such was the Odyssey restorers’ dedication that they even found a chemical process to lift water-slide transfers during cleaning so they could be replaced.

After a hectic schedule to get the car finished for Pebble Beach, the ATS arrived in Monterey with just 50km of testing under its belt.

“We were the only entrant in our class to do the road tour, and had a great run following an Alfa Romeo ‘Two-Nine’,” enthuses McGough.

“Now I love to drive it just for fun. We have some great local routes in northern Minnesota. Once opened up, it really feels like a race car and the handling is beautifully balanced.”

Prior to only its second showing at Amelia Island, we hooked up with Tom McGough and Rasmussen to see if the ATS lived up to Griff Borgeson’s glowing 1964 report in Road & Track.

‘Thanks to the absolute perfection of the car in every way,’ Borgeson marvelled, ‘I have never felt safer at high speed nor have I been more impressed... The car has the magic of truly great performance that comes from brilliant design and not brute strength.

‘I was haunted by the thought that what Bugatti was noted for in the past was here, brought fully up-to-date: a modern road-race thoroughbred, in the fullest sense, that anyone can buy.’

The ATS 2500GT’s replacement Becker radio is one of the few non-original parts

Borgeson’s excitement obviously infected editor Dean Batchelor, who selected a Targa Florio shot of the car for the cover, but the publicity was too late because ATS was already sinking.

So can the gorgeous grey metallic GT match up to its reputation? McGough generously hands over the keys for a spirited run around northern Florida’s back-roads.

Stooping down and climbing into this low-set GT must have felt novel in 1963.

Supportive seats, a full spread of gold-rimmed dials behind the raked Nardi three-spoke wheel and neatly grouped switches have a purposeful character, but this is no stripped-down road-racer.

Plush trimming, electric windows and an expensive Becker radio give it more Latin class than the first Lamborghini Miura.

The layout, too, is better conceived, confirming its racing aspirations. And the pedals are perfectly placed for nifty heel-and-toe gearchanges.

Prime the Webers, press the key and the engine fires boisterously close behind. Its deep bark feels and sounds Italian, not unlike a Lancia D50.

The gorgeous ATS 2500GT was the work of Franco Scaglione, who later styled the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale for Carlo Chiti

The first challenge is the straight-cut ’box, but light traffic allows for fast, short changes – the only way to work the narrow, five-speed, Ferrari-style gate.

Stretch the motor and bang the short lever up and down the chrome slots to avoid embarrassing noises. The clutch is sharp, too, and demands a positive action.

The V8’s initial response feels sluggish, yet performance builds as the revs rise.

Don’t expect to be pinned to your seat from the green light, but it’s soon snarling up to our imposed limit of 6000rpm.

Quickly it’s clear that Chiti’s little motor loves to rev. Unlike most V8s, the ATS isn’t cammy and the power sweeps straight up through the full range.

On one open stretch we work briskly through the gears, and without any drama that pretty snout is punching the humid Florida air at 110mph.

The car begs to go quicker and feels superbly stable at speed. It would have been fascinating to find a disused airfield and really push the handling to see how this early mid-engined layout reacts at the limit, but on the road it feels sharp and race-bred.

With the panoramic view through the wide windscreen and slightly offset pedals, it feels like an early Lancia Stratos.

‘The car begs to go quicker and feels superbly stable at speed’

The superb rack-and-pinion steering is direct and positive, with ideal weight build-up as you turn in.

Around the mountain roads of the Targa Florio, where the two works ATSs failed early with ignition problems, this sleek, compact supercar must have felt brilliantly nimble against the unwieldy AC Cobras and Ford GT40s in 1964.

Only Porsche drivers experienced such balance and poise. The brakes are over-servoed and the lack of initial bite doesn’t inspire, but push deeper and the Dunlop discs start to work harder.

The lighter, sportier, alloy-bodied GTS would no doubt feel much sharper and faster.

With a relatively narrow footprint and high-profile rubber wrapping the gorgeous Borrani wires, the chassis feels a little twitchy into sharp bends, much like a Porsche 906, and when really pushed it would ultimately bite quickly.

But at fast road speeds it’s light-years ahead of a bullish GT40 or Miura.

Gordon Murray in particular would appreciate the compact form and focused layout of the 2500GT – the McLaren F1 is the closest in spirit to its brilliant and beautiful forerunner.

Like its understated elegance, this car is all about pure driving and not posing in Monte Carlo. You’d much rather be heading for the Col de Turini with that crisp V8 yowling behind.

If only Chiti had focused on this maiden supercar rather than stretching resources and talent with a disastrous Grand Prix programme.

Just imagine a Jolly Club-liveried ATS, festooned with spotlights, with Arnaldo Cavallari pushing it hard on the Monte or the Tour de Corse. The Stratos might never have happened.

Images: Mick Walsh

This was first in our July 2007 magazine; all information was correct at the date of original publication

Factfile

ATS 2500GT

Sold/number built 1963-’64/eight
Construction braced chrome-molybdenum tubular chassis, steel body (aluminium for the GTS) built by Allemano
Engine all-alloy, sohc-per-bank 2467cc 90° V8, with two valves per cylinder, four twin-choke downdraught Weber carburettors or optional Lucas mechanical fuel injection
Max power 220bhp @ 7500rpm (GTS 250bhp @ 7700rpm)
Max torque 152lb ft @ 5800rpm
Transmission ATS or ZF five-speed transaxle, RWD
Suspension independent, at front by double wishbones, coil springs, anti-roll bar rear double wishbones, forward-facing torque arms, coil springs; telescopic dampers f/r
Steering rack and pinion
Brakes Dunlop discs, inboard at rear
Length 14ft 5in (4394mm)
Width 5ft 4in (1626mm)
Height 3ft 9in (1143mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 4in (2540mm)
Weight 1800lb (816kg)/1666lb (755kg, GTS)
0-60mph 5 secs
Top speed 150mph
Mpg 25
Price new $8500 (1963)/$9440 (GTS)