To give the Pantera, which was a two-seater car in the purest style, a more versatile counterpart, De Tomaso wanted to market a 2+2 coupé with a classic scheme, that is, front engine and rear wheel drive. Tom Tjaarda, who worked at Ghia, was commissioned to design the new car, called the Zonda, whose prototype was presented in 1971. The Zonda, which could aesthetically recall the Ghibli, was based on the Deauville (but with a shortened chassis). De Tomaso proposed the Zonda project to Ford in an attempt to replicate the agreement signed for the Pantera, but the final price was estimated too high and so the Zonda never went beyond the prototype phase.