Puma GT Malzoni / Puma GT History

Italian-born Brazilian designer Rino Malzoni built his first prototype on a DKW rolling chassis supplied by Vemag (Brazil's DKW representative) with the aim of beating Willys at the Autodromo de Interlagos in São Paulo. The fiberglass-bodied coupe debuted publicly at the São Paulo Motor Show in autumn 1964 and immediately delivered: it recorded five wins at Interlagos in 1964 and continued to dominate in 1965.

The car's success attracted investors who formalised production as Sociedade de Automóveis Lumimari. The DKW-engined car was renamed Puma GT when the company became Puma Veículos e Motores in 1966. When Volkswagen absorbed DKW and ended chassis supply, Puma switched to the VW Karmann Ghia platform for 1967–1970, fitting a 1.5-litre (later 1.6-litre) air-cooled VW flat-four under the fiberglass skin and keeping the same basic coupe silhouette.

The VW-based GT was the bridge to the GTE export model, and is the direct ancestor of every Puma that followed. Rino Malzoni died in 1979 at the age of 62.