Puma

Puma Automóveis Ltda., or simply Puma, is a Brazilian manufacturer of sports cars and small trucks that began its activities in 1963 as Lumimari (named after the initials of its founders and partners: Luiz Roberto Alves da Costa, Milton Masteguin, Mario Cezar de Camargo Filho and Rino Malzoni) which later became Puma Veículos e Motores the following year and ten years later, in 1974, as Puma Indústria de Veículos SA.

The brand ceded the production rights for a limited time to several companies, including the Brazilian companies: Araucária Veículos Ltda and later to Alfa Metias Veículos Ltda, and also to a company in South Africa in the following years: 1973–1974, 1989–1991 and 2007 until 2014, when the production rights for Puma models expired.

The company was revived in 2013 under the Puma Automóveis Ltda name, headquartered in the countryside of São Paulo, by a former industrial director of Puma Indústria de Veículos S/A. New projects include the Puma P-052 (a prototype made especially for motorsports), and the Puma GT Lumimari, named in honor of the company's original title.

Puma began on the tracks and a dream of the Italian designer and immigrant, naturalized in Brazil, Rino Malzoni, of designing and manufacturing a vehicle with a fiberglass body and mounting this body on the platform of a passenger vehicle with a modified engine and suspension to perform better and add a finish compatible with a sports car.

This dream motivated Malzoni to create a prototype of a racing car, which was developed on his farm in Matão, in the interior of São Paulo. It had the support of Vemag, which supplied mechanics and chassis, with the intention of unseating Willys at the Autodromo de Interlagos, in addition, the prototype had a front DKW engine, 3 cylinders of 981 cm³ and weighed 720 kg. This prototype had 5 wins at Interlagos in 1964 and won the main races the following year.

With the enormous success of the model and several victories in various competitions, in the same year the first vehicle was launched, Sociedade de Automóveis Lumimari Ltda was founded by several car enthusiasts, Luiz Roberto Alves da Costa (LU) Milton Masteguin (MI) ), Mário César de Camargo Filho (MA) and Rino Malzoni (RI), having their first model named GT Malzoni in honor of the creator and principal involved in the brand. In 1966 the brand was renamed to Puma Veículos e Motores Ltda at the suggestion of the head of the competition department at Vemag, Jorge Lettry.