29 Facts About Tom Meade

Thomas Meade was an American automobile designer and dealer best known for his Thomassima series of custom cars based on Ferrari engines and chassis.

Tom Meade was based in Modena, Italy from the early 1960s through the early 1970s, where he met and collaborated with many Modenese carrozzerie, manufacturers and mechanics.

Tom Meade was born in Hollywood on 19 January 1939, to a single mother.

Tom Meade spent his youth with her in Australia and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Tom Meade graduated at 17 and enrolled in the US Navy where he was trained as an avionic engineer, until his leave in 1960.

The owner initially tried to sell the car to Meade for a disproportionate amount with no avail; then he revealed to have bought the car in Rome, Italy, where there was a warehouse full of old racecars for sale at a low price.

Fascinated, Tom Meade decided on impulse that he would put his hands on one of those cars at any cost.

Once in Rome, Tom Meade found a job as an extra in Dino De Laurentiis' 1961 film The Best of Enemies: he played a background English officer at night, and fruitlessly searched for the fabled warehouse during the day.

Tom Meade had no contacts in Modena and no money for lodging, sleeping outdoors when he first arrived.

Tom Meade made a deal with Bertocchi to purchase the car for $420.

Tom Meade met Lloyd "Lucky" Casner of the Camoradi racing team while visiting the Maserati factory, and was able to purchase a Chevy V8 engine from him.

Tom Meade shipped the car to San Francisco in 1962, where it was crashed by an associate and sold for $2700.

Tom Meade took up residence in the Carrozzeria Fantuzzi workshop and took instruction in hand-forming and repairing bodywork from Medardo Fantuzzi.

Tom Meade briefly left Italy in 1962, returning in 1963 whereupon he began renting an apartment and garage adjacent to the Autodromo di Modena.

At one point during this time, Tom Meade shared a storage space with David Piper's racing team.

Tom Meade claimed that his Modenese collaborators were discouraged from working with him, as established interests in the region believed he was getting too much publicity.

Tom Meade left Modena and briefly opened a restoration shop in Milan, where he became friends with former Ferrari engineer Carlo Chiti.

Tom Meade left Italy at some point during the 1970s, storing the cars and parts he had accumulated for his business in a warehouse near Lake Como.

In 1993, Tom Meade returned to Los Angeles in order to take care of his mother.

Tom Meade began planning the construction of a Thomassima IV, which was to have a carbon fiber body and a Ferrari 333 SP engine.

Tom Meade's estate is maintained by his adopted son, who works in the luxury goods industry.

Once he gathered enough parts and experience, Tom Meade began to conceive cars based entirely on his own design.

Tom Meade christened this car series "Thomassima", a contraction of his first name and massima, the Italian feminine form of the English "maximum", meaning that these were his ultimate works.

The first full-body, Tom Meade-made car was based on a Ferrari 250 GT and finished in 1964.

Tom Meade made the car more aggressive with a longer and lower snout, gill-like vents behind all wheels, and a roof consisting in a straight line sloping from the windshield to the car tail.

Tom Meade based this "anti-Cobra" on a Ferrari 250 GT chassis fitted with a powerful Chevrolet V8 engine in its front, and covered with a heavily altered bodywork which included gullwings that could have been removed and put into the car trunk, an idea which Tom Meade considered unprecedented at the time.

Tom Meade had to radically modify the frame of a Cooper T43 Formula One car, and fitting it with a Ferrari 250 GT Colombo V12 engine coupled to a 4-speed ZF gearbox.

Tom Meade claimed to have put a particular emphasis into the finish.

Tom Meade considered it his masterpiece and decided not to sell it to anyone.