The 1966 Thomassima II
In 1966, Harry Windsor commissioned Tom Meade (an American in Italy) to construct this Ferrari-powered Thomassima II. In 1984, after the 3rd owner crushed the front end in a crash, the car was sent in pieces by the 5th owner, Larry Hatfield, to Tim Taylor’s Red Car Restorations in Texas for reconstruction. This car is a priceless, complex conglomeration of Tom Meade vision, 1960 Cooper Type 43 Formula One chassis parts, and Italian craftsmanship. It recently was seen for sale on Ebay for $9 million. While that may be a bit pie-in-the-sky to some, I think it’s only a matter of time before the car world sees the true value of Tom Meade’s creations. The whole fascinating story of Meade’s life journey makes the car worth much more all on its own. To build his cars, Meade would visualize body shapes with welded, lightweight rod wireframes and then truck the car over to Piero Drogo’s Carrozzeria Sports Cars in Modena to be skinned. The bodywork fabrication became a semi-volunteer work force of Ferrari and Maserati tin-benders and engineers working out of Drogo’s. On this car, one would never guess the windshield is actually the rear window from a 1965 Alfa Romeo Sprint Special.
Tom Meade equipped the Thomassima II with a Ferrari 250GT V12 and a ZF gearbox. It is said this is the first car Meade built completely from scratch. Although Meade was always a one-man operation running on a shoestring (and from the sound of it, a thin one) he apparently was a very well-regarded designer whose original design thesis was to rescue old race cars thrown to the scrap heap and modify them into very sexy street-going machines. Of course, living in Modeno, there was no shortage of Ferraris and Maseratis to find and rebuild. His Nembo Spyders, named for coachbuilders Neri & Bonicini, are particularly well thought of by Ferrari fans. No two Nembos were exactly alike. Meade claims to have invented the removable fastback hardtop, the gullwing targa top and spaghetti side exhaust pipes. His most famous car is probably the Thomassima III. It was featured on “60 Minutes” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=jazEBNIV7K8) and the Dec, 1970 cover of Road & Track. It currently resides in the Ferrari Museum.
Meade grew up living in Australia, Honolulu, and Newport Beach, CA. After four years in the Navy, Tom was home when he saw it – the rear end of a Ferrari 500TRC poking out of a garage. When he spoke to the owner and heard there was a warehouse in Rome full of old, cheap Ferrari and Maserati race cars, that was all the excuse he needed to head for Italy. It was a roundabout journey to Modena, beginning with a Norwegian Freighter out of New Orleans to Stevenson, Norway. From there, he hitchhiked to England where his travel mate bought a Triumph motorcycle from an American headed home. They rode to Valencia, Spain, sold the bike for passage to Mallorca and six months of rooftop camping and partying in Palma. From there, Meade booked working passage on a sailboat to Genoa. Finally, there he was, in Italy.
Tom later recalled, “I had no money, no knowledge of mechanics or cars, no family, no backup, nobody to help me. And I knew no one …I could not speak Italian …it was my ‘mission impossible,’ with the future ahead of me.”
He headed to Rome in search of the mythical warehouse, only to run into a guy working on Dino De Laurentiis’ film, “Best of Enemies.” Following his new pal onto the set, De Laurentiis immediately hired Tom to play a background English officer, and he worked with actor David Niven on and off for several months! He kept searching for that warehouse, but when filming ended he still hadn’t found it. So, off he went to Modena, the center of Italian car making.
By chance or persistence, he met Aurelio Bertocchi, son of the race director, at the Maserati main gate and persuaded a facility tour. Tom saw an old race car and talked Bertocchi into selling it to him for $420. Before he left, the car was on a flatbed being transported to Carrozzeria Neri, where Tom literally laid his sleeping bag next to his newfound project. The sympathetic owner of Neri eventually found a barn for Tom and his car, and from there Meade would ride his bike to Maserati each day searching for parts with Aurelio Bertocchi.
When it came time to restore the body, Bertocchi introduced Tom to Medardo Fantuzzi. Fantuzzi mentored Meade in metal shaping and design, and eventually also provided Tom and his car a proper work shop and living space. While the resulting car from this effort made it back to California, it was totaled by a friend(!?) in an accident before it could be sold. Tom simply went back to Italy and started again. Eventually he would build almost 20 cars. The Thomassima II made it to the 1968 Pebble Beach Concours and the 2015 Concorso Italiano.
The Thomassima III followed, upon which a fanciful Hot Wheels edition and numerous other real cars were based. Tom passed away in 2013 working on Thomassima IV. Top Gear remembered him as “A Ferrari footnote, maybe, but he leaves behind a unique automotive legacy.”
