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“It was Fantuzzi who really taught me how to ‘idea shape’ the cars. He slept on an iron army cot, next to the oil heater during the winter, living there for a year while Fantuzzi graciously mentored him in both metal shaping and design. The deal would also include a “residence” as Meade moved into the shop. It seems the popular Italian race car builder shared the young American’s enthusiasm for English motorcycles, so it was arranged that he would take Meade’s motorcycle in exchange for body work and mentorship. Thomassima II chassis being tested in Modenaīertocchi introduced Meade to Medardo Fantuzzi to help restore the car’s bodywork. He joined the Navy to see the rest of the world immedateily after graduation. His mother moved again, to California, so he could attend high school there. He was in elementary school when they moved to Hawaii, where he took up making surfboards. At age 8, he moved with his mother to Australia. “They liked the way I did things, I was very adventurous.”Īdventurous was part of Meade’s makeup. “I had the most fantastic relationship with them I was really like their pet, the factory pet,” he said. Maserati racing mechanics spent their off hours in the barn helping Meade with his project and, not insignificantly, improving his Italian as they tried to fathom English. “I slept there because I was afraid to leave the car alone.”Ī nearby barn became the restoration shop and its loft was sleeping quarters. At the shop, Meade put his sleeping bag next to the car. It was 8:30 p.m.īy the time coachbuilder Giorgio Neri arrived with a flatbed truck, the missing V12 drivetrain had been located and soon an incomplete Maserati 350S was en route to Carrozzeria Neri & Bonacini. Meade persisted and a price equivalent to $420 was agreed, but he wanted the car that night before anyone discovered the mistake the next morning. Maserati typically took last season’s race cars and dropped them into a swampy field behind the shops. We don’t sell beat up old race cars to our clientele.” The cover could not disguise its elegant form. Meade noticed an old race car under a tarp, perched on a pair of sawhorses. Aurelio Bertocchi, (future company president and son of chief test driver, Guerrino) happened to be working late and offered a brief tour. He arrived at the Maserati gate at 7:30 p.m., finding the place closed and mostly deserted. Roman serendipity: Working nights on a Dino De Laurentiis film called Best of Enemies while searching for the “the warehouse treasure” in daylight - urban myth, so on to Modena and the epicenter of fabulous cars.
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Six months to Italy by way of parties in Mallorca, a sailboat to Genoa and a free motorcycle to Rome. Seasick for 35 days in the galley of a Norwegian grain ship, SS Nardo, he jumped ship in Norway and headed south with his traveling thumb. The nearest Europe-bound freighters left from New Orleans, so he packed his gym bag, stuffed the $50 he had saved into his pocket, and hitchhiked to New Orleans.
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Work for passage on a freighter better than cheap, passage plus pay. I had found out that what I really wanted to do in life was to go back, build these bodies for these cars, buy these race cars, prepare them for the street and send them all over the world,” - Tom Meade
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“There is a warehouse in Rome full of these old race cars and they are all for sale - cheap.”Īn epiphany - and a future - in the blink of an eye. You can have it for $4,000.”Īfter the name, the rest had been lost to Meade’s ears. It’s only a two-liter four, but it has double overhead cams and two big Weber carbs, it’s light and fast. The surprised Newport Beach, California, owner answered from the back of his garage, “It’s a Ferrari 500 TRC. Without hesitation, he walked straight in to see what this shape belonged to. He had noticed it before on his walk home from work, but this time a figure was moving in the shadows at the back of the garage. It was the most beautiful car Meade had ever seen. It was an Italian posteriore elegant, sensuous, and spellbinding. In 1960, fresh from his “world tour” with the Navy, Tom Meade thought he had seen everything.
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