The full version of that online AutoChannel article, with many more photos entitled 'Meade'n Voyage' was originally published in the August / September 1998 issue of Sports Car International magazine. Scans of the 8-page article, again, courtesey of Jean-Joseph can be found here: http://up.autotitre.com/forum/up/8df263bdaf.jpg http://up.autotitre.com/forum/up/6b5a390582.jpg http://up.autotitre.com/forum/up/f533ca5102.jpg http://up.autotitre.com/forum/up/b28431baca.jpg http://up.autotitre.com/forum/up/2a48ec867f.jpg http://up.autotitre.com/forum/up/fe34e7d4de.jpg http://up.autotitre.com/forum/up/d635f21b4c.jpg http://up.autotitre.com/forum/up/10d5cb6a32.jpg
Bienvenue - à notre plus nouveau membre, et un autre grand fervent des Thomassimas: 'LeMansAlpine'. Merci de tous les balayages superbes, Monsieur !
That is one of the articles I enjoyed doing the most! I had to push the magazine hard for a year to publish the article: Jay lamm the previous editor a very funny writer had approved the idea then he moved on and his successor was clueless and tried to block the story from being published. When I finally overcame his resistance he said nobody is going to read that: what an idiot....I wish he could look at the number of hits this thread has gotten. There is a LOT I could say, my full text on Tom is actually 41 pages but I don't have time today. I have however been following thris thread and would like to point out that without wishing to be disrespectful the other article done more recently, I think by a mister Crain, is very nice but lacks a certain understanding of how Italy works and particulalrly how it worked back then. One funny thing is that I got myself into the middle of the big 1989 San Francisco earthquake in October 1989 then went through a smaller one in La in the very early 90's...when I interviewed Tom in a cafe in Santa Monica in May of 1996 (5 hours! 3 times longer than any ohter interview I have done) suddenly small bits of concrete fell on the table from the building above and I literally jumped into the middle of the street like a scalded cat thinking here we go again...and Tom said it's just pidgeons kicking dirt from a window ledge I took that portrait of him a few moments before. Best regards, Marc Sonnery
Marc Sonnery's article, posted here by P4Replica (many thanks!) gives a very accurate impression of Tom whom I always perceived as a brilliant, nomadic, gypsy artist somewhat removed from the modern age. I first met him by way of John Andrews, a character in his own right, who was a good friend and owner of numerous exotic and historical cars. I spent a fair amount of time with Tom when he was staying in Newport Beach. He acted as tour guide and consultant when I took my father to Italy on one of my car buying trips in 1976 and Tom spent nights at my house in the Hollywood hills during the 70s and 80s. Three things were a constant with Tom throughout all of these times; his thick, personal, leather-bound address book containing the names and phone numbers of Ferrari enthusiasts and buyers past, present or potential, endless phone calls to and from all over the world between Tom and those who relied on his consummate knowledge of where the good cars could be found and his contagious enthusiasm for cars in general, Ferraris in particular and his plans to improve upon them. Tom Meade is a one-of-a-kind; an iconoclast as deserving of funding for his ideas as any of the established designers on the planet.
Not wishing to take anything away from Marc's Sonnery's article (despite his muted criticism of Larry Crane's recent effort) .... but if anybody is interested, I've kept all the links to those scans of the 5-page article in the April '71 issue of Motor Trend by Griff Borgeson. Page 66: http://up.autotitre.com/forum/up/a165f3afbf.jpg Page 68: http://up.autotitre.com/forum/up/5edf61b5b8.jpg Page 70: http://up.autotitre.com/forum/up/a9eb5ba561.jpg Page 96: http://up.autotitre.com/forum/up/580dedb5db.jpg (with the 2 B&W Thomassima II photos) Page 98: http://up.autotitre.com/forum/up/7d66cc18b3.jpg Typical American car magazine. The page numbers are all over the place. With thanks to Jean-Joseph, once again, for the superb quality scans. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yeh - I know this thread is supposed to be about the Thomassima II (rather than Tom Meade himself - or the Thomassima III) .... .... but I think we could be forgiven for taking the thread a little 'off topic' - for a while .... .... at least until I have some more progress updates on the Thomassima II's restoration. I just read that 'Meade in Italy' article again, and a sentence on the first page reminded me of something: I seem to remember Tom, or someone else, possibly, telling me that the film footage was made into a 'short' for CBS's networked news programme '60 Minutes'. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/60_Minutes Credit given where credit is due. This also appears in Marc Sonnery's 'Meade'n Voyage' article: Now, obviously, this programme would have been broadcast a good few years before the commercial advent of VCR's .... .... but - I wonder - does anybody reading this thread have any contacts in CBS's archives department ? Wouldn't that be something ?
Last one from me for tonight - it's very late, my time. For those of you who haven't read the .pdf version of the Auto Aficionado article, attached to post #15 .... .... this, below, is the other less familiar image of the Thomassima II, that I was referring to in post #17. From Tom Meade's personal photo archives, copyright Tom Meade © .... courtesey of Larry Crane of Auto Aficionado: Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thank you for all these scan which comes to enrich my knowledge on these splendid cars... ... thank you also for all these pictures Best regards
My favorite amongst his designs and the most mysterious one is the car in the small black and white photos atop page 4 in my article the one that is said to have been destryed in the great flood of Florence. The way the whole upper part of the car seems to be melting back merging into the trunk is very interesting. I hasten to add that I meant no disrespect to M. Crain's work: anyone who actually does a Meade article should be applauded however it is not his fault if he is not familiar with the ways of Italy: the six months I spent in Modena last year and the four trips and about 30 interviews I went through from June to September this year for the two books I am working on were fascinating but it is another culture, another world, information is shared only when necessary influences are brought to bear in the shadows and if someone is not welcome, which unfortunately through no fault of his own was Tom's case towards the end of his stint there and to a lesser extent mine last year then the chess game is played for you and there is nothing you can do about it. Let's just say it is not a meritocracy, it is a system which does not like to be disturbed by outsiders. Nevertheless I always look forward to visiting, to the interviews, and the food Best regards, Marc
Marc. Have you seen this old thread, entitled: 'Tom Meade and the Tomassima' (sic) on the Atlas F1 Nostalgia Forum ? http://forums.autosport.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83372 If not, suggest you check it out, particularly post #7 by Arjan de Roos: http://forums.autosport.com/showthread.php?postid=2328315#post2328315 Sorry, you'll actually have to go to the Atlas T.N.F. link to get the Image Shack hosting links (to the magazine scans) to work properly.
Reading back through that Atlas F1 Nostalgia thread again, I saw something that made me chuckle to myself. It was Peter Sachs' quote, in post #6: http://forums.autosport.com/showthread.php?postid=2191834#post2191834 (Peter Sachs is 'KlemColl' on Atlas F1 Nostalgia forum, and owns the Klemantaski Collection. See: http://www.klemcoll.com/ ) When I was first researching the Thomassima II, earlier this Summer, I contacted Peter Sachs to see if he had any photos of the Thomassima II - bearing in mind that they theoretically own the copyrights to all Peter Coltrin's images, and are well-known to be extremely protective of their copyrights - to the point of litigation. Pete Coltrin was probably one of the most prolific motoring photo-journalists in Modena at the time, and several images of the Thomassima II are credited to him, including the one in my post #13. At the time I wrote, the Klementaski Collection were shut down for the Summer vacation, but a few weeks later, I received this reply: Which to my mind, makes a complete mockery of this whole goddamned photo copyright business !! Who should really own the rights to any image of the Thomassimas - if common sense prevailed ? Tom Meade !! Wouldn't you agree ?
It seems that Philippe Olczyk felt the same way (or cared as little). See: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82007 Tom Meade Photos Expo .... www.classicscars.com/meade (Lots of B&W photos of Thomassima III, and a couple of the #1.) and: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=135347555&postcount=10 Bravo, Philippe !!
I ve bought the originals photos with the copyright, my photos come from the "60. Now for the new photos taken from negatifs, Sach may be own the rights.
Thanks for your quick reply, Philippe. I understand what you wrote, but what if Peter Sachs owns the negatives to your Pete Coltrin photo prints ? Then surely he owns the copyright to the image - not you. You can't both own the copyright. Surely not ? Anyway, I don't want to take the thread 'off topic' with a prolonged discussion about photo copyrights. To my mind, it is a shame that such images of beautiful cars should be locked away in 'collections' - rather than shared by enthusiasts. .... and besides, my 'mini-rant' was really just another thinly-veiled excuse to re-post a link to your photos of the Thomassima III.
Paul is true in getting good pictures of the Thomassima II being reborn. I can get more photos as they come together and I am allowed...I visit the car on a regular basis as I can.
Paul: thank you very much for your information in post number 62, will read it with interest, Tom said Belgium, not Holland, obviously it is Holland, his memory tends to be both hazy and rose tinted but then again I only remeber my good races from my racing years regarding copyright ity is very difficult to establish a boundary but for example last year I indexed and catalogued an archive of 4900 photos in Modena: it was the actual factory archive of one of the factories (can't say which or get into more detail) suffice to say there were photos taken by the photographer of a track there and that track is notoriously stingy and protective of its rights so I said to the owner of the archive: if you think you own the rights to these here you have had too much Lambrusco! Marc
Paul: Havng read it further, thank you for finding it, than you to Arjan de Roos for translating it but it really does not contribute much other than being an extremeley rare piece of period news, like an article about anyone of us when we wer young univeristy students and learning life. The photos are interesting though as they are VERY unpublished I just like how naughty the design is...!
In post 41, it shows a wire frame on the rear end as was used to help guage the body panels during their formation. Was there ONLY one set of body panels made? Did any of the wire frames survive? (Is there a stash of Thomassima II body panels gathering dust somewhere in Modena?)
Funny how things can run. I posted on TNF April 2006 and today thought it might be an idea to post on FerrariChat. Only to find P4Replica (thnx) do it two days earlier. Hit the second link to see the second scan where you can see the car at the Scheveningen Pier, definitively Holland. Regards! [IMG=http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/8595/tm1s8da.th.jpg] [IMG=http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6853/tm2s9wr.th.jpg] [IMG=http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/2256/tm3s4se.th.jpg]
You mean the 'manichino', Arlie ? That gives me an excuse to post this wonderful photo of Tom Meade (customary Marlboro between his fingers - as he also has in the photo in post #41) - posing with the manichino for the Thomassima II's rear bodywork. For those of you who haven't read the .pdf version of the Auto Aficionado article, attached to post #15, this is on the 3rd page (42). From Tom Meade's personal photo archives, copyright Tom Meade © .... courtesey of Larry Crane of Auto Aficionado: Image Unavailable, Please Login
Excellent picture Paul. Just find that framework, send it to me, and I will add some fiberglass cloth and be on my way to Horseflyassima III !!!
