Tom Meade, car designer

There's a lot of fun to be had driving a "slow" car fast.

 

This was early seventies and Tom was comparing the vintage Ferraris that he drove through his time, so I apologize for not clarifying that. Tom was a vintage Ferrari guy and didn't care for cars didn't get molded on a tree or a sand bag.

Naturally half of a whole V12 is not the "ideal" these days unless it's a twin turbo charged model. I hear that and agree. However, the light weight is what left those heavy police four doors behind. Even with their huge V8 engines. The 120 mile per hour head start from all of the hard turns in town didn't hurt Tom's chances of getting away, either. That's why he left them behind. It was all of the maneuvering and Tom's countless hours of practice on the Ferrari test track and streets of Italy that gave Tom the advantage.

Apparently, there were also advantages to simply parking a pretty Ferrari and not driving it at all. Tom told me many stories of coming out of the clubs in Italy to find beautiful models waiting in his GTO for a ride. He was an American rock star who loved to go fast and live fast. In fact, Tom told me that he went out every night he was in Italy except for four restful occasions. After being as prolific as he was during the days and evenings, he still always had the energy to go out and socialize.

 

I had a 328GTB in Italy for four years and went over many times to drive it.No it wasn't FAST but on occasion some yahoo would try to show me up in his Alfa or BMW. I would just slow down and pull over which did nothing more than p..s him off and send him on his way. Just as well I didn't speak Italian and did not have a FAST car. Actually I had some really nice runs with some of the moto boys. Until you drive a Ferrari ,any Ferrari,in Italy you must find a way.tongascrew

 

Its on the list George.

 

We celebrated Tom's birthday yesterday, 1/18, at Supercar Sunday, in Woodland Hills. It was great to chat with fellow Ferrari enthusiasts about Tom and his amazing works of art including the Thomassimas, the Nembos and other customs. Many remembered Tom fondly, it was a great day.
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You really must do this if you can.If I could speak the language I would move there for a while. There are lots of nice properties in almost every town that are for sale to be fixed up or can be rented on a weekly basis for a lot less than hotels.Just go into the internet.To own a car in Italy you must be a property owner.I located a distant cousin of my son law who lives in Italy and agreed to actually own the car on paper.He added my car onto his insurance which saved a bundle and stored it at his place.If you already own a Ferrari here you can import it into Italy on a temporary registration using your USA plates. You will need to buy local Italian insurance which with the shipping is many $$$$[Euros].The spring is the best time. The weather is good and you can take is the M.M. Go to one of the checkpoints where the cars have to stop. You can see them closeup standing still and chat. Good luck. Let me know if I can be further help. tongascrw

 

Thanks.

 

Looking through my attic the other day and found this GTE rear wind screen.
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Now that is super cool!!

 

It would be great to see more cool pictures of Tom's cars that he customized and pieces "from the attic." He told me he did about fifty cars. His first Italian masterpiece and the "only V-12 350s made of 3," have been restored back to original condition, pre-Tom. Tom and Fantuzzi had re-bodied her and changed the windshield to accommodate the first removable targa top. Tom added a Lloyd "Lucky" Casner Duntov Corvette engine. Keep in mind that Fantuzzi built that Maserati originally, it seems as though these modifications would be worthy of preserving (at least in photos).

A photo base of some hidden Meade gems would great for our members to see. Not just the Thomassimas and Nembos, but also Meade's more obscure works of art.

 

Here if you can see is some custom work Tom did to the head lights
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3919 with Jerry Curtis 15 years ago. What else do you know about it?

Best wishes, Kare

 

Nice and thanks! (for both pics , but one makes my neck feel better).

That's great to see. Is this the way it still sits? They "complete" the front end in a smooth flowing way like Pinifarina would do on in production cars. Each of those fasteners was well thought out, you can bet. Tom was a stickler for details like that.

 

Anyone know about the run of seven or so Lusso cars Tom modified and their fate? There was one picture in AutoAficionardo and mention of this chapter. The Road and Track article had pictures of a silver one parked with his TIII and Anticobra in 1970. Also, the 246 Dino re-body mentioned that was done in Texas, I believe, would be great to see and share if it still exists. They only showed the mannequino ready to be covered in aluminum in press.

 

Thank you Wayne. All the more reason for us to share pictures of Tom's work in this thread. I assume he would have preferred his version...

 

TomII
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That's a shame.

 

Thank you. I found a thread about 4383 GT, which if I'm correct concluded that it was the work of Fantuzzi and not Meade and Ill keep digging. There are still quite a few Meade modified cars of the near fifty that would be great to see, especially important if we want to preserve his influences on Ferrari and even Maserati racecars.

It appears that the second of three 350s Maserati owned by Tom, has since had his windshield modification and Corvette V8 removed and was changed back to "original". Credit for those mods seems to have been given to another shop, but those 350s mods sure fit Tom's "MO". The cool part for us Ferrari fans is that Tom and Fantuzzi had installed a Ferrari windshield into a Maserati to "improve it"...with 3503 first, and then 3501/4501.

.

 

Pretty sure. This is what happens when cars get renumbered. Serial number of the fake GTO spider is a total mystery to me.

 

Thank you. Just in time for the weekend surfing.