Greatest Designers - Tom Tjaarda

Tom Tjaarda was born on July 23, 1934. The son of John Tjaarda, a noted stylist whose creations included the streamlined Lincoln Zephyr of the 1930's. From Tom's youth it was obvious to those around him that he would one day become a superlative designer. While majoring in Architecture at the University of Michigan, a professor in industrial design gave Tom the assignment of constructing a scale model of a sports station wagon. Upon seeing his student's finished project, the professor was so impressed that he showed it to his friend, Luigi Segre, the then, head of Carrozzeria Ghia of Turin, Italy.
Segre immediately offered Tjaarda a job and, as they say, the rest is history. After moving to Turin, over the next two years, Tjaarda designed several production cars, prototypes and show cars.

After spending a year working on the city of Turin's Italia '61 Design Exhibition, Tjaarda was subsequently hired by the famed coach building firm, Pininfarina. Here, several production cars and prototypes were his designs, including two Ferraris, the Fiat 124 Spider, a Lancia, a Mercedes-Benz and the one-off show car, the Corvette Rondine.
In 1965, Tom was hired by OSI-Fergat, where he was involved in the production of automotive stampings and wheels. When Giorgetto Giugiaro left Carrozzeria Ghia in 1967, Tom soon found himself back with his former employer, now as head of design. For the next eight years, he was the styling force behind numerous, memorable Ghia designs, including two of its most famous; the sleek, mid-engined DeTomaso Pantera and the Ford Fiesta economy car.

By the mid-1970's, Tom had caught the eye of the styling executives at Fiat. In 1977, Italy's largest automotive concern hired him to run their Advanced Design Studio. Here, he oversaw the Tipo 4 proposals, the Lancia Thema, Fiat Croma, and others.
Rayton Fissore became his new home in 1980. Besides working with Chrysler in Detroit and Citroen of France, Tom put his stamp on the off-road, sport-ute market in 1985 with the Rayton Fissore Magnum 4X4, a vehicle that remained in production well into the 1990's.

In the mid-1980's, Tom left Rayton Fissore and formed his own company, Dimensione Design, now known as Tjaarda Design. By properly utilizing his talents and those of a small, hand-picked group of Turin's top, sub-contractors, for the past number of years, Tjaarda Design has been able to offer manufacturers an intelligent, cost effective alternative in the study and production of design ideas, prototypes and production cars.

Located in the heart of Turin, capital to Italy's styling industry, Tjaarda Design was originally formed in 1985 under the name of Dimensione Design. Since its inception, the firm has worked with some of the automotive world's most famous and respected names, from all market sectors. Included are mass manufacturers such as Chrysler, Saab and Fiat Iveco. Niche market and performance clients include Aston Martin, Bugatti and Bitter. Off-road/Sport-ute studies were done for LaForza and Sermac, while other clients have ranged from America's ASC Incorporated and PPG to Zastava and Piaggio. All were given timely, cost-effective solutions to their targeted market and design queries.

How is Tjaarda Design able to accomplish this, when production costs seem to spiral continuously upward? Simply, Tom Tjaarda has long maintained that a tightly-knit group of talented designers and craftsmen could best serve the global automotive community, thus displaying a "lean and mean" attitude similar to that found today in numerous American corporate entities in this era of downsized corporate structures.

Such an approach allows Tjaarda Design to quickly respond to markets that undergo changes or suddenly open and develop at a rapid rate. Additionally, for mature markets such as North America, Europe and Japan, studies and production of high performance motorcars, sport-utes and other niche vehicles have remained a cost-effective reality at Tjaarda Design. At the center of the firm is Tom Tjaarda himself. The wealth of knowledge he has accumulated during boom and bust periods of the business cycle over the past four decades has allowed him to survive and prosper in all business climates by being particularly responsive to an individual manufacturer's needs and requirements.

Tjaarda's lengthy experience in Turin has also led to a tight association with several hand-picked subcontractors who understand manufacturing deadlines and budgets. This allows Tjaarda Design to act incisively as a sounding board for design studies, develop scale and 1:1 models, design and build running prototypes, or oversee the production of limited production and niche vehicles.

For further information to consult the website Tom Tjaarda.net

Designed Cars1959. Ghia Selene I (with Sergio Sartorelli)
1960. Innocenti 950 S Ghia Spider
1960. (Innocenti) Ghia IXG Dragster
1960. Renault Dauphine Ghia Coupé
1960. VW Karmann Ghia 1500 (type 34) Coupé (rear design; main body design by Sergio Sartorelli)
1961. Ferbedo Automobilina pedal car (Ghia)
1961. Ghia Cart
1961. Innocenti 1100 Ghia Coupé
1962. Chevrolet Corvair Pininfarina Coupé (I)
1963. Chevrolet Corvette Rondine Pininfarina Coupé (I)
1963. Fiat 2300 Pininfarina
1963. Lancia Flaminia 2.8 Pininfarina Coupé Speciale
1964. Chevrolet Corvette Rondine Pininfarina Coupé (II)
1964. Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 Pininfarina series 1
1964. Mercedes 230 SL Pininfarina Coupé
1965. Fiat 124 Spider Pininfarina
1966. Ferrari 365 GT California
1968. Chevrolet Checker Berlina (with Giorgetto Giugiaro)
1968. Serenissima Coupé (Ghia)
1969. De Tomaso Mustela (I) (Ghia)
1969. Isuzu Bellett MX1600 GT (Ghia)
1969. Lancia Flamina Marica (Ghia)
1969. Lancia Fulvia 1600 HF Competizione (Ghia)
1970. De Tomaso Deauville (Ghia)
1970. De Tomaso Pantera Ghia
1970. (Lancia Flavia) Giacobbi Sinthesis 2000
1970. Williams De Tomaso-Ford (Cosworth) 505/38 (De Tomaso Formula 1)
1971. All-Cars AutoZodiaco Damaca
1971. De Tomaso 1600 (Ghia) Spider
1971. De Tomaso Zonda (Ghia)
1971. Isuzu Bellett SportsWagon (Ghia)
1972. De Tomaso Longchamp
1972. De Tomaso Pantera L (Ghia)
1972. De Tomaso Pantera 290 (Ghia)
1972. De Tomaso Pantera GT4 (Ghia)
1972. Ford Fiesta (Ghia, Project "Wolf")
1973. De Tomaso/Ford Pantera 7X (Ghia)
1973. De Tomaso Monttella 1/1 197X
1973. Ford Mustela (II) (Ghia)
1974. Ford Ghia Coins
1974. Ford Maverick
1978. Lancia Y10
1979. Fiat Brazil
1979. Ford Mustang II Proposals (Ghia) (different variants)
1979. Zastava (facelifts of older Fiat-based models for Yugoslavia)
1980. De Tomaso Longchamp Cabrio
1981. Seat Ronda
1981. Seat Guappa Coupé
1982. Chrysler LeBaron
1982. Chrysler Imperial
1983. Rayton-Fissore Taxi Torino
1985. Chrysler Jeep (Interior)
1985. Rayton-Fissore Magnum 4x4
1989. Aston Martin Lagonda Coupé
1988. PPG 4x4 (USA)
1989. Laforza Magnum 4x4
1989. Zastava Utility vehicle
1991. Bitter Tasco
1992. Saab 900 four door
1992. Suzuki Coupé (for Bugatti)
1993. Fiat Iveco Truck Interior
1995. Lamborghini Diablo (Interior)* 1998. Isotta-Fraschini T8 Coupé
1998. Isotta-Fraschini T12 Coupé
2000. Qvale Mangusta (II)
2001. Laforza PSV (II) (production engineering only)
2002. Spyker GT Sport
2003. Fiat Barchetta (Facelift)
2006. Shelby Series 2
2007. Tjaarda Mustang

sources: wikipedia, www.tom-tjaarda.net

text: conceptcars.it,