The range of vehicles that the man born Stevens Thompson Tjaarda van Starkenburg knows almost no limit. In his eighty-two years on earth, he created some of the most memorable designs, from basic transportation vehicles to dream machines. He took a C2 Corvette, made a new body from steel, gave it enough Italian flair to be something different, and called it the Corvette Rondine. He designed the original Ford Fiesta around the same time he was whipping up the DeTomaso Pantera, two cars that couldn’t possibly be more different if they tried. There was the Fiat 124 Spider, the original one, and the Shelby Series 1, two roadsters with two very different personalities. There was the DeTomaso Longchamp, a three-box coupe that looked muscular and traditional, easy to pull off in 1972 but still looked good ten and fifteen years later. He worked with Ferrari, Innocenti, Chrysler, Ford, Ghia, Aston Martin, Spyker, LaForza, and others. Tom Tjaarda’s skills could even be considered genetically-locked…his father, John, was the penman behind the 1936 Lincoln-Zephyr. You know his cars, whether you drove one or simply lusted after one, so in lieu of words, we present you with a sample his achievements. Rest peacefully, Tom.
