First of all: what a great book! Following his highly acclaimed biography of the designer Marcello Gandini ( book review ) , the Indian author Gautam Sen has now published another about his lesser-known but equally important colleague Tom Tjaarda.
About the author
Born in Calcutta, Gautam Sen founded India's first automobile magazine "Indian Auto" 35 years ago, followed by "Auto India" and the Indian editions of "Auto Motor und Sport" and the British "Top Gear" magazine. He has worked as a consultant for the Indian automotive industry, collaborating with designers Gérard Godfroy, Marcello Gandini and Tom Tjaarda on various design projects.
Sen has been Vice President of FIVA since 2015. He is also a juror for prestigious classic car events such as Le Mans Classic and Chantilly Art & Elegance.
Designer Tom Tjaarda
Born in Detroit in 1934, Tom Tjaarda died three years ago at the age of 82. In the six decades of his career, he worked for almost all the major Italian design houses: After apprentice years at Ghia and Pininfarina and a brief stint at Giorgio Giugiaro's Ital Styling (now Italdesign), he eventually became head of design at Ghia and Fiat and spent the last thirty years working independently in his own design studio in Turin.
His contributions to Italian automotive design were considerable, with over 80 projects. His best-known production cars are the Fiat 124 Spider (Pininfarina 1965), the De Tomaso Pantera (Ghia 1970), the De Tomaso Longchamp (Ghia 1972) and the Ford Fiesta (Ghia 1972), which was built from 1976 to 1983 and of which 1.75 million were produced. More about his life can be found in a biography published on zwischengas.com.
A comprehensive book
Gautam Sen's English-language work could not be more complete and covers the remarkable life and complete works of Tom Tjaarda. The first seven pages, richly illustrated with family photos, are dedicated to his childhood. This is followed by nine pages in which Tom himself describes his relationship with his father John Tjaarda, who was also a car designer, and his work. And it continues in such detail. From his 1958 student project, a futuristic glazed Shooting Brake, to his years at Ghia, Pininfarina, Ghia again and his independence, all his designs, prototypes and production vehicles are explained and illustrated in chronological order, each on several pages.
One could argue that Sen had it easy, as Tom Tjaarda collected the material for the book himself and wrote many articles about his experiences and his vehicles. But the sheer wealth of information is impressive and leaves hardly any questions unanswered. Although the whereabouts of the many unique vehicles in running order often remain unanswered, if known, the owner history is mentioned in the text. For example, twelve pages are dedicated to Tjaarda's favorite project, the Lancia Fulvia 1600 HF "Competizione" built in 1969 in its second phase at Ghia, illustrated with Tjaarda's drawings as well as historical and current color photos. Unfortunately, the timeline in 2-year intervals often suggests a wrong year of appearance of the respective prototypes and the text is not always precise enough in this respect.
Further chapters are devoted to Tjaarda's architectural projects and industrial design, including office machines, furniture, two-wheelers and sweepers.
All the texts are not only lavishly illustrated, but also lively with quotes that Sen wrote down during the years of his friendship with Tjaarda, as well as memories written down by Tjaarda himself, so that the book is a pleasure to read and not just a lexical reference work. Even Tom's private life, his marriage to Paola, his hobbies (model flying) and his estate are given their own chapters. As Robert Crumberford also writes in the foreword, the book portrays a "wonderful" man with a full life who made many friends all over the world; or as the British author Richard Heseltine put it in his obituary: "nobody in the automotive industry has a bad word to say about him".
The book concludes with an - albeit incomplete - bibliography containing only the most important books on the subject. The index is somewhat awkwardly divided into car manufacturers and coachbuilders, media (here reference is made to the magazine articles mentioned in the text) and people, but the important thing is that it is there and makes the wealth of information in this 474-page book accessible as a reference work, even if it unfortunately also has some gaps.
For friends of beautiful lines (target group)
This new standard work on the life and work of one of the most important automobile designers belongs in every library that deals with this subject. Lovers of Italian design will find surprising details from the inside view of the major design studios with further biographies of their protagonists. Lovers of the production cars designed by Tjaarda will learn little-known details about the creation of his 1964 Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 Coupé designed by Pininfarina, the 1966 Ferrari 365 California and Fiat 124 Spider as well as the 1970 De Tomaso Pantera and 1976 Ford Fiesta designed by Ghia. Brand fans can find out more about largely unknown projects, including on platforms from Apollo, Aston Martin, Bitter, Bugatti, Chevrolet, Chrysler, De Tomaso, Fiat, Honda, Isuzu, Lancia, Lotus, Mercedes, Saab, Shelby and Spyker. Finally, collectors will find a chapter with a list compiled by Laurent Hériou of all the miniature models based on Tom Tjaarda's cars.
This book sets a benchmark against which future automobile designer biographies will have to be measured!
Bibliographical information
- Title: Tom Tjaarda - Master of Proportions
- Author: Gautam Sen
- Language: English
- Publisher: Dalton Watson Fine Books
- Edition: 1st edition 2021
- Format: 380 x 227 mm, hardcover
- Size: 474 pages, 924 illustrations
- ISBN: 978-1854433138
- Price: EUR 131.00
- Order/purchase: Online at amazon.de, on the publisher's website or in well-assorted bookstores
