Sitting with a Design Legend

My time at Monterey Car Week was amazing for a number of reasons: Of course the endless stream of amazing, priceless, ultra-rare cars was one of the big ones as always, but it’s actually meeting the car people each year that leaves me slack-jawed and inspired to do great things with my time remaining on this earth. This year I sat down at a table of Pebble Beach Honorary Judges next to an elderly gentleman who turned out to be legendary car designer Tom Tjaarda. If your unaware of his work, just think of sexiest Italian car shapes from Ghia and Pininfarina in the 60s and 70s that still hold up today: The Fiat 124 Spider, Ferrari 330GT, DeTomaso Pantera, and the sweet Ghia IXG Dragster. Despite the Dutch name and Italiano design work, Tom was born, raised and educated in Motown; a 100% Detroit boy, and the nicest guy you could meet. One of my all time favorite designs Tjaarda penned was the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Rondine Pininfarina Coupé. Did I mention his father John Tjaarda designed the Golden Submarine with Harry Miller AND the 1936 Lincoln Zephyr with E.T. Gregorie? Whoa… Talented bloodline indeed.