Alejandro de Tomaso (10 July 1928 in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

– 21 May 2003 in

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

, Italy) was a racing driver and businessman from Argentina. His name is sometimes seen in an Italianised form as ''Alessandro de Tomaso''. He participated in two

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 13 January 1957. He scored no championship points. He later founded the Italian sports car company De Tomaso Automobili in 1959.

Life and career

Alejandro de Tomaso was born in Argentina, where his paternal grandfather had emigrated from Italy. His family was politically prominent. In 1955, de Tomaso was implicated in a plot to overthrow Argentine president Juan Perón, and fled to Italy. He settled in

and married American heiress Isabelle Haskell.

Auto racing

In 1957, he started his career in the car industry as a

racing driver for

Scuderia Centro Sud Scuderia Centro Sud was a privateer racing team founded in Modena by Guglielmo "Mimmo" Dei and active in Formula One and sports car racing between 1956 and 1965. Dei had been an amateur driver in the 1930s. In the early 1950s he opened a Maser ...

, a

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

team based in Modena. He drove in the first race of the Formula One World Championship of Drivers, the 1957 Argentine Grand Prix, driving a

Ferrari 500 The Ferrari 500 was a Formula 2 racing car designed by Aurelio Lampredi and used by Ferrari in and , when the World Championship was run to F2 regulations. Racing history For 1952, the FIA announced that Grand Prix races counting towards the Wo ...

, finishing 9th. He did not drive again in the 1957 World Championship series, but two weeks later drove in the 1957 Buenos Aires Grand Prix, a

Formula Libre Formula Libre, also known as Formule Libre, is a form of automobile racing allowing a wide variety of types, ages and makes of purpose-built racing cars to compete "head to head". This can make for some interesting matchups, and provides the oppor ...

race, in partnership with Maserati driver

Luigi Piotti Luigi Piotti (October 27, 1913 in Milan – April 19, 1971 in Godiasco) was a racing driver from Italy. He participated in nine Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open ...

as privateers in a

Maserati 250F The Maserati 250F was a racing car made by Maserati of Italy used in '2.5 litre' Formula One racing between January 1954 and November 1960. Twenty-six examples were made. Mechanical details The 250F principally used the SSG 220 bhp (@ 7400 rpm) ...

, again finishing 9th. He next competed in the 1957 BRDC International Trophy in September, for Automobili O.S.C.A. in an OSCA F2, but crashed in the preliminary heat. He returned to the Formula One Grand Prix circuit in 1959 for one race. He drove for O.S.C.A. in a

Cooper T43 The Cooper T43 was a Formula One and Formula Two racing car designed and built by Cooper Car Company for the 1957 Formula One season, first appearing at the 1957 Monaco Grand Prix in a works car for Jack Brabham. The T43 earned a significant pla ...

, in the 1959 United States Grand Prix, and retired when his brakes failed after 13 laps.

De Tomaso Modena SpA

In 1959, he founded the car company De Tomaso Modena (later De Tomaso Automobili). De Tomaso Modena built prototypes and racing cars, including a Formula One car for Frank Williams' team in 1970. Starting in 1963, De Tomaso Modena also built high-performance sports cars, most of which used

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

backbone

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

, which were to become the company's technical trademark. De Tomaso sports cars included the Vallelunga (1963), Mangusta (1966), Pantera (1971), and Guarà (1993). De Tomaso Modena also produced luxury cars: the

Deauville Deauville () is a commune in the Calvados department, Normandy, northwestern France. Major attractions include its harbour, race course, marinas, conference centre, villas, Grand Casino, and sumptuous hotels. The first Deauville Asian Film F ...

(1971), and Longchamp (1972). During the 1960s and 1970s, under Alejandro's leadership, De Tomaso Modena acquired a number of Italian industrial holdings. These included the

Ghia Carrozzeria Ghia SpA (established 1916 in Turin) is an Italian automobile design and coachbuilder, coachbuilding firm, established by Giacinto Ghia and Gariglio as "Carrozzeria Ghia & Gariglio". The headquarters are located at Corso Guglielmo Mar ...

and

Vignale Vignale is the luxury car sub-brand of Ford Motor Company used in automobiles sold in Europe.Benelli Benelli may refer to: *Benelli Armi SpA, an Italian firearm manufacturer *Benelli (motorcycles), an Italian motorcycle manufacturer *HSR-Benelli, an Austrian-Italian manufacturer of personal watercraft * Andrea Benelli (born 1960), Italian sports sh ...

and

Moto Guzzi Moto Guzzi is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer and the oldest European manufacturer in continuous motorcycle production. Established in 1921 in Mandello del Lario, Italy, the company is noted for its historic role in Italy's motorcycling ma ...

motorcycle firms, the

Innocenti Innocenti () was an Italian machinery works, originally established by Ferdinando Innocenti in 1920. Over the years, they produced Lambretta scooters as well as a range of automobiles, mainly of British Leyland origins. The brand was retired in ...

car company (founded as an offshoot of the British Motor Corporation to build

Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

s in Italy), and in 1975, the celebrated sports car maker Maserati, which was rescued from bankruptcy with the assistance of the Italian government. Over time, however, many of these holdings were sold off. In 1973, Ghia was sold to

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

(who would make much use of the name). In 1993, Innocenti and Maserati were sold to Fiat (which closed the former). In 1993, de Tomaso suffered a stroke. He retired as head of De Tomaso Modena, succeeded by his son Santiago. Alejandro remained active in design work. He helped in the engineering of the sports version of the fourth generation

Daihatsu Charade The Daihatsu Charade is a supermini car produced by the Japanese manufacturer Daihatsu from 1977 to 2000. It is considered by Daihatsu as a "large compact" or "supermini" car, to differentiate it from the smaller ''kei car'' compacts in its line- ...

, introduced in 1994, which was known as the Daihatsu Charade De Tomaso. Alejandro de Tomaso died in Italy in 2003.

Racing record

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

)

Non-championship results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) :''* Indicates shared drive with

References

Notes

Bibliography

* *Twite, Mike. "De Tomaso: Italian Precision with Brute Force", in Northey, Tom, editor. ''World of Automobiles'', Volume 5, pp. 531–2. London: Orbis, 1974.
De Tomaso Book Review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomaso, Alejandro de 1928 births 2003 deaths Racing drivers from Buenos Aires 20th-century Argentine businesspeople Argentine racing drivers Argentine Formula One drivers Argentine people of Italian descent Italian automotive pioneers Italian businesspeople Italian founders of automobile manufacturers Italian racing drivers Scuderia Centro Sud Formula One drivers OSCA Formula One drivers Argentine emigrants to Italy 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers De Tomaso World Sportscar Championship drivers Maserati people Formula One people Automotive businesspeople