Collectors & Aficionados
The crossing
The article tells the story of Alejandro de Tomaso and his passion for Maserati. De Tomaso founded Automobili de Tomaso and produced competitive racing cars for both the track and the road, including the Vallelunga.
This story originates from deep within two countries of South America: Argentina and Venezuela. It is the story of two very different paths, which crossed under the name of Maserati in 1996. In this chapter of the story, Alejandro de Tomaso had lived 69 tumultuous years. After seeing his family’s wealth decimated under the Peronist movement which redefined Argentina, and after trying his hand – unsuccessfully – at a treacherous political career, at the age of 26 he abandoned his wife and three children and left for Modena, Italy, a destination that was not chosen by accident: At that time, Modena was the capital of motorsports. He was a racing driver; he knew his way around mechanics and had an innovative vision in which he dreamt of one day becoming a manufacturer himself. But he lacked the financial firepower to realize this dream and it was going to take quite a lot of that. Back then, Argentinian drivers were all the rage: Fangio, Gonzalez and Marimon dominated the circuits and he, despite driving cars that were less famous than the single-seaters, sought notoriety. As Guy de Maupassant would have said in his novel Bel Ami, he went down every road looking for a way to change his life for the better so he could realize his dreams. This particular road was a woman, a racing driver herself, American, from a powerful and very rich family: Elizabeth Haskett. They raced together with OSCA, they married and as if by magic the doors onto the room of dreams suddenly opened. It was 1959 when Automobili de Tomaso opened for business, with the symbol of the T that his father had used to mark the herds of cattle on his farm.
Maserati was for Alejandro de Tomaso a source of both joy and pain. The dazzling story of the collection of historical models helps to understand the astuteness of the man.
Automobili de Tomaso produced ingenious and highly competitive racing cars for the track and also for the road, the Vallelunga. Very light and featuring structural innovations usually only seen in racing sports series and Formula Junior where a very tight aluminium single-beam chassis welcomed the driver (as long as he was really skinny) were the hallmarks of his cars. He also made it to Formula 1, but without success.
