Tom Tjaarda
Car Designer
Tom Tjaarda was born on July 23, 1934. Son of stylist John Tjaarda (Lincoln Zephyr of the 1930's). While majoring in Architecture at the University of Michigan, a professor in industrial design gave Tom the assignment of constructing a scale model of a sports station wagon. The professor was so impressed with Tom's project that he showed it to Luigi Segre, the then, head of Carrozzeria Ghia of Turin, Italy. Segre immediately offered Tjaarda a job.
After moving to Turin Tjaarda designed several production cars, prototypes and show cars for Pininfarina: two Ferraris, the Fiat 124 Spider, a Lancia, a Mercedes-Benz and the one-off show car, the Corvette Rondine.
When Giorgetto Giugiaro left Carrozzeria Ghia in 1967, Tom soon found himself back with his former employer, now as head of design. For the next eight years, he was the styling force behind numerous, memorable Ghia designs: two of its most famous; the sleek, mid-engined DeTomaso Pantera and the Ford Fiesta economy car.
By the mid-1970's, Tom had caught the eye of the styling executives at Fiat. In 1977, Italy's largest automotive concern hired him to run their Advanced Design Studio. Here, he oversaw the Tipo 4 proposals, the Lancia Thema, Fiat Croma, and others.
In 1980 Rayton Fissore became his new home. Besides working with Chrysler in Detroit and Citroen of France, Tom put his
Pantera De Tomaso/Ford Pantera 7X (Ghia) Source: www.panteraclub.com
short resume
- 1959 Innocenti 950 S Ghia Spider
- 1960 Renault Dauphine Ghia Coupé
- 1964 Pininfarina Ferrari 330 GT 2+2
- 1959 Innocenti 950 S Ghia Spider
- 1960 Renault Dauphine Ghia Coupé
- 1964 Pininfarina Ferrari 330 GT 2+2
Bassam Abdallah
Muscle car collector
Michael Chetcuti
Principle Quality Metalcraft INC.
Michael is an autodidact from Detroit.
He took up Quality Metalcraft Inc, the car engineering industry his father had founded. Forecasting the market trends, he succeeded in tripling the turnover of the company. He took advantage of an order from Fords GT to become partner with Camilo Pardo. In 2006, Michael launched Streetcar USA. In 2008, with the top designer team Mark Allen and Ralph Gilles, he built the SR 392 Roadster that won a dozen of awards.
This talented car designer and businessman, is also an interior designer, collector of furniture from the ’50, singer in a rock band, gourmet and owner of one of the best selected wine shops in Detroit. He owns for sure, a very nice line of car models, including a street-mod ’66 Lincoln revisited, a vintage 2002 BMW and a GT Ford in Gulf orange and blue.
Shrenik Desai
EQUUS Team
Shrenik is Indian from Mumbai.
Shrenik grew up in Mumbai, he is a car enthusiast whose fascination with muscle cars started when he was a teenager. After graduating with a management degree from the University of San Francisco he worked in the USA for a year and then moved back to Mumbai to manage his own business of manufacturing process plant and equipment for chemicals and pharmaceutical companies. Currently living in Mumbai, Shrenik works for the EQUUS project.
Pascal El-Helou
EQUUS Guest
Pascal was born in Lebanon.
He grew up in Cameroon and obtained a degree in marketing at Notre Dame University (Paris) in 1994. He started his professional career in Cameroon as a manager for a transport company, which enabled him to discover African roads. In 2005, he was back to Lebanon and joined an architect and design office that built a 450 square meter scale model (5000 sq ft) for “The Pearl of Qatar” project.
Kyle Evans
Car Designer & Educator
Kyle was born in North Virginia.
He has always had two passions: car and design which led him to study at College for Creative Studies in Detroit. He graduated in 2002 and was hired as a designer at Ford. In 2003, he decided to go back to College for Creative Studies but as a teacher, then. He has taught there for 5 years. Kyle has become a famous member of the community, he is more particularly juryman for car design contests. Besides, Kyle is also an interior designer for shops and dwelling-places.
Shadi Farah
Singer
Shadi is a Lebanese singer, author composer.
Those days his latest song “A’am Tab’oud” is a smash hit on TV. He has been composing and writing lyrics for a lot of Middle Eastern stars. He has also composed music for advertisings. He is currently working for his new album to come.
Franco Forneris
Prototype Designer
Franco is originally from a small northern village in the Piedmont area of Italy. Franco Fomeris spent his childhood in a farm were he helped his parents.
After obtaining a diploma of master mechanic, at IST Eduardo Agnelli of Torino in 1972, he started to create stylish patterns (Giugiaro, Detomasi, Michelotti, bertone, Lotus) in his uncle’s factory with the approval of Antonio Ursi, his loyal teacher and partner.
In 1977, he created U.C.I.F Modelli snc with Antonio Ursi, Roberto Cozzani and Renato Iraldi. Since that, U.C.F.I has designed major remarkable models for car companies including Fiat, Ferrari, Bertone, Ital design, Pininfarina, Maggiora, Buggatti, Iveco, Chrysler, Mitsubishi with major collaboration of top designers such as Aldo Sessano, Paul Martin, Tom Tjaarda.
Since 2008 U.C.I.F Modelli and Tom Tjaarda have started to collaborate for EQUUS project, with Bassam Abdallah, an entrepreneur passionate for car design.
Rob Kinnan
Journalist
Rob is American from Colorado.
He has been fond of cars from his birth. He spent his childhood next to his father who was a mechanical for sport cars in the Ohio and in the Colorado. When he turned 15, he got his first car, a 68 convertible Camero.
After obtaining his degree of journalism at the Colorado State University, Rob joined HOT ROD magazine. He collaborated to various publication, as an editor for 5.0 Mustang, for instance. In 2004 after 5 years he became the CEO of HOT ROD.
David Newhardt
Reporter Photograph & Editor
David was born in Chicago, Illinois.
He currently lives in Pasadena, California. After serving on nuclear submarines for eight years, he graduated as a professional photographer. He is author of seven books about motor vehicle, and his pictures have profusely illustrated over 40 publications.
He worked as a reporter photograph and editor at “motor trend” magazine during a three-year period. His works have been edited in various publications including Robb Report, AutoWeek, Sport Car international.
His clients are among others General Motors, United Airlines, Bijan, Ford Motor Company, Zenith International, Ross Publishing…
Murat Okçuoglu
Engineer
Murat is an American originally from Turkey. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.
In the ’80, after graduating as a mechanical engineer from Bogaziçi University in Istanbul (Robert College), he started his career in Turkey as a designer and pilot of rally cars.
He is currently among the best expert in the world regarding transmission systems. He is an inventor, patent holder and he has collaborated with major groups on famous patterns: Jeep Grand Cherokee, Ford Mustang Cobra R, Pontiac Aztek, Buick Rendezvous, Chevrolet Venture, Oldsmobile Silhouette, Pontiac Montana Saturn Vue, Dodge Viper SRT-10, Chevrolet Equinox, Chevrolet Uplander, Buick Terraza, COMBATT Military Truck, Pontiac Torrent, Saturn Relay, Jeep Compass Concept Vehicle, Buick Centieme Concept Vehicle.
Camilo Pardo
Senior Designer Ford Motors
Camilo was born in New York.
He arrived in Michigan when he was 10 years old. At that time, he was already fascinated by sport cars from the ’60 and ’70, modern art and design. In 1985, after graduating from design school College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Camilo was immediately hired by Ford Motor Co.
15 years later, his project for the redesigned classical GT40 Ford became very successful, so that he became design manager for SVT Ford. He embodies the alive icon of design studios.Camilo’s studio has hosted the “Designer’s Night” for 10 years. This worldwide famous event is accredited by the NAIAS.
Multi talented artist, Camilo is also gifted in painting, sculpture and furniture design.
