Written by Jim Tignanelli
He had a nearly unique voice. Few knew why or that his voice was quite normal for the first 23 years of his life. He was instrumental in the development of the first Viper powered Ram 500 pickup, the prototype Viper roadster, the Chrysler LeBaron convertible and perfected the performance on the Neon SRT4 “Corvette killer”. He restored the “original hemi”, currently in the WPC Museum, which was Chrysler’s entry into the Army Air Corps fighter plane competition from WWII. His 1947 Ford convertible won first place at the Detroit Autorama 10 straight years and only a few of us knew he had actually sewn the white leather interior himself. He created his own Chrysler hemi with 16 spark plugs, two distributors and a “flat plane” crankshaft that everyone knew couldn’t work in a large displacement form and went nearly 160 mph with it. Developers liked him because he never let anyone see what their project looked like. Almost consistently, he told them how wrong they were with their ideas and he made them even better than they had anticipated. Some couldn’t tolerate his comments but the smartest ones bit their tongue and let him make them look good. His work was all over the place and no one ever knew. He was a nearly anonymous mechanical genius who used manual lathe and Bridgeport to create unbelievable projects. He only made one of each, it seemed. If you brought him a toy for your kid, he made it even better. He sat in as Santa Clause for more than 20 years for the Township’s police department party.
He never ventured far from Gratiot. His first rides as a teen were there and he really never left. His dad opened a business on Gratiot in 1958 and Tom spent most of his adult years trying to resurrect Gratiot to what it once was. Thus, was born the Clinton Township Gratiot Cruise. He loved the township! He spent many years on the Housing Commission. He ate three meals a day in the township and nearly always bought the food for anyone that would join him. Tom built his own business there in the early 70’s and was never more than a mile or so away for the next 50 years. He wanted Gratiot to prosper. He wanted people with “cool cars” to cruise Gratiot like he did. He was confident that their visits would lead them to keep coming back. His memory will live on forever along Gratiot. His projects will be shown and raced for years to come. Gone but never forgotten.
