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
Modena and married American heiress Isabelle Haskell.
Auto racing In 1957, de Tomaso started his career in the car industry as a
Formula One racing driver for
Scuderia Centro Sud, a
privateer team based in Modena. De Tomaso drove in the first race of the Formula One World Championship of Drivers, the
1957 Argentine Grand Prix, driving a
Ferrari 500, finishing ninth. 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 race, in partnership with
Maserati driver Luigi Piotti as privateers in a
Maserati 250F, again finishing ninth. De Tomaso 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, in the
1959 United States Grand Prix, and retired when his brakes failed after 13 laps.
De Tomaso Automobili SpA In 1959, he founded
the car company De Tomaso Automobili Spa (later De Tomaso Modena). De Tomaso Automobili 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 backbone
chassis, 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 (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 and
Vignale coachbuilding studios, the
Benelli and
Moto Guzzi motorcycle firms, the
Innocenti car company (founded as an offshoot of the
British Motor Corporation to build
Minis 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 (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. De Tomaso remained active in design work. He helped in the engineering of the sports version of the fourth generation
Daihatsu Charade, introduced in 1994, which was known as the Daihatsu Charade De Tomaso. De Tomaso died in Italy in 2003. ==Racing record==