John Thompson, founder of TC Prototypes, has died at the age of 85, leaving behind a legacy spanning more than three decades at the heart of motorsport manufacturing.
Thompson established TC Prototypes, known as TCP, in 1970 with just £100 in the bank and a partner named Chris Charles, from whom the company took its initials.
His Northamptonshire-based workshops produced chassis, suspension components, and sometimes complete cars for scores of teams and manufacturers across multiple motorsport disciplines.
Ferrari was among his most notable clients, with Thompson producing the three monocoque tubs used in the Scuderia’s 312 B3 during the 1973 Formula 1 season.
The official reason Ferrari gave for outsourcing the work was industrial action in Italy, but Thompson was always sceptical of that explanation.
“I think that was just an excuse. The truth is that they had never done a monocoque and didn’t know how to,” Thompson said.
Tyre supplier Firestone had been pushing Ferrari to adopt monocoque technology, first used in F1 by Lotus with the type 25 in 1962, and with Mauro Forghieri sidelined, Sandro Colombo was able to act on the request.
Thompson charged just £400 per tub, and later reflected that much of the profit was swallowed up by the need to invest in metric equipment, as Ferrari’s drawings were not in Imperial measurements.
The second and third chassis were delivered by Thompson personally, strapped to the roof rack of his Ford Cortina on a family road trip to Italy.
“We threw the kids in the car, and off we went. I’m not sure we even had a map,” he recalled, noting the journey also introduced him to his first ever croissant.
Beyond Ferrari, TCP was a prolific builder of Porsche 962 Group C monocoques, produced bodywork for the first Tom Walkinshaw Racing Group C Jaguars, and developed three generations of NSX GT racer for Honda.
Thompson also built the chassis for the one-off Tecno E731 and suspension components for the Shadow DN1, making TCP a quiet but significant presence across the 1973 F1 grid.
A decade later in 1983, TCP produced the second Osella FA1E, a car designed by Tony Southgate incorporating the complete rear end from the previous year’s Alfa Romeo 182.
The TCP and Southgate partnership, operating under the Auto Racing Technology banner, also designed and built the Ford RS200 Group B rally car, with the first eight examples produced at Thompson’s Wellingborough workshops.
“John’s place was never the smartest, a bit junk on junk in places,” Southgate recalled, noting that Ford’s Stuart Turner had expressed reservations about TCP representing the Ford Motor Company.
“But I told him that John would get the cars out the door on time, for a good price and at good quality,” Southgate added, vindicating Thompson’s no-frills approach to the business.
TCP also built an Indycar based on the Williams FW07, which Thompson said he developed after scaling up a line drawing seen in the pages of Autosport, with the car raced by Tom Sneva, Gordon Johncock, and Kevin Cogan.
Thompson retired in the mid-2000s but continued working as a consultant for a subcontract company known as EY3 Engineering, with yet more Porsche 962 tubs following in his retirement years.
“John was happy to stay in the background; he was never one to blow his own trumpet,” said Southgate. “John was just ace at making things, anything out of sheet metal, that was what he was best at.”