Born in Northampton, Tony Thacker grew up loving automobiles. Heck, in fifties England, there was nothing much else to love as it was grey skies, grey cars and grey faces. However, somebody on his paper route had HOT ROD Magazine and Tony was exposed to red and yellow cars and the clear blue skies of California.
It took a long time to get there but eventually he landed at Hot Rod & Custom UK magazine before moving on to edit Custom Car magazine. In 1982, he authored the first of 30 books and in 1986 became Senior Commissioning Editor at Osprey Publishing.
California, however, was calling, and in 1988, he moved to work for the Speciality Equipment Market Association (SEMA)—the trade association for the automotive performance industry. There, as editor of SEMA News, he learned the secret of networking and met everybody from George Bush Sr. to the bearded frontman of ZZ Top, Billy F Gibbons.
After eight years and several positions at SEMA, Tony realised his dream to launch his own auto book publishing company. However, with nine books under his belt, a call from legendary hot rodder Pete Chapouris caused him to shelve the books—again—and become marketing director at the famed SO-CAL Speed Shop.
At SO-CAL Tony was instrumental in launching the company’s influential clothing line as well as numerous other products. Meanwhile, he and partner Jimmy Shine rebuilt a 1929 Model A Ford to go 200 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats, where they set a record at 206.454 mph.
There was also that call from General Motors that initiated SO-CAL’s return to the Bonneville, almost 60 years since they had set numerous land speed records there. Over a period of six years, GM and SO-CAL set even more land speed records.
Thacker’s recognition in the hot rod field initiated a call from Wally Parks, founder of the National Hot Rod Association, and an offer to run the NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona, California. Within three years, Tony and his small team were able to turn the ailing, not-for-profit into a viable and active international destination.
As exciting as that task was, in 2012 he received an offer he couldn’t refuse to move to Portland to help plan and build a new educational motorsports museum for Dave and Sally Bany. The World of Speed opened April 24, 2015, and is a new kind of experiential edutainment venue that will use the excitement of motorsports to educate young people about the career possibilities in the auto and motorsports industries.
After successfully opening the World of Speed, Tony semi-retired and moved back to Los Angeles. However, another summons, this time from Ron Hope of Rat Trap Racing, threw him back in the deep end of drag and land speed racing from England to Australia. Far from being retired, Tony is as busy as ever consulting for several clients, including the Goodwood Festival of Speed, speaking to various groups, including Nike, and back in front of a computer working on his first love, some book projects.
