This Day in History: American automobile entrepreneur Preston Tucker was born on this day in 1903. He is most remembered for his Tucker 48 sedan, initially nicknamed the "Tucker Torpedo", an automobile which introduced many features that have since become widely used in modern cars. Production of the Tucker '48 was shut down amidst scandal and controversial accusations of stock fraud on March 3, 1949. The 1988 movie Tucker: The Man and His Dream is based on Tucker's spirit and the saga surrounding the car's production.
While the movie romanticized the man and his car, many have pointed out that the "Tucker '48" simply was not feasible or affordable: "Another myth is that Tucker did have a revolutionary car which foretold Detroit’s future. Newspaper articles recently extolled some of the unusual features of the Tucker car: a pop-out windshield, a rear engine, a Cyclops light in the center which turned with the front wheels, a padded dash, and an aerodynamic body style. But were these really the way Detroit went in the future? No carmaker adopted the pop-out windshield, for example, and the Libbey-Owens-Ford engineers who supplied it to Tucker thought it was a bad idea. Few carmakers have adopted a rear engine; and the front-wheel drive has helped eliminate the long drive train. The Cyclops light is a gimmicky idea that intrigues onlookers, but apparently hasn’t been considered an automotive selling point. Credit Tucker with the padded dash and the leap into aerodynamic design, but neither was beyond Detroit’s capabilities."~Melvin D. Barger
Some comments online are insightful: "In '48, Tucker only made 51 "Torpedos, " before the whole thing shut-down. Never saw one outside a museum. Flawed car, but innovative and way ahead of its time in a lot of ways (Rear engine, rear-wheel drive, recessed doors, seat-belts, and a ‘cyclops-eye’ headlight that turned with the car's front tires, padded dash, windshield made of shatterproof glass and designed to pop out in a collision, hemispherical combustion chambers, fuel injection, and overhead valves operated by oil pressure rather than a camshaft, suspension with NO springs, instead rubber torsion tubes with shock absorbers)....Its 589 - cu.in. engine and its two torque converters wouldn't work. Nor did the disc brakes. Tucker substituted an opposed, six-cylinder Franklin helicopter engine converted to water cooling. Tucker employees, meanwhile, scoured the nation’s salvage yards for transaxles from wrecked 1936-’37 Cords. These four-speed, pre-selector gearboxes were refurbished and installed in prototype Tuckers. Finally, its $2,450 asking price, would have never have returned a profit for its investors (the engine alone cost Tucker $1,500 to buy). As well, the one fatal engineering flaw, its massive oversteer, or a tendency for the rear wheels to want to break loose, no doubt caused by the weight of the engine hanging off the rear of the car."~thedealer 777
"...historical evidence suggests that the demise of the Tucker Corporation was the result of two problems. First, the company’s lack of financial planning led to continual crises. Tucker’s refusal to utilize conventional bank loans combined with the company’s attempt to sell dealerships and stock before building a car prototype scared away normal venture capital. Second, unable to sell additional stock or dealerships, the Tucker Corporation needed money to start producing cars. With no inventory to sell and the SEC’s determination that pre-selling car features was illegal, the Tucker Corporation was financially bankrupt."~George Langelett
However, not everyone is critical of the Tucker car: "The Tucker remains such an enduring legend because of its brief moment in the spotlight, high-profile failure, and unique 'what if' status in automotive history. As a result, most 48s have been museum pieces from the moment they were auctioned off. They rarely change hands, but when they do, it’s major automotive news. In 2014, the car pictured was sold by RM Sotheby’s for a whopping $1,567,500. For a brief moment in postwar America, Preston Tucker occupied the same space in culture that Elon Musk does with Tesla today. Unlike Tucker however, Musk has vast resources at his disposal, and Tesla’s advancements are advancing electric car technology every few months. But this comparison only makes the Tucker more tantalizing; the idea of a car laden with disruptive technology transforming the automotive world back in 1948 is just too tantalizing not to think about. That’s why surviving Tuckers are so valuable – they’re a vision of a future that never was."~James Derek Sapienza
"A little view of how safe the tucker 48 was...The entire front end from the headlights to the doors was a crumple zone (like in modern cars) the motor mounts where designed to send the engine under the rear seat, and it had airbags that came out of the doors in case of a side collision (not as safe as thought because the bags where covered in asbestos dust to keep from sticking) integrated roll cage, suspension bench seats attached via vulcanized rubber to absorb some force, pop out glass."~Big Fella
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