I’ve been promising to do the most amazing story on the Tucker for 15 years, with all kinds of new details and surprising insights that nobody but I could possibly do. It’ll instantly make every other Tucker story look obsolete. I’ve been keeping my eye out for one in Eugene, but no luck so far. But don’t give up hope yet! I’m an optimist, and I’m sure if I keep looking hard enough I’ll eventually find one. And then everyone will be able to read the only really true story of the Tucker. It’s not at all like what those naysayers have been saying. Here’s a sneak preview: the Tucker isn’t dead at all; it’s going to arrive in 2021, and it’ll still be years ahead!
CC Effect! Just watched the movie “Tucker: The man and his dream” just yesterday!
Last I heard Rob Ida is still making their gorgeous continuation Tucker, check out on google ‘ida new tucker’, from articles the Ida car does not drive nearly as well as the original, from riding in Gene’s Tucker, his original drives extremely well. He has never trailered his to shows up to 2000 miles away. pic is one he repaired, while on test drive.
Certain “embellishments” mentioned in this ad were touched on in the Jeff Bridges/Martin Landau movie “Tucker: A Man And His Dreams”.
A beautifully photographed and absorbing movie.
IIRC 51 Tuckers were built. All were basically hand-built as production never began. Around 45 are left, three of which are at the auto museum in Hershey, PA, a great place to visit.
Although the movie portrays Preston Tucker in a favorable light, others are not so generous. Visionary or huckster? Perhaps a bit of both.
Tucker had problems adapting a transmission to work with the large, flat six rear engine. The first few didn’t have a reverse gear and the vacuum shifting Cord based transmissions that followed were problematic. Later on, Tuckermatic, similar to Buick’s Dynaflow, was developed and installed in three vehicles.
The ads are fairly honest about the biography, the engineering, and the performance. The few testers who actually drove a Tucker loved it.
Too bad the ad agency didn’t hire a better artist. The car wasn’t beautiful, but it looked a lot better than these drawings.
Don’t look to the movie as historically accurate. A more accurate history is in the book, “The Indomitable Tin goose” The villain is overzealous U.S. government prosecutors who went after Tucker, and after months long trial, Tucker was judged completely innocent. A comparable today would be the EPA prosecuting farmers for draining a mud puddle on their own property. I love my country, but there are terrible people in positions of power running amuck.
I just read Steve Lehto’s Tucker book and that is also his conclusion. Tucker was indeed an overzealous car salesman, that’s how he got his start, and he was over his head running a company. There is no law against doing that. The SEC released their report to the press which they admitted in court, and that was against the law. Attorney Otto Kerner was very involved in his original case and also Tucker’s civil case against the SEC. Otto eventually became the governor of Illinois and then a Federal judge and finally went to jail for an unrelated fraud incident.
Tucker was sincere in wanting to create a car. His methods were a bit sensational. I think the stock market still has those kinds of people issuing stock today.
There’s a beige one, number 28, at the Motorland museum, in Arundel, ME. The car was one those that did testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I saw the car, and, of course, it’s in perfect condition. If you can get to this museum, it’ll be more than worth it. Your jaw will drop.
“Arundel, Maine Intact Maine Classic Car Museum Franklin O-335 Cord 810/812 Rubber Torsion Tube 2 Beige/400
Tucker #1028 was sold in an auction on April 27, 2019 for $1.8 million to Tim Stentiford, owner of Maine Classic Car Museum. Tucker #1028 is the only Tucker on public display in New England.”
Despite the over-the-top tone of the advertising, I don’t find it all that convincing. Why exactly is a rear engine better? Not sure about in 1947, but many later front-engine rear-drive cars have near-perfect 50/50 front/rear balance too. The first ad was from the trade journal Automotive News (which I didn’t realize was around back then) so its readers are probably better versed in automotive technology than most, but still it’s way too wordy and meandering to make a convincing case for the Tucker. It would be better to concentrate on a few things to emphasize that would be easier for the reader to remember.
My grandfather received a portable tube radio in return for his never-fulfilled Tucker deposit. Oh well.
Hey, Paul…I’ll drive my Tucker to Eugene so you can take photos of it and write that CC post.
When I get it.
Since I never got a portable tube radio in return for my deposit, I’m still waiting for my Tucker. 🙂
“Tom Thumb” tube typ portable perhaps ? .
I had one, gave it to my big brother who likes to tinker with electronics .
-Nate
I never knew what type of radio, although it may have been moved from the old house into storage.
Pop-Pop didn’t like Detroit very much. He bought foreign very early, as soon as he could, after Dachau and Omaha Beach and demobilization. Sometime I should go through the list of cars he owned in America.
Please do post up your father’s vehicular choices .
My father was a strange and unhappy man, child of the depression, he began buying foreign cars in the mid 1950’s….
We had VW’s, Peugeots and so on .
He was totally clueless about anything mechanical but I did like the Pugs ~ very very good cars .
-Nate
Wonder if Harry Miller was cited in a car ad before or since.
If I was going to bet a hunch, maybe Cord or FWD truck?
Electronic high frequency ignition? Measured fuel injection? Never catch on.
Actually, were they actual things on Tuckers?
The Tucker display at the Hershey museum is pretty interesting with a lot more than just the cars. One thing I hadn’t realized before is that there’s a whole bunch of empty cubic feet in the engine compartment under the rear shelf that could have been accessed with VW Beetle style folding rear seat.
What I already got was that like some other early postwar designs (like the 1947 Studebaker) it owed a lot to prewar cars with the attached (or attached appearing) bulging fenders and also the Tucker’s tapering prow, even while trying to be all futuristic. Others new postwar designs like Hudsons or in particular Nashes were pontoon bodies but styled like future cars from 1940. Kaisers and in particular shoebox Fords were the real beginning of the future despite their no doubt production and cost related two flat pane windshields (also on the Tucker). Ford could do a one piece curved windshield but reserved that for the luxury class Lincoln Cosmopolitan.
Paul, I hope you’re on that Tucker CC. Even without pictures, I’d like to read it.
I have seen one on the road, a silver one in Hermosa Beach, CA, a decade or two ago.
The “numbers of words written versus actual numbers of cars built” ratio is way out of whack for the Tucker, perhaps one of the highest ratios ever seen, for a car built in greater numbers than one or two.
Imagine my surprise, coming home from work in late spring 1987, passing the side entrance of the War Memorial Auditorium (i.e., the San Francisco Opera House) and seeing a row of shiny Tuckers, in a variety of factory colors, lined up under the driveway canopy. What !!? Of course I had no idea a Tucker movie was being filmed in our fair city and elsewhere in the Bay Area, that month; the exteriors for a courtroom scene made use of the building’s entrance.
Just think were cars would be today if Homer Ferguson had not been a stooge for the big 3. Just a little more time was needed to sort the bugs out of the Tucker automobile, but Preston was wasting so much time and energy fighting the government. The car was going to be built in a huge former B29 factory in Chicago.,,,,how dare he build cars outside Michigan. Theres a line in the movie I will never forget and could be applied to other things. When Bridges says to Laundau, “isnt the the idea? To build a better mouse trap?” to which Laundau replies “not if you’re the mouse”. A very similar story happend to the guy that built the Lundstrom all metal home. From what my old neighbor told me about it was that the building contractors got together and put him out of business too, with payoffs to crooked politicians like Ferguson.
good thing this type of behavior doesn’t go on today…/sarc
The Swigart Auto Museum in Huntington, PA has two Tuckers; the original ‘Tin Goose’ prototype and #1013.
http://www.swigartmuseum.com/tucker.html
I was blessed with being friends with Dave Cammack of Virginia, the founder of the private Tucker Museum [the contents of which form the basis of the AACA Museum’s Tucker Display in Hershey, PA].
Dave rarely drove his Tuckers due to the high cost of insurance, instead they usually sat on static display in his wonderful Tucker Museum. As I got to know Dave, I indicated that in not moving his cars he was potentially causing permanent damage to things like wheel bearings. It was after that remark that he decided the cars should be moved from time to time, and I was tasked with making that happen. [Oh! Twist my arm!]
So I’m happy to say that I’ve actually driven all 3 of the Tuckers now on display at Hershey AACA, but sadly those drives were limited to only about 6 inches, just enough to move the wheel bearings to another load point.
Years ago Dave was able to find and buy the Tucker Corporation’s complete collection of paperwork, including the entire selection of engineering drawings*. I have fond memories of helping Dave search thru the papers, and discovering many interesting pieces of correspondence, including multiple letters from Tucker dealers asking again & again when they could expect delivery of cars already on order.
On one of my visits I found Dave working on preserving various engineering drawings. He was using ordinary red bricks from the garden to hold flat, various drawings that had been rolled up for decades. He was then using “Scotch Tape” to repair tears on the drawings!
While Dave was good at real estate investing, he didn’t have a clue about library science, and I spent hours with him carefully removing said tape from Tucker drawings. I also took a few of those bricks & wrapped them with a couple of layers of soft felt, so they would not leave marks on the drawings.
A few years before Dave passed away, some friends of mine in England, both collectors of American cars, came to visit me. Knowing they were fascinated with the Tucker mystique, I arranged for them to visit Dave and his museum. Before I go on with this story, it’s important to know the Tucker Museum was divided into 2 basic parts; The main hall with the smaller exhibit pieces, and another room with the 3 cars on display.
Dave gleefully went along with my request not to mention the cars at all, as my friends toured the main hall. At the end of the tour of the hall, one of my friends asked Dave if he had ever owned a Tucker, and that’s when we opened up the double doors into the second room. I thought both of my friends would pass out from excitement! Not only were they able to view not just one, but three Tuckers, Dave encouraged them to sit behind the wheel and in the back seats as well!
*Just how Dave ended up with the Tucker paperwork is a fascinating story all it’s own, perhaps it can be told on CC sometime.