1948 Tucker Torpedo

[vavavroom]

You are probably not going to buy one of the 48 still in existence but I thought this was the most appropriate subforum for my post. This is Francis Ford Coppola's maroon Tucker that is on a rotating display at his winery in Geyserville, CA. This is car 1037, the 37th made out of 50. The Tucker Torpedo was innovative and far ahead of its time in 1948. It had a horizontally opposed H-6 helicopter engine located in the rear and swappable in 15 minutes, four-wheel independent torsion beam suspension, 4-speed MT with vacuum-electronic preselect, disc brakes, padded dash, safety glass windshield, safety belts, and a centrally located headlight linked to steering. The car could go 120 mph and manage up to 20 mpg. It was a failure and only 50 were made, 48 of which still exist. Most of the surviving cars can be seen in Coppola's 1988 movie Tucker: The Man and His Dream with Jeff Bridges and Preston Tucker and Dean Stockwell as Howard Hughes.

They call the color of the vehicle maroon. This is not the original color which was a light blue metallic. The maroon looks like a metallic orangey copper, although the color is hard to discern in the artificial lighting. The car is in running condition and is every few weeks taken out the fully open doors you can see in at least one of the pictures. The vehicle has huge tires The whole vehicle is huge. 79 inches wide, 60 inches tall, 219 inches long, and the wheelbase is 128 inches.











The clay model was commissioned by Coppola and made in France. I don't know if they were made as props for the movie or just for the display at the winery. That model is ca 3 feet long.

 

[CKN]

I have been fortunate enough in my travels that I have seen the vast majority of the remaining Tuckers that are available for public viewing. Truly they are great cars!
The last one (Tucker) I saw was at Hickory Corners at the Gilmore car museum. That museum is on 90 acres with over 400 vehicles on display.

 

[proveitwithdata]

Was this vehicle that detroit thought was too good and basically stonewalled?

 

[Kira]

Balboa Park (San Diego) is where I saw my full sized Tucker, not the smaller sport model Tom Mix died in.
I couldn't believe the sheer amount of machinery I was viewing.

 

[vavavroom]

 

[dishdude]

I remember watching the movie as a kid, it's fascinating and should be on every car lover's must see movie list.

 

[CKN]

Was this vehicle that detroit thought was too good and basically stonewalled?

That's the conspiracy theory. The other theory is he was extremely under capitalized to be a viable company-and made some bad decisions to try to raise money.

The Real Story Of What Happened To The Tucker Automobile Company

Before meeting its end, Tucker Corporation was poised to change the automotive world. Here's what caused the demise of the promising company.

www.hotcars.com

Ever since the investigation, it's been long-rumored that major Detroit automakers had some form of influence in the SEC's investigation of Tucker. Preston Tucker himself had even suspected this, although no concrete evidence of this has ever emerged. Philip S. Egan, one of the people who'd worked on the Tucker design team, had written in his book that he'd never witnessed any sign of maliciousness on behalf of the Big Three. In fact, Egan had also claimed that the Tucker Corporation had been gifted 50 steering wheels by Lincoln during production, after a redesign issue threatened to hinder progress on the assembly line.

 

[twouvakind]

Balboa Park (San Diego) is where I saw my full sized Tucker, not the smaller sport model Tom Mix died in.
I couldn't believe the sheer amount of machinery I was viewing.

T'was a Cord that Mix met his demise in.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2013/11/25/tom-mixs-restored-cord-812-to-appear-at-arizona-concours-delegance

 

[fantastic]

Historic vehicles like this one show a different era in time. Great post! Did you get a drink though? LOL

 

[GMBoy]

I love the Tucker and read about it extensively. The movie was good too!

 

[97prizm]

Was this vehicle that detroit thought was too good and basically stonewalled?

There is alot of conspiracy about the Big 5? More or less going to all of their suppliers and telling them if they supply Tucker then they'll stop buying from them. Others say Tucker himself was difficult to work with and that he did himself in. Not sure. I always thought a large helicopter engine used in an automotive application was a big agricultural and not very refined. Safety took ALONG time for car manufacturers to embrace, early on research was being conducted to show that things could be done to improve safety of vehicles but manufacturers didn't want to hear about it.

 

[Brons2]

Tucker wrecked the Franklin Engine Company, not a fan. Back in the early days of aviation they were on par with Lycoming and Continental. At the time Tucker purchased them they had 65% of GA contracts in the USA.