Tucker 48
1948 rear engined, rear drive Tucker sedan, sporting it's signature turning 3rd headlight, one of 50 or 51.......Trying to do too much that was either too new or incompletely understood, or under-engineered, or engineered too late.............Trying to introduce numerous clever innovations for style or safety exhausted the staff and the bank account, and the dream folded in March of 1949.
Swooping fenders and six exhaust pipes make the Tucker look like a rocket ship. But Preston Tucker's car mixes fantasy with practicality, just like numerous other car maker/dreamers over the last century, and as with the others, the clock ticked too fast to solve the numerous problems as he attempted too many revolutions in too little time with far too little cash.
The 48's original proposed price was said to be $1,000, but the actual selling price was closer to $4,000 at a time when the average cost of an American new auto was a little over $1200.
The story of the convoluted design changes, and the problems....some overcome, some not, but all generally very creative, is worth a read. Even the Wikipedia article will show the wild convoluted and desperate struggle to solve 50 problems at once, impossible as it turned out. But a few of them survive and they are major interesting!
Tucker 48
1948 rear engined, rear drive Tucker sedan, sporting it's signature turning 3rd headlight, one of 50 or 51.......Trying to do too much that was either too new or incompletely understood, or under-engineered, or engineered too late.............Trying to introduce numerous clever innovations for style or safety exhausted the staff and the bank account, and the dream folded in March of 1949.
Swooping fenders and six exhaust pipes make the Tucker look like a rocket ship. But Preston Tucker's car mixes fantasy with practicality, just like numerous other car maker/dreamers over the last century, and as with the others, the clock ticked too fast to solve the numerous problems as he attempted too many revolutions in too little time with far too little cash.
The 48's original proposed price was said to be $1,000, but the actual selling price was closer to $4,000 at a time when the average cost of an American new auto was a little over $1200.
The story of the convoluted design changes, and the problems....some overcome, some not, but all generally very creative, is worth a read. Even the Wikipedia article will show the wild convoluted and desperate struggle to solve 50 problems at once, impossible as it turned out. But a few of them survive and they are major interesting!