Tucker exhibit at AACA coming Oct., 2014

[charlie8575]

Make your travel plans.

And if you've never been to the AACA Museum, I highly recommend it. It's beautiful, well-curated, and the exhibits are well done. Hershey Park (right next door) is fun, too.

http://www.aacamuseum.org/exhibits/upcoming/tucker-automobiles-the-cammack-collection/

Charlie Larkin

[Eshaver]

Thanks Charlie ! I well remember a Maroon Tucker here that belonged to a local collector in the middle 1960's . I only wish that car had survived as from my research, that car really was a decent performer and would have dented Generic Motas really bad !

[Harry P.]

I only wish that car had survived as from my research, that car really was a decent performer and would have dented Generic Motas really bad !

Hard to say how Tucker would have fared against the Big Three. True, Tuckers had very good performance, above average for their day... but would a small independent that only built one model have survived, even if their product was a good one? Survived long enough, and made enough money, to ultimately add a few more models to the lineup. We'll never know.

[SSNJim]

Hard to say how Tucker would have fared against the Big Three. True, Tuckers had very good performance, above average for their day... but would a small independent that only built one model have survived, even if their product was a good one? Survived long enough, and made enough money, to ultimately add a few more models to the lineup. We'll never know.

Tesla seems to be doing pretty well. They fit that mold - independent, very good performance, one good model, and are adding to their lineup.

[Harry P.]

Tesla seems to be doing pretty well. They fit that mold - independent, very good performance, one good model, and are adding to their lineup.

Teslas keep catching on fire. Very bad publicity.

[chevyfever2009]

Tesla seems to be doing pretty well. They fit that mold - independent, very good performance, one good model, and are adding to their lineup.

And they like to catch on fire too

[charlie8575]

And they like to catch on fire too

I was just thinking that myself...

Well, they are a "hot" car!

*rimshot*

Charlie Larkin

[Art Anderson]

Hard to say how Tucker would have fared against the Big Three. True, Tuckers had very good performance, above average for their day... but would a small independent that only built one model have survived, even if their product was a good one? Survived long enough, and made enough money, to ultimately add a few more models to the lineup. We'll never know.

The book "Tucker, A Man And His Dream" touches on this toward the end. The author points out that Tucker, regardless of all the hooplah and mystique, was sorely lacking in the capital needed in order to sustain the company--that even without all the legal troubles. He notes that while Tucker had raised over $20,000,000 to start up, he was up against some rather formidible competitors, starting with GM who spent over $100,000,000 simply to revamp Chevrolet into postwar cars.

Of course, Tucker Corporation was banking on the post-WWII "sellers' market" going on perhaps indefinitely, but history does show that those conditions faded away by 1951, turning the US car market back to more normal times--actually a bit of a "buyer's market", as the tremendous demand for new cars in 1946 had finally been satiated (I've read a statistic that the average age of America's automobile fleet was at a record 13 years after 10 years of the Great Depression and its aftermath, followed by almost 4 years of NO new cars available due to the war effort).

I've had the opportunity to actually ride in a Tucker. It's a large, very spacious car, much wider inside and out than any other 1948 car, with a tremendous ride, and apparently more than adequate power (from inside, it sounded very much like a Corvair on steroids, and the riding qualities were actually quite similar to Chevrolet's rear engined wonder.

Was it the "car of the future" as Preston Tucker would have people believe? In some ways yes, in other ways, probably not. It's Franklin-designed flat-6 engine had to have been fairly thirsty, given that it was originally built as an aircooled aircraft engine, the significant modification for Tucker being water-cooled cylinder blocks and heads, Another question mark would have been the transaxle: I believe all the production prototype Tuckers (which is what all the existing Tuckers are, BTW) used a rebuilt Cord 810/812 unit, which in itself was not entirely trouble free, due to its reliance on an electric solenoid shifting mechanism (a couple of independent automakers--Hudson for one--used the "Electro-Shift" system in their conventional transmissions in the late 30's, and abandoned that system after just a year or so). To have designed and tooled up for a new, proprietary transaxle would have been a considerable hurdle, given that this would have meant "plowing new and unknown ground"--a tough act for a fledgling startup company.

So, who knows for sure? One thing is for sure it seems to me, and that is that Tucker very likely would have run into trouble financially once the public tired of the original design and styling, given what I've managed to read on the subject.

Art

[Harry P.]

So, who knows for sure? One thing is for sure it seems to me, and that is that Tucker very likely would have run into trouble financially once the public tired of the original design and styling, given what I've managed to read on the subject.

Art

I agree.

We look back at Tucker and see a tough, independent entrepreneur who we like to think would have "stuck it to the big guys"... but reality says that taking on the Big Three and surviving, let alone thriving, as a successful independent would have been a very big hill to climb.

Art... how did you get a ride in one?

[Art Anderson]

I agree.

We look back at Tucker and see a tough, independent entrepreneur who we like to think would have "stuck it to the big guys"... but reality says that taking on the Big Three and surviving, let alone thriving, as a successful independent would have been a very big hill to climb.

Art... how did you get a ride in one?

Harry,

I was a guest of the Tucker Club at their 2003 National Convention at the Gilmore Classic Car Club Museum @ Hickory Corners MI--to unveil the Johnny Lightning 1:64 scale '48 Tucker (which was the very first JL diecast project I developed when I started at Playing Mantis (owned by Tom Lowe who now owns Round2 Corp). After all the festivities, I was invited to go along on a short ride on local roads, including the state highway which runs along the west side of The Gilmore--perhaps about 25 miles total. It was, to put it mildly, a BLAST!

Art

[Art Anderson]

I agree.

We look back at Tucker and see a tough, independent entrepreneur who we like to think would have "stuck it to the big guys"... but reality says that taking on the Big Three and surviving, let alone thriving, as a successful independent would have been a very big hill to climb.

Art... how did you get a ride in one?

Not to mention that, in the eyes of an awful lot of people, no less than those in the financial industry, Preston Tucker had a considerable reputation as a fast-talking huckster. Interestingly enough, one of his siblings was a pretty straight-forward businessman--founded the largest and I believe the oldest real estate company in Indiana, FC Tucker.

Art

[ToyLvr]

If Packard couldn't fight off the "Big Three", what chance would Tucker have had?

Still, it's nice to dream....

[Joe Handley]

Teslas keep catching on fire. Very bad publicity.

Eh, I doubt my 200 would have faired any better, the trailer hitch would have cut through the floor or gas tank, possibility of that with fire #1.

Not sure what would have handled fire #2 better than that, besides a battle tank

[Harry P.]

Harry,

I was a guest of the Tucker Club at their 2003 National Convention at the Gilmore Classic Car Club Museum @ Hickory Corners MI--to unveil the Johnny Lightning 1:64 scale '48 Tucker (which was the very first JL diecast project I developed when I started at Playing Mantis (owned by Tom Lowe who now owns Round2 Corp). After all the festivities, I was invited to go along on a short ride on local roads, including the state highway which runs along the west side of The Gilmore--perhaps about 25 miles total. It was, to put it mildly, a BLAST!

Art

That's cool. Most of us have never seen a real Tucker in the flesh, let alone had a ride in one!

[Danno]

Like most gimmick cars and "alternative-motive" cars, Tesla is a flash in the pan. And in the driveway, in Tesla's case. And in the garage. And on the street. And . . .

[Joe Handley]

Like most gimmick cars and "alternative-motive" cars, Tesla is a flash in the pan. And in the driveway, in Tesla's case. And in the garage. And on the street. And . . .

We've got a F-150 in the back yard that I'm surprised hasn't done that yet. I think most Fords at one time were veeeerrrry capable of that

Edited November 28, 2013 by Joe Handley

[ScaleDale]

Like most gimmick cars and "alternative-motive" cars, Tesla is a flash in the pan. And in the driveway, in Tesla's case. And in the garage. And on the street. And . . .

Don't sell Elon Musk short on anything. The man did build a spacecraft that handles the resupply missions for the ISS. I've seen both the Tesla roadster and Model S up close and the last thing I would describe either of them as would be "gimmicks". The Model S tops 400HP on a dyne and runs 0-60 in 4.2 sec with a top speed of 130. The car has issues and he will fix it. This man is the model for Tony Stark. He even has one of the Iron Man suites.

Dale

Edited November 28, 2013 by ScaleDale

[charlie8575]

Don't sell Elon Musk short on anything. The man did build a spacecraft that handles the resupply missions for the ISS. I've seen both the Tesla roadster and Model S up close and the last thing I would describe either of them as would be "gimmicks". The Model S tops 400HP on a dyne and runs 0-60 in 4.2 sec with a top speed of 130. The car has issues and he will fix it. This man is the model for Tony Stark. He even has one of the Iron Man suites.

Dale

I tend to agree with Dale; Elon Musk is a resourceful man with a lot of resources.

I think once the Tesla's teething problems are solved, and they can afford to move down-market, the cars will be a force to be reckoned with.

Somewhere on TV, I saw a tour of the Tesla factory. Quite impressive.

Charlie Larkin

[lordairgtar]

i remember the first time I saw a Tucker in Milwaukee Wisconsin. It was in 1966 I believe and it was in a body shop and very much covered in the dust that happens in body shops. It was used as a advertising car for some Ice Cream company and was painted pink and white. It always bothered me that such a unique car languished in the shop like that. Years later, I contacted the Tucker forums and described the car and they got back to me telling me that they knew what car # it was and that it was indeed restored and living out west somewhere. I tried to locate the forum which gave me the answer then but is no longer online. There is one now owned nearby that is occasionally shown at shows and it is a dark green metallic.