Tucker

US, 1946 – 1948

The Tucker Corp, Chicago, Ill.

Designed by the engineer Preston T. Tucker of Ypsilanti, Mich., this Tucker car progressed through a number of stages, beginning with the projected Tucker Torpedo sports and ending with the actual Tucker ’48 sedan. Innovations were chiefly the work of Tucker and the former Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg stylist Alex Tremulis. Safety of the Tucker car was stressed with disc brakes, padded dash, front passenger crash compartment and pop-out windscreen. The 3.600lb Tucker car was 5ft ½in high, had independent suspension and a 10ft 8in wheel base.

Plans for a central steering wheel and front wings that turned with the wheels of the Tucker car were shelved, but the three headlights were retained from the original Torpedo Tucker car design. A flat opposed 9.6-litre engine in the Tucker car and a rear-wheel double torque direct drive system were also abandoned. The flat opposed 6-cylinder engine ultimately used in the Tucker car was developed from a Franklin air-cooled model used on Bell helicopters. It was redesigned for the Tucker car as a rear-mounted liquid-cooled sealed-system unit with a compression ratio of 7:1 hydraulic valve lifters and a separate exhaust leading from each cylinder. Advertised as a 150hp machine, the output of the Tucker car engine proved to be somewhat greater. 

Of the finished Tucker cars not all were exactly alike. Most contained a 4-speed manual Y1 (Ypsilanti) transmission with a pre-selector or electric shift. A few Tucker cars were left with rebuilt Cord transmission, attached during the waiting period for the Y1 to be finished, and some Tucker cars were built with the R1 (Rice) Truckermatic automatic transmission which had less than thirty basic parts. 49 examples of the Tucker car were assembled in a former Dodge aircraft engine plant in Chicago before the Tucker car company’s demise. All too few Tucker cars exist to prove what kind of performance could have been expected from the Tucker Model ’48, but some rare Tucker cars in the hands of private collectors are reported to be running well after many thousands of miles, with good fuel consumption figures and a maximum speed of 120mph.

After a costly court battle with the Securities Exchange Commission, in which he was charged with fraud and violations of its regulations, Tucker was vindicated in 1950. With much of his holdings wiped out, Tucker abandoned further plans to built Tucker cars until 1952, when he planned ot build a small Tucker car in Brazil. Negotiations were still pending when Preston Tucker died in 1956.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; BE 

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