10 Cars in History that Flopped
This article appeared under the heading "The Tucker Torpedo: The Man, The Car, & The Movie" in the November 2005 issue of Car Collector magazine.
THE TUCKER, A CAR AHEAD OF ITS TIME?
Historically, nineteen hundred and forty eight was a seminal year in many different venues: in the Presidential Election, New York's gang-busting Republican governor Thomas E. Dewey was the odds-makers' overwhelming favorite to defeat accidental' President Harry S Truman and end 16 consecutive years of Democratic control, but a funny thing happened on the way to The White House; the government finally announced publicly that a likeable World War II ace named Chuck Yeager had broken the sound barrier the previous October; The United States replaced its artistic and beautiful Walking Liberty half dollar with a new coin honoring Benjamin Franklin; and a man the automobile industry's Big Three considered an upstart and a dangerous annoyance, former Indianapolis 500 car designer-builder Preston Tucker, would debut his "car of the future."During World War II he developed a rotating turret gun for the top of a prototype armored personnel carrier he designed and called a "combat car," but the Pentagon rejected the car because, with a top speed of 120mph, they feared non-combat automobile accidents would kill more personnel than the enemy! However, the Tucker Turret gun, as it was known, became standard equipment on B-17s and B-24s for the Army Air Corps and made him a fortune.When the war ended, there was a growing demand for private cars, old, used and new, throughout the United States inasmuch as during the war years automakers had converted their plants to turning out military vehicles and doing other defense work. Preston Tucker saw the void and decided that the time was right for his car of the future, an idea which had germinated in his fertile mind for 15 years.
This writer's father met Preston Tucker at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1948 when Tucker was back at Indy testing his dream car. My father had been involved in things automotive all of his life including auto racing, and seeing the need for cars as Tucker did, had a different solution. He purchased hundreds of surplus military sedans, revamped and reconditioned them, albeit slightly, mostly just new paint and cosmetics.
His used car dealership was Tim's Auto Sales' on a large lot in Bayonne, New Jersey. A friend once asked why the lot, replete with a locked gate and high chain-link fence festooned with a generous number of various color Christmas Tree lights all around the top, was never open during the day? And why the silly little lights instead of normal lighting? "These cars look good at night, especially with this lighting," was his honest response.
Tim's Auto Sales had the caveat emptor slogan: BRING IN A LEMON, TAKE OUT A PEACH! All his cars were Battleship gray because he had purchased hundreds gallons from U.S. Navy Surplus for pennies on the dollar. After the sale was a done deal, my father would routinely ask the proud new owner if they wanted any of the options.
Options on a used car they would inevitably ask? Certainly, our beloved charlatan would respond: trunk key, battery, heater, spare tire, were all "extras." For "good faith," and a display of his generosity, my father would throw in a free, used, bumper jack. But back to Tucker, who had bigger ideas than my father.
In those post-war years Tucker wanted to be the first automaker to introduce a new car, and announced that his Tucker Torpedo would cost $1,000. He put together financial backing with stock options and $25,000 a pop from prospective Tucker dealers. The Tucker boasted various innovations in its promotional literature, disc brakes, fuel injection, its engine in the rear, a center headlight that turned with the steering wheel, pop-up tail lights, irregularly shaped windows, and some other amenities which never came to pass because they were deemed too expensive for a mass produced car in the envisioned price range.
The genesis of Tucker's car began with a conceptual magazine sketch by Tucker. In the 1930s he had earned a reputation as an inventive and creative designer-builder and worked with the legendary Harry Miller on Indianapolis 500 racing cars.
Not an engineering graduate, Tucker nonetheless was accomplished in automotive engineering and is said to have preferred the company and thinking processes of similar greese monkeys' to kick ideas around with versus the degreed professionals.
The prototype car he came up, nicknamed the Tin Goose' with was built on a 1942 Oldsmobile frame with a Cord transmission, but reportedly did not have a reverse gear. Appearance wise the car was indeed a new look and made its public debut on June 19, 1947.
In Francis Ford Coppola's 1988 movie "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" the Tin Goose seen on screen is actually Tucker car #1037. It is one of a few factual things that true believers split hairs about. As most adults know, Hollywood often takes cinematic license with the truth in the interest of conveying a dramatic storyline. For the most part the film accurately related the story of Tucker and the problems he and his company faced trying to break into the automobile manufacturing market. The film, however, can leave moviegoers with the impression that the Big Three American automakers were hell-bent on putting Tucker out of business by using their cronies in Washington turn the screws on him. Though there were genuine differences, and certainly competitive concern between Tucker and Detroit, exactly how much of such allegations are fact remains an open book. You can get solid arguments from both sides.
The production models were futuristic looking (for 1948), streamline and quite fast with a top speed of 125mph and reportedly could go from 0-60 in 10 seconds. At 219" in length, 60" high, 79" wide with a 128" wheelbase they tipped the scale at 4,200 pounds. The H-6 (horizontally opposed) engines overhead valves displaced 335 cubic inches with a 7.0:1 compression ratio. The price was $2,450, more than double Tucker's original target.
If you can find one for sale they are a bit pricier these days. A Tucker once owned by Winthrop Rockefeller commanded a whopping $461,500 in Bonhams & Butterfield's annual Brookline Sale of Collector Motorcars this past April. That a sizeable increase in nine years from the $259,000 a Tucker sold for 1996.
However, along the way Tucker had made some enemies in Detroit and Washington, and the government instituted an investigation to determine if Tucker was a con artist. Many believe the entire incident was manipulated by politicians who were in bed with the Detroit car giants. Tucker and several of his employees were indicted of mail fraud and conspiracy in June, 1949. The three-month trial began on October 4 and ended January 11, 1950.
During the proceedings it was revealed that Tucker had diverted some company funds for personal use. In a dramatic public relations move, eight Tucker Torpedos were brought to the courthouse (the movie takes extraordinary license here claiming 50 Tuckers were there). Neither Tucker nor any of his co-defendants testified at the trial and the defense attorneys rested their case without producing rebuttal witnesses.
Preston Tucker and his co-defendants were found not guilty but the Tucker never went into actual production beyond the 51 built because the federal investigation and trial led to its collapse. The last thirteen cars didn't have their engine and/or transmissions installed.Some 47 Tuckers survive and many of them are in museums open to the public. The "Tin Goose" prototype was assembled by John E. Offutt, Tucker's friend and the company's chief mechanic. Both men had worked with Harry Miller at Indianapolis where two of Offutt's cars won the fabled 500 mile race twice. The fastback sedan production vehicle, named the "Tucker '48" for the single model year, was styled by Alex S. Tremulis and was promoted as the "Tucker Torpedo". Design work was in Michigan, and the cars were built at a plant on Cicero Avenue in Chicago that's now the site of the "Ford City Mall."
Innovations in the Tucker Torpedo set the mark for Detroit manufacturers and raised production standards they wouldn't reach until years later, among them seat belts, safety glass, and padded dashboards (not available until the late 1970s). Fuel injection, available on Indianapolis racing cars in the 1950s and on Tucker's before then, also wouldn't be available for consumer buying public until the late 1970s.
A sportier model of the Tucker 48, called The Talisman, was on the Michigan drawing boards when Tucker's company folded. Meanwhile, into the mid-1950s Tucker was framing ideas for a sports car, the Carioca, he intended to have built in Brazil. It was never completed as he died during its development and the project remained Preston Tucker's last automotive dream .
Preston Tucker, born in 1903, died in 1956, the same year Henry Ford's first Model A (yes, not the Model T) appeared on the streets in America.
