Register now to get rid of these ads!

History Tucker Stock Car

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Ryan, Dec 31, 2008.

  1. Ryan
    Joined: Jan 2, 1995
    Posts: 21,633

    Ryan
    ADMINISTRATOR
    Staff Member

  2. From the things I have read about Preston Tucker it probably was a publicity stunt...now lets ferret out a picture of one as a gasser...1950 throws a wrench into the publicity stunt deal though as Tucker went under before that...
     
  3. That cool to see such a rare car all done up like that. Hopefully someone has some more information on it.
     
  4. 48fordnut
    Joined: Nov 4, 2005
    Posts: 4,215

    48fordnut
    Member Emeritus

    publicity stunt or not, through his efforts we know what a Tucker is.
     

  5. Busted Knuckles
    Joined: Dec 1, 2004
    Posts: 1,727

    Busted Knuckles
    Member

    Im on the stunt side as well, Hubcaps on a race car? I want that front bumper!
     
  6. ridin dirty
    Joined: Jul 6, 2008
    Posts: 551

    ridin dirty
    Member

    Tucker . A man with the American Dream . The Tucker car was inovative for its time and Preston Tucker was Stripped of that dream if you ask me . The Big three made sure that he would not be a American Auto Factory . Its funny how all three of the big companies got together back then to get rid of him because he was a threat and his car has many options of the cars we see today and was ahead of time . My uncle Ed from Ypsilanti Michigan was friends with Preston's son . The stories from my uncle Ed and my father made the Movie more interesting and true . My uncle was a close friend of Preston's son that when they were kids my uncle slept over at the Tuckers house in Ypsilanti . Also after WW2 my uncle had a service station and was asked to change the engine in the Tucker just to see how a everyday mechanic would do . Thats all I remember from when I was younger now that my uncle passed some time ago .
     
  7. Somewhere I read that Tucker was interested in racing before he made cars and had some dealing with Miller of Indy fame. Can't remember any details.
     
  8. 1950ChevySuburban
    Joined: Dec 20, 2006
    Posts: 6,187

    1950ChevySuburban
    Member Emeritus
    from Tucson AZ

    You make only 52 or so cars total, and take one racing. Thats balls, that is! One more thing about Preston Tucker that I didn't know.

    I'm about overdue for my "barn-find", and I'd like it to be a Tucker! Always been one of my dream cars
     
    Preston T. Tucker likes this.
  9. retro54
    Joined: Apr 1, 2004
    Posts: 735

    retro54
    Member
    from PA

    Some more links garnered from the Hemmings site and conversations there...

    http://www.tuckerclub.org/bbs3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=740

    apparently folks seem to believe that the tucker in question was number 1023.. which was lost in a fire in the 1970's when the mattress factory it was stored in went up in flames...

    Someone on the tucker board says that it didn't race due to having a broken right rear axle... apparently there may be a photo out there somewhere with the car on a wrecker...
     
    Preston T. Tucker likes this.
  10. novadude
    Joined: Dec 15, 2005
    Posts: 531

    novadude
    Member

    Wow! Mt Oliver is a Pittsburgh neighborhood about 7-8 miles from where I grew up. Wonder how many Tuckers ended up in the 'burgh?
     
  11. sololobo
    Joined: Aug 23, 2006
    Posts: 8,378

    sololobo
    Member

    Whats chances of seeing a Tucker is full race regalia, love the "three" headlights taped up. Thanx for another rare glimpse into hot rod history!~Sololobo~
     
  12. Tony
    Joined: Dec 3, 2002
    Posts: 7,350

    Tony
    Member

    Cool post whether is was raced or not. I'm always amazed at the documentation on these thing's. For the most part it seem's as though everything had been documented from day one.
    I've read how part's from this certain number car have been placed on another etc...
    Maybe with such a low number made it was easier, i don't know. But it does draw my attention every time i read or see info on them..
    very cool...

    Tony
     
  13. I like the stance. Looks lowered in the front.

    BTW, after the Tucker movie was made, I saw a couple of wrecked replicas for sale in Hemmings that were used in the movie. I think they were fiberglass.
     
  14. Road Runner
    Joined: Feb 7, 2007
    Posts: 1,256

    Road Runner
    Member

  15. Those before and after pix of 1023 are depressing
     
  16. I hope I'm not spamming here, but...

    For anyone interested in learning about the creation of the Tucker Torpedo from one of the people involved would be well advised to pick up a copy of " Design and Destiny: the making of the Tucker Automobile" by Philip S. Egan. Mr Egan was an Industrial Designer working for J. Gordon Lippincott Design out of New York and he was an instrumental part of the Tucker design team. I highly recommend the book as it will give you great incite into the design, engineering, decisions, egos and even business issues that was albeit for a brief shining moment, the Tucker Automobile. I've attached a few pix from the book...
    • The first pix of a young man leaning over an 1/8 scale clay model of a proposed Two-Door Tucker Talisman is the author himself, Philip Egan.
    • The second pix shows four men around a full-size clay. The last man on the far side working on the B-post area is Egan as well. They are working on final touches to the Lippincott model just before a review with Preston Tucker.
    • The third pix shows the Tremulis and Lippincott models side by side in a design competition. The final design is a mix of both.
    • The fourth pix is a 1946 Tucker Torpedo ad from Science Illustrated. Buck Rogers would have been proud to drive that!!
    • The last pix is the cover of the book, just in case you decide to look for it.
    Again, if you have even a passing interest in the Tucker and want to get past the Hollywood dramatization and read the real story from someone who helped create the car then I highly suggest you seek out this book. If you check the usual outlets, you can still find copies. Happy reading!
    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
     
  17. Road Runner
    Joined: Feb 7, 2007
    Posts: 1,256

    Road Runner
    Member

    Great pics!
    Here is another Tucker concept drawing....
     

    Attached Files:

  18. Road Runner
    Joined: Feb 7, 2007
    Posts: 1,256

    Road Runner
    Member

    Best scenes of the movie are when all the cars are shown in the warehouse and later driving before the courthouse.
    I always wondered how many real Tuckers were used in the movie.

    And what about the crashing and rolling over car on the track?
    Still hurts to see those dramatic few seconds, imagining a real Tucker, even if you know it's a fake.

    Glad they made this movie. Brings the story to a lot of people and has some very nice pictures of the cars.



    Lot's of great pics of the Tucker auto plant from the Life Magazine archives....

    http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tucker+auto+source:life&start=21&sa=N&ndsp=21
     
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2008
  19. Rand Man
    Joined: Aug 23, 2004
    Posts: 4,860

    Rand Man
    Member

    Seems like I remember those cars used in the movie were fiberglass. I'm pretty sure you can still buy a body if you were so inclined. Who was it, Gibbon?
     
  20. Plowboy
    Joined: Nov 8, 2002
    Posts: 4,278

    Plowboy
    Member

    My buddy owns 1048. He says that while they had some great features, they weren't really all that great of cars.
     
  21. What I meant by 'get past the Hollywood dramatization' is that in the movie, the central premise of the Tucker's downfall is the Detroit automakers trying to put Tucker out of business....Not true. Ford example, Ford gave Tucker radios...not sold-gave, then Tucker molded their own buttons and faceplates. Many parts on a Tucker are other OEM's parts which they gladly sold them...if they were so concerned about their failure, they logically would not have sold them any parts at all nor allowed their suppliers to do so...in truth, all of the Detroit automakers seemed to even encourage Tucker by happily providing parts and by going to bat for them in their concerted efforts to buy steel in larger quantities by including projected Tucker volumes to help better state their case about their need to get a hold of more steel-something very hard to do in post WW2 American manufacturing as the Defense industries still had a lot of 'government mandated rights' to steel that non-Defense industries simply did not have.

    The simple truth about the death of Tucker is that they were under-capitalized. Hollywood needed a villain to tell a good story and it certainly was not going to be the hero of the movie Preston Tucker, so they stretched the true story of the S.E.C. investigating Tucker's business practices into a false story wherein the local Detroit auto companies used their connections in Washington to lean on Tucker and supposedly put him out of business....oh yeah and the great Jeff Bridges courtroom diatribe at the end of the trial-that never happened either...and they didn't bring 50 cars to the trial, they brought eight.

    As for the wrecked Tuckers in the movie, I think they used the fiberglass versions for that....as for that scene they filmed it at some tiny track when in fact Tucker did their endurance testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and they did indeed wreck one car but that may have been a publicity stunt to show how safe the car was in a rollover...and at Indy they did indeed set some speed and endurance records.

    As for how many real Tuckers were used in the movie, I don't know...but I'm sure someone does.

    Try this link...it has a pretty good comparison of the Hollywood Mythical story in the movie versus reality but nonetheless it is a fun movie to watch and while it has it's flaws, I am very glad it was made.

    http://www.tuckerclub.org/html/movieinfo.html
     
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2008
  22. I think Ida will sell you a complete Tucker, but I don't think they will sell you just a body...and I understand why.

    Thanks for the link, it looks like they do great work.
     
  23. Road Runner
    Joined: Feb 7, 2007
    Posts: 1,256

    Road Runner
    Member

    Thanks for the insights.
    The screenplay certainly seems to have many dramatic liberties, even if you don't know the true story.
    The courthouse scenes in particular appear complete invention.
    It's for entertainment after all.

    The name Tucker stands for inspiration in my book.
    I'm not really concearned if his cars were truly better than anybody elses.
    I like interesting individuals who think and do things a little ahead of their time.
    One thing is for sure, factory mass-production does not always present the latest of ideas of what is possible...
     
  24. I completely agree RoadRunner....to me Preston Tucker represents the embodiment of the American Dream and my never-ending desire to build my own cars someday....that's why I became a car designer...so while I'm not exactly living the dream, I am pretty close to it.
     
  25. enough about the movie...

    back to the topic at hand.

    Cool photo Ryan. I was checking out the link posted above to the Tucker club.
    Here is the link to the car they rolled on the track at Indy.
     
  26. Uh, it was covered in the Historic Stock Car photo thread here yesterday:
    <TABLE class=tborder id=post3438950 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=thead style="BORDER-RIGHT: #e5e5e5 0px solid; BORDER-TOP: #e5e5e5 1px solid; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; BORDER-LEFT: #e5e5e5 1px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: #e5e5e5 1px solid">[​IMG] Yesterday, 07:00 PM <!-- / status icon and date --></TD><TD class=thead style="BORDER-RIGHT: #e5e5e5 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #e5e5e5 1px solid; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; BORDER-LEFT: #e5e5e5 0px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: #e5e5e5 1px solid" align=right> #612 </TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #e5e5e5 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #e5e5e5 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #e5e5e5 1px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: #e5e5e5 0px solid" width=175>john56h<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_3438950", true); </SCRIPT>
    Senior Member

    [​IMG]

    Join Date: Jan 2007
    Location: Hudson Valley, NY
    Posts: 1,662


    </TD><TD class=alt1 id=td_post_3438950 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #e5e5e5 1px solid"><!-- icon and title -->[​IMG] Re: Historic Stock Car Photos
    <HR style="COLOR: #e5e5e5; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e5e5e5" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->[​IMG]

    Supposedly was entered in a single Nascar race, but failed to complete even the first lap, due to a broken rear axle on lap one.
    <!-- / message --></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
     
  27. Jeem
    Joined: Sep 12, 2002
    Posts: 5,882

    Jeem
    Alliance Vendor

    Not for sure, but I don't believe Rob and his Dad even had their first glass Tucker made when that movie was produced.
     


  28. Hubcaps, wipers, front license plate, headlights taped over.
     
  29. tragic59
    Joined: Sep 16, 2002
    Posts: 766

    tragic59
    Member

    Am I the only one who has a hard time believing that the Tucker would have ever been a successful car manufacturer? I mean, I love a good story as much as the next guy, regardless of how much truth there is to it, the IDEA of Tucker being an innovator and the little guy going up against corporate giants is very appealing.

    But in the end, even if he'd been able to build 100,000 Tuckers that year, it doesn't necessarily mean anyone would have bought them.

    The Chrysler Airflow was a very innovative design, but it still didn't sell well.

    Admittedly, I look at Tuckers through modern eyes, and can't really speak for the car buyer of their day, but I've always thought they were ugly. And aside from the novelty of knowing parts of their story, I wouldn't look twice at them.

    Imagine if that bodystyle were built by Ford. We'd still be making fun of the Tucker, instead of the Edsel.
     

Share This Page

Register now to get rid of these ads!

Archive

Copyright © 1995-2021 The Jalopy Journal: Steal our stuff, we'll kick your teeth in. Terms of Service. Privacy Policy.

Atomic Industry
Forum software by XenForo™ ©2010-2014 XenForo Ltd.