History Searching for 1948 Tucker photos

There's was a brief shot of what looked to be a Tucker engine on a stand.

Some great cars in that joint.

Frank C.

 

I spoke to a live person there yesterday. She gave me e-mail address where I could ask about the odo reading, which I then did. She said I should have an answer in a few days. We shall see. If that fails, I'll check with some folks I know who live near there. Maybe they have a contact. One way or another, we'll get it.

Frank C.

 

Most agree that it was likely #1023. There are some "open" spots in it`s ownership lineage and no one else has claimed their car to be the ex-racer.

 

Fed through babelfish:
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translat.../video.php?id=224&lp=pt_en&btnTrUrl=Translate

 

Any luck yet with the fine folks at Ford?

 

What happened to Bennington after he screwed up Tucker? Did he go back to work with another auto firm? Or was he made up character for the movie? This is a great thread, lets keep it going.

 

No such person existed. The movie took some creative license with this charactor. Fred Rockelman might be the closest person in real life but many of the events in the movie didn't happen. A few years ago, Tucker Historian Dr. Larry Clark wrote a wonderful article detailing the differences between the movie and reality. Here is a link to the article: http://www.tuckerclub.org/html/movieinfo.html


The real board consisted of the following people:

Fred Rockelman; Tucker VP and Sales Director (Formerly president of Plymouth)
Hanson Brown; Executive VP (Formerly VP for General Motors)
KE Lyman; Development engineer (Formerly of Bendix and Borg-Warner)
Ben Parsons; Tucker engineering VP and chief engineer (International fuel injection expert)
Lee S. Treese; VP of manufacturing (Formerly a Ford executive)
Herbert Morley; Director of materials (Formerly Borg-Warner plant manager)
Robert Pierce; VP and Treasurer (Formerly secretary of Briggs MFG)

The following people went on trial with Preston Tucker in the fall of 1949:

Fred Rockelman
Robert Pierce
Harold A. Karsten, ("alias Abe Karatz" )
Floyd D. Cerf, (whose firm had handled the stock offering)
Mitchell W. Dulian, (Tucker sales manager)
Otis Radford, (Tucker Corporation comptroller)
Cliff Knoble, (Tucker advertising manager).

 

Thanks, that was fascinating reading. Amazing the amount of information that is available.

 

I may be able to help with that if no one else can. We visited the HF on Christmas day 2008, and my wife took a bunch of pictures of the interior of the Tucker from every possible angle we could get to (she does custom and restoration upholstery work). They are on our old computer. I'll see if there is anything legible.

BTW, I haven't seen mentioned that an original prototype Tucker engine is (was?) also on display in the Balboa park museum along with a bare chassis. The valve train operated on what looks to be a modified diesel injection pump. Wonder if that's where the F1 guys got the original idea?

 

This is the best angle we have. Taken from her Myspace album. The original is much larger (like 2mb), and may reveal something when zoomed. I'll check when I have a chance.

 

When I lived in McMinnville, OR. every year On the way to the Corvalis swap meet on old 99W. an old timer would have open house at his shop. In there was a Tucker along with other old cars.

 

The car you saw was Tucker #1034. It was owned by Clayton M. Stone who lived on Main Street in Monmouth OR. He owned car from 1977 until December of 1985. Mr. Stone passed away in 1988.

 

When was this?

Here is their display of the motor.

 

This guy shows up to Cars and Coffee on occasion:

 

Tucker #1002 is just one of the three Tuckers he owns.

 

subscribed to this thread

 

That's different than I remember it. They had it set up to look like an old workshop with everything sitting around in the open behind ropes. The Tucker engine was fully assembled. This would have been about 10 years ago, IIRC.

BTW, I zoomed the photo of the dash in the HF car; no help on the odometer, sorry.

 

Nothing yet. If and when I get an answer, I'll post immediately.

Frank C.

 

Can we get some of that software they have on TV shows like "CSI?" Why, they routinely zoom images up to 200X and get razor-sharp details good enough to convict the bad guys.

Frank C.

 

I'm pretty sure Tucker pioneered that hydraulic valve deal. It had problems, but being a low RPM engine, once it started it ran OK. Starting it was tough, because you needed hyd pressure to be up for it to open valves while cranking 589 cubic inches of engine. They had to use a 24 volt system to get enough juice. Toyota was supposedly working on hyd valve system a few years ago. One good thing is no cams to wear out and valve timing is infinitely variable.

Frank C.

 

Hey TuckerFan48...I finally registered for this forum. Glad to have been of help!

 

Maybe someone in the Nagel or Merola families can jump in and post some photos of the car and its driver. Seems like there has been a lot of drivers of old #12 since it was on the Tucker.

http://www.driveraverages.com/nascar_stats/car.php?carno_id=12

 

Does this thing have any connection with the Tucker Corp?

Frank C.

 

Different guy, same last name:

http://www.timwafer.com/Tucker/tucker.html

 

Besides it's missing a headlight

 

Regardless, I could use one right about now...........

FC

 

Don't post much but I think I have a few pictures that haven't been seen outside of my family. Dad talks of the Tucker car often and I got a couple pictures scanned before he framed a few. Don't know if any of this is true but you seem to have done your homework TuckerFan48 and maybe you could confirm a few of the families stories. My grandfather, Mark Moore, lived in California for awhile before moving to Montana. Story goes that he bought/had a Tucker Dealership in California. I believe my Uncle has the paperwork for that dealership but currently he claims he doesn't. I did get to see it about 25 years ago and do remember it and it looked real. Dad claims my grandfather (who passed away in the 80's) was extreamly mechanical and could build/ machine/ fabricate anything, and I remember being in his shop while he was milling equipment on his machines that were bigger than large van. He thought the Tucker car was the best engineered car he had ever seen... so he bought a dealership. The pictures are of my grandfather, I believe, Mark Moore driving the car. My father is in the back seat. There are a few more pictures that I know of but most are close-ups of my father/uncle in the back seat. The one of the man looking into the car is captioned on the back "Canevani looking it over- has one ordered" and the other is "Tucker Car". My grandmother claims that Mr. Tucker flew my grandfather in to help assemble cars in the "mad dash". Any info you could share with me would be great TuckerFan48 and let me know if I can do anything for you.

 

If that all turns out to be true, it's a great story, and pictures to back it up too.

 

Great story. I'm sure I can track down more on it. Can you tell me where in California this dealership was supposed to have been? I have records of a Don Moore. Any relation? Do you know where these pictures were taken? The photo shows an early car, #1001 -#1025. Do you have the date in 1948 that these were taken? It could help narrow down which car it is.

 

Do you have info on what color the Merola racer was when it rolled out of the Tucker factory? I'm guessing it remained that color for most of its racing career. I want to build that model!

Frank C.