There's two elements of the Tucker story that stand out. One is the car itself. The second is Preston Tucker himself. Preston Tucker was a crazy type guy. Everyone who knew him, liked him.
When he worked for the police department in the 19teens, he was scolded for cutting a large hole in the dashboard of a police cruiser to install a radio and get some heat from the engine compartment into the cab during the colder months. (Cars had no heaters back then).
Preston Tucker was a man with an enormous amount of drive. He designed his car with safety in mind. He installed seat belts for the first time. Also, he put in shatterproof glass and the windshield was designed to pop out on impact. It worked! While doing a test run of the car, the driver rolled it. The windshield pop right out. It also featured an integrated roll bar.
The part of the car that caught everyone's eye at the time was the "third" headlight. In the center of the front of the car was a headlight that was hooked up to the steering so whenever you turned to the left or right on a road, the center headlight followed the direction to light the way. Pretty Cool!
The air-cooled engine was in the rear of the car and there was a separate sub-frame to insulate passengers from the powertrain in the event of an accident. The car had suicide doors in 1948 when most cars had ditched the idea. Tucker eliminated the standard dashboard and created a crash compartment in the passenger side of the front seat. This allowed a passenger to roll into the compartment under the windshield and not hit the dash in the event of a head-on crash.
Being an aviation lover, Tucker made his interment panel streamlined. It had the appearance of the controls in an aircraft. Since the engine was rear mounted, the front was the trunk. When you bought a '48 Tucker, you got a free set of luggage to put in it.
Another feature of the Tucker was something completely new. When the time came to have the car serviced, most auto owners had to drop their car off at the dealer and get a loaner. But with Tuckers, you simply arrived at the Tucker dealership, waited several minutes while the mechanic removed your engine and installed a "loaner engine" into your car. Then you went about your business while the mechanics worked on your engine. The engines in a Tucker were completely interchangeable and could be removed in a matter of minutes.
Now if you want to know anymore about the man and/or the car, Wikipedia has a fabulous write-up on the subject. It's a great read. Their link is at the end of this blog. So, check it out. Now, however, here's what THIS blog is all about...the car! Check out the pictures below. And thanks so much for stopping by today ~