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Tucker 1947-1948 - "Sonnyboy"

Name: Tucker Torpedo 1948
Brand: Tucker

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Created in 2012

Text:

Roger Gloor

Photos:

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Tucker '48, 1948 (6-cylinder boxer rear engine, 5340 cm3, 168 hp).

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Tucker (1948) - elegant silhouette for a car of the forties

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Summary

There were around 10,000 car brands and designers - most of them have disappeared. Tucker is one of these lost brands. Founder Preston Thomas Tucker presented his first prototype in 1946. Everything went well until a financial scandal brought everything crashing down in 1948. This was because Tucker's suppliers had refused to supply Tucker under pressure from the automotive industry.

Estimated reading time: 3min

Preview (beginning of the article)

The Tucker story was so unusual that it even made it to the movies in 1988: top director Francis Ford Coppola was already a Tucker fan at the age of eight, and he became a Tucker owner, as did film producer George Lucas. Preston Thomas Tucker wanted to give Americans a new concept of the automobile after the war. He had worked for racing car builder Harry Miller and developed new ideas for high-performance armored cars. His Torpedo prototype, presented at the end of 1946, was radical: streamlined coupé with rocket rear, 6 seats, center steering, panoramic windows, doors extending into the roof, 9.6 L 6-cylinder boxer aluminum engine in the rear, direct fuel injection, hydraulic valve control, disc brakes ...

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