This has been discussed on the Hamb before and this latest article from the Times shows the project coming along nicely. Fake or not? Playing fast and loose here or not? Whatever the provenance it's still a cool piece of work. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/a...-NYT-MOD-MOD-M108-ROS-0809-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click
Fake. Tucker was more interested in getting some cars built and winning a court case than developing a convertible model. It's just spare Tucker parts modified according to a few concept drawings that were done.
NO Tucker convertible ever was built by Tucker, either for sale or as a prototype. Alex Tremulis, the man who DESIGNED the Tucker, had said in several interviews that there was never a factory ragtop. They were too busy trying to make the Feds and the Tucker investors happy by building the cars that they DID build. There was no time or manpower to consider building a second body style, when they were having a difficult enough of a time building what they did. This is an incomplete car, built from a factory four-door that was never finished. Period. Neat car, but NOT a factory prototype or "lost" Tucker.
From what I have read over the years its not a factory prototype BUT. I really don't care, are all those hiBoy 32's now not 32's because they didn't come from the factory like that? Was mu 28 RPU not a real one as it was cobbled together from a touring car and parts from a swap meet? Hey, its still real Henry steel. Its still real to me. I kinda dig the thing you see..... Doc.
It's a 100% FAKE ! All Tucker wanted to do was build his car and had way too much BS from the government to do anything else . The shame is that Tucker had a great car !
I checked the Tucker Club BB and they're all over it. Looks like the builder has completely distorted the real origins of the parts. Too bad. He would be praised if he told the truth and presented it as a custom built "what if?". He's looking for the big payday (****er) I reckon.
Mabey Preston (Tucker) was worried about "Loose lips, sinking ships" It has been said that this was a project being worked on off site. It could of been viewed as frivolus spending and thats kind of what they were trying to bust Tucker for.(mismanagement /stealing of company(public investor) funds.) It only makes sense that He would have a plan for this ragtop since it was the coolest car ever to be produced at the time. How long do you think it would of been till a ragtop was announced / produced. Besides, If you knew the tucker story, he had to deal with spies in his own company / factory. The big 3 were out to get him and to the dis-benifit of us all those *******s achieved their goal. Have you ever considerd what the fords and chevys that we grew up with would of been like if they were forced to live up to Tuckers standards??????? I mean considering that the car was 10-20 years ahead of it's time, Rear engine, disk brakes, Fuel injection, and seatbelts even!!! We as americans really got robbed of what technology was to be due to us. Personally I think we'd be living like the Jetsons If that car were not killed!!!! Alex Tremulis may have never known of this project, but it's to late to grill him anymore, I think he p***ed away just less than a year ago. The 48' Tucker Torpedo was one of the Greatest dreams that ever happen'd. The ragtop, real or not is a pleasure to see, and brings both Joy and sorrow to my Heart. Why can't we all just get along....... (Rodney King, a not so great American)
Brookville and others build fake Fords, Exprimetal built fake '32 Chevies and this guy is building a fake Tucker. The guy is spending a ton of his money on a very unique vehicle. All the drama will only add to its value. So who really cares?
Somewhere I had run across a photo of a Tucker Nomad (Fake). I cant find it anymore. does anyone have it to post? It was cool enough to make me..........um, nevermind...
Holy Fudgenut is that thing ugly!!! But it does look amazingly like the origional artist renderings / concept...
A very rare boat tail Tucker!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know if the convertible is something that Preston Tucker secretly had a hand in but it sure is an interesting story. It has brought the Tucker story out there once again and should be as valuable as the last 16, probably a little more. I look foward to seeing the finished product.
tuckers are cool wish i have both of the 2 doors and the other 49 4 doors that were made and covertible
That somebody was a member of the Tucker family believe it or not. His reasoning for doing so is that the original concept (the only car that can be properly called a Tucker Torpedo) was never built. (Concept sketch here.) Ida Automotive is currently working on a better version for a client. They're also working on a version of Tucker's Carioca concept. I wish, however, that they were building his Talisman concept. That would have been one hot car, IMHO. Long thread on the Tucker 'vert on the Tucker boards (no, you don't have to own a Tucker to be a member). One poster has managed to track down the origins of almost every part on the car, and shows conclusively that it was not something Tucker was working on. (I can't see Tucker building a 'vert and not cutting the frame down, for example, but the 'vert frame is the same length as a 4 sedan, and only has 2 doors for some reason.) BTW, the guy who figured it all out, is hammering a Tucker replica out of a 1950s Dodge. His car is an impressive piece of work, and his parts bolt up to a real Tucker just fine, apparently.
A buddy and I were on our way to Jefferson Swap Meet a few months back and stopped at that shop in Madison. There were a couple guys working on that Tucker. We weren't allowed to go in the shop, but they had the big garage door open. They have 40 or so cl***ic/muscle cars in a big show room.
there is an old couple from my hometown by the last name of Duckett that supposodely has two Tucker cars..and supposodley when they made the tucker movie they rented both of the cars from the man and wife to make the movie i personally have never seen them myself but have heard the story many times and have seen some of the other cars that they do have and they have some pretty rare and interesting stuff ..they used to own a dealership for used cars and an auto parts store and still have alot of nice cars parked inside their shut down dealership..you can see then through the dirty gl*** and see the border of the walls lined in texas license plates from 1917 on up..
That convert was in central Milwaukee for a lot of years ( over 25 ). So it was started at least that long ago.
16 or 16,000, these guys know their ****. There was NO Tucker convertible, and there was NO prototype.
I know the Tucker story very well, thank you. Tucker was consumed with getting those four-door cars built, to keep from going to JAIL! He and his staff had NO TIME at all to worry about a ragtop prototype, period, dot. This car is built from the remains of a four-door that was never completed. The builder/seller is trying to p*** this car off as a REAL car, and not a phantom or a "what-if?" (one of NONE), which it really is. No prototype. No "lost" Tucker. No factory ragtop. If YOU really know the real Tucker story, you would understand this and agree that it is a car built from parts and pieces, and NOT a "factory prototype ragtop". Besides, you know the ONE "factory" guy that builder uses as an "original factory source"??? An accountant! Not anyone who actually worked IN the plant, but an accountant for Tucker! I think I'd take the word of Alex Tremulis and others that have been interviewed over the past 60 years that actually KNOW...and ALL have said "NO factory Tucker ragtop was even considered then!", over the word of an accountant 60 years after the fact. Logic also supports this reasoning.
Patrick66 and RetroJim pretty much hit the ol' nail right on the HEAD! IF THERE EVER WAS A TIME WHEN THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE MEDDLED IN BUSINESS, THE TUCKER STORY IS SUCH A CASE !!! What Preston Tucker, Alex Tremulis & some other VERY dedicated guys WERE able to with a hand tied behind their backs was amazing. The SEC was like a ball and chain on Tucker, and delays & roadblock from them and Sen. Homer Ferguson hamstrung Tucker long enough that he could only squeeze out 51 cars (including the "In Goose" prototype). Even those came too late to save the company BUT not too late to clear Tucker's name. Cappola's movies may be a tad romanticized, but 99-percent of the FACTS are right on !!!
Yeah, I don't think Tremulis & the gang had time to play with a convertible. HOWEVER, Preston and Alex DID have drawing-board CONCEPTS of the NEXT Tucker model they wanted to follow the Tucker 48 (aka "Torpedo"). It was called the Tucker "Talisman." I have not been able to find this artist's concept, but I believe it exists! IIS THERE A TUCKER TRUE BELIEVER OUT THERE WITH SUCH A DRAWING IN A BOOK, SOMEWHERE???
Preston Tucker NEVER gave up trying to bring his dream back from the ashes. When he died in 1956 (always smoked like a smokestack), he was working on a new model he dubbed the Tucker "Carrioca." The government couldn't break Tucker's will, BUT I feel they broke his heart and contributed to an early death. THEY ALSO CHANGED SOME PEOPLE'S VIEW OF THE GOVERNMENT AS BENEFICENT, TO SOMETIMES INSIDIOUS.
In the early '70s, I read a first-hand account of Tucker's track performance that bears retelling! You may recall, Tucker used a modified Franklin AirCooled helicopter engine and left-over '36/'37 Cord transmissions. Well, AFTER Tucker had been driven out of business, someone arranged a DRAG RACE between a Tucker and a new Olds Rocket 88, 303 OHV V-8 at a state fair. (The magazine is put away in my decades of ac***ulation, but I hope to locate it osmeday.) Anyway, long story short: The Torpedo beat the Rocket handily, so the Olds gang demanded a second try. The Tucker won AGAIN. A THIRD run was staged, and the Tucker made it three in a row. No further runs were necessary after the 88 got spanked three times.
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