Tucker 48 replica at SEMA 2017 reminds us of Tucker's connections to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many automotive historians are familiar with the name and the story of Preston Tucker, the automotive promoter entrepreneur who tried to build his own car, the “Tucker 48” but failed after 50 vehicles were completed.  Even more people became familiar with the basics of the Tucker story after the 1988 Lucasfilm motion picture Tucker: The Man and His Dream that starred Jeff Bridges.

Preston Tucker worked during the late nineteen twenties and early nineteen thirties as a car salesman, and in 1935 together with master racing car designer and builder Harry A Miller formed a company, Miller and Tucker, Incorporated which somehow convinced the Ford Motor Company to pay them to produce ten new race cars powered by 221-cubic inch Ford flathead engines for that year’s famed Indianapolis 500-mile race.  

The Miller-Ford cars were low and very streamlined and used independent front and rear suspension that featured aerodynamic cast aluminum suspension arms.  As ground-breaking as they appeared, work on the cars started too late and there was insufficient testing.

 

Of the ten cars ordered, only nine reached the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and only four qualified for the 33-car starting field despite the fact that the Miller-Ford team boasted such famed drivers as Ted Horn and 1924 Indianapolis ‘500’ co-winner LL Corum.  

 

All four Miller-Ford entries retired from the race with the same malady - frozen steering, a problem caused by the fact that the steering box was located too close to the flathead engines’ exhaust manifold and the heat boiled out all the grease in the box.

After the end of World War II, the American car-buying public was anxious for new cars  and Preston’s new company the Tucker Corporation staffed by former “Big Three” automobile executives was going to supply them with something really new- a “safety car” the Tucker 48.  

 

The safety features that Tucker advertised for the “48” included disc brakes, the location of all controls within reach of the steering wheel, a padded dashboard, self-sealing tubeless tires, a chassis which protected occupants in a side impact, a roll bar within the roof, and a laminated windshield designed to pop out during an accident.

 

The car was to be powered by a rear mounted low-speed 589 cubic inch “flat six” engine with hydraulic valves, air cooling, mechanical fuel injection, and direct-drive torque converters on each rear wheel instead of a transmission.

 

 

As part of the advertising campaign for his new car also known as the “Torpedo,” Preston Tucker returned to the familiar grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In 1946 Tucker sponsored owner/driver George Barringer’s 1938 rear-engine Gulf Oil funded Harry Miller creation. Tucker returned the following year as the owner as the same car driven by Al Miller and also provided sponsorship for Joe Lencki’s two entries. Miller returned in the rear-engine machine in 1948 but failed to qualify for the starting field.     

The world premiere of the much anticipated Tucker 48 on June 19, 1947 did not go well; Tucker’s crew worked up until the last moment to ready the car for its moment. The engine needed an external power source to start, was very loud and the car could not go in reverse as the torque converters were not completely developed.

When production was set to begin in the world’s largest factory which Tucker had leased, the early production cars used a Franklin O-335 engine mated to a modified Cord 810 electro-vacuum manual transmission, but as production continued, different transmissions and different suspensions were utilized.

Tucker used the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a testing ground for a fleet of seven Tucker 48s in secret during September 1948, and one Tucker spun, blew a tire and crashed, flipping over three times. Just as advertised the Tucker’s windshield popped out, and after the tire was replaced the Tucker was battered but still drivable but the uninjured driver, mechanic Eddie Offutt.    

To fund his company had Tucker used an innovative program wherein potential buyers purchased Tucker accessories and thereby were guaranteed a place on the waiting list for a Tucker 48 car. A Security and Exchange Commission investigation found this innovation troubling and though Tucker was eventually acquitted of fraud charges, the company collapsed. 

 

When production ceased a total of 58 Tucker frames and bodies were built with 36 cars were finished before the factory was closed. After the factory closed, but before the court-ordered liquidation of his assets, Tucker and a group of employees assembled an additional fourteen Tucker “48s” for a total of 50 completed, with another car partially completed.  

Fast forward nearly seventy years to the 2017 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) trade show where the Axalta Coating Systems booth displayed a freshly-finished Tucker 48 replica built by Rob Ida Concepts for owner Jack Kiely. This is the fourth Tucker replica built by Ida, of Morganville New Jersey whose grandfather was an original Tucker dealer, with the 51st Tucker (completed after it left the factory) as a pattern for the build.  

 

 

 

This is not a 100% faithful replica, the car rides on a RideTech air ride suspension and instead of a Franklin flat-six air-cooled engine it uses a transversely mounted 500 horsepower twin-turbocharged Cadillac Northstar V-8 engine.

As viewed from the show floor, the car has a split personality; the passenger side is equipped with large-diameter billet hot rod wheels fitted with low-profile rubber, while the driver’s side rides on wide-white high sidewall tires fitted with 1947 Cadillac “Sombrero” hubcaps.

 

 

The interior is very close to the appearance of a Tucker 48 with a 1941 Lincoln steering wheel (that’s right Tuckers used rejected 1941 Lincoln steering wheels and columns) and the “lollipop” heater controls to the left of the wheel and a pre-selector gear knob on the right side of the steering wheel.  Unlike the original, the Ida version repurposes these controls- the gear knob controls the Cadillac transaxle, while what appear to be the heater controls actually controls the air ride suspension.

 

 

 

The carbon-fiber and steel body panels are of course finished in a custom mixed Axalata paint to match an original Tucker color, Waltz Blue.

Postscript:

The author recently visited the Blackhawk Museum in Danville California where Tucker #1019, owned by a private party from Vallejo California was displayed. This car, chassis number 016 and engine # 33519 fitted with a modified Cord transmission was originally painted grey with a grey and blue interior but was repainted in a color approximating Waltz Blue.

 

This was one of the Tucker promotional cars, fitted with light panels mounted on the rear bumper that read "You've been passed by a Tucker."

All photos by the author