{"id":497760,"date":"2018-08-21T13:30:56","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T13:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=63852"},"modified":"2024-05-18T15:53:46","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T15:53:46","slug":"tucker-to-appear-at-pebble-beach-for-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/tucker-to-appear-at-pebble-beach-for-first-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Pebble Beach Concours d\u2019Elegance (2017) – Tucker to Appear at Pebble Beach for First Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rear-mounted flat-six engine with power going to the back wheels only\u2014most people would say this describes the layout of a popular German sports car, but then most of them would be forgetting the Tucker. The Tucker 48 was the short-lived dream of Preston Tucker, a 1940s visionary who aimed to make \u201cthe car of the future, today.\u201d\u00a0In all, only 51 Tucker Model 48 Sedans were built, and a dozen of these cars will appear in a first-time feature class at the 2018 Pebble Beach Concours d\u2019Elegance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the wake of World War II, the United States auto industry was surviving on cars designed several years before the war. Preston Tucker viewed this as a problem and a challenge; he felt those cars were outdated, unsafe and inefficient. With his Tucker 48, he aimed to catapult the American automobile into the modern era.<\/p>\n

In addition to placing a rear engine in a domestic full-sized sedan, Tucker pioneered streamlined postwar fastback styling, unit body construction, the omni-directional center headlight, seat belts, safety crash padding, and more. George Lawson designed the Tucker Torpedo prototype and Alex Tremulis, who co-designed the Chrysler Thunderbolt, penned the production car.
\nAlthough short-lived, the radical rear-engine Tucker made national headlines. Its intriguing story, recounted in Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s movie Tucker: The Man and His Dream, cast Preston Tucker as a lone inventor battling the huge Detroit automakers and entrenched interests, and preyed upon by nefarious broadcaster Drew Pearson, crooked US attorney Otto Kerner Jr., and the crusading “senator from Detroit” Homer Ferguson.<\/p>\n

Rumors swirled that Tucker was a crook and that his car was a Ponzi scheme. Just as he was tooling up for production, Tucker was investigated by a Grand Jury for possible stock manipulation and other criminal activity. After an SEC investigation and a sensational trial, Preston Tucker was acquitted of all charges, but he had lost all his funding and the company went into receivership.\u00a0Many people think they know the Tucker story, but many have it wrong.<\/p>\n