On this day, December 26, 1956, Preston Tucker died.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

See yesterday's thread too.

Merry Christmas, 1947, (?) from the Tucker Corporation

HISTORY

This Day In History: Legendary Carmaker Preston Tucker Dies

Elizabeth Blackstock
20 minutes ago • Filed to: HISTORY

On December 26, 1956, a man named Preston Tucker died at the age of 53. His name may not be immediately familiar to some of us, but he was one of the many people who made a substantial change in the automotive industry, whether folks at the time wanted to give him credit or not. And his goals were absolutely incredible.

{snip}

Tucker started working in the mailroom at General Motors and became the vice president of a Packard dealership in Indianapolis by the time he turned 30. There, he became good friends with Henry Miller, a racing driver who very likely planted all kinds of fabulous ideas in Tucker’s head.

While he did invent a gun turret for Navy ships that was used in World War II, Tucker is best known for something informally called the “Tucker Torpedo”—or, officially, the Tucker 48. Named after both its creator and its model year, the Torpedo was… a hot mess. Only 51 models were made before the company was forced to file for bankruptcy.

The media wasn’t particularly keen on the Tucker 48, nor were the Big Three (which Tucker believed had played a role in his demise). But that’s ignoring the fact that this car was innovative in so many different ways. In fact, the Tucker 48 was one of the first cars to have some of the first elements of modern cars that we’d recognize today.

{snip}

[safeinOhio]

1. Ypsilanti Automotive Industry History

https://www.bouma.com/ypsilanti-auto-info.php


The Preston Tucker Company. This Ypsilanti family owned the Ypsilanti Machine Tool Company and was the car company that designed and built the prototypes for the famous Tucker Torpedo car. The premature of collapse of this company was due in part to a lack of corporate funding and questionable pressure from competitors who used the SEC to exert overly aggressive investigative measures to drive Tucker out of business. Thought to be light-years ahead of his time for safety and innovation, Tucker's story was made into a feature motion picture film called “The Man and His Dream” which was directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

You can visit an old dealership there that is now a museum.

[Clash City Rocker]

2. I've seen one of his cars

Francis Ford Coppola has a winery / restaurant in Sonoma County, in Northern California. There is memorabilia there from his movies, including an actual Tucker car. It’s quite impressive.

[catbyte]

3. Didn't Jeff Bridges star in a movie about Tucker several years ago? I seem to remember watching a

movie about him.

[gibraltar72]

4. My cousin knew Preston Tucker.

He went to school with his son in Ypsilanti Mi. They played in the barn that Tuckers were stored in. The son would tell him at school when they were going to test drive one and they would try to be there to go for a ride. To him those were magical days.