[Closed] PICs - From My Collection - '48 Tucker

Now for the REAL question John: Are you a believer?

Being a big Tucker fan myself AND as much as I love convertibles (have not been without one since I was 17) I do NOT believe Tucker actually had this "in the works." IMO (based on all that I've read) it's a fantasy car.

But I still like it.

Your thoughts?

I believe it to be a fantasy as well. With everything going on just to build his car.

I find it hard to believe he wasted time looking into a convertible. Even then, they were expensive to build, lower margin, and not big sellers.

I don't believe either...but I really want to!

That being said, I would buy a model of a fantasy car if I liked it. I'm not that picky about color either (obviously!)But, we all have different motivations in our collecting, don't we?

Did you REALLY debate adding either of those to your collection John?

When I think about how large your collection is, it is hard for me to fathom that you sit up at night, losing sleep, on the fence, and have any trouble hitting that 'buy it now' button!

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I am,Here is why------

One of the men that worked for Tucker in the Fabrication,Concept dept.All companies have one .said he was working on a convertible.When everything hit the fan with the Tucker Corp.,he was promised what ever was left from the dept.if the company should fold.It did and he held on to the car or pieces for a while,never did anything with the project ,sold it to someone else and it ended up much later with the IDA Brothers which finished the concept.I spoke with them.I also spoke with Michael Tucker and he said the family didn't believe it existed and would not endorse anyone making a model of it.Even the Tucker that we all know of isn't the Tucker that Preston Tucker really wanted to put in to production, but because of pressure and attacks by the big 3 had to come up with something.When the employee that worked in the Fab shop was interviewed and he said they were working on a convertible ,I believe him.

I've heard the same account. I don't think it's much of a stretch to consider it to be true.

I think Preston came up with an amazingly modern car for its time. I'm not necessarily a fan of the idea that there may have been conspiracy against him. The car was complicated to build and incredibly expensive. Investors lost confidence and things cascaded from there. There were a lot of start-ups and way more than three manufacturers in the late forties. very few survived well into the fifties. IMO, Tucker was an example of an innovative product that just couldn't make it to the market.

I too spoke to Michael (the Grandson) and he said the same, "It's BS"

I was about five or six when my Dad took me down to the Tucker factory on the south side and the "Showing" of the new car. The movie played it pretty well I think. But I was just a little kid on my Dad's shoulders when they finally opened the curtain. To me the third headlight in the middle was a real turn-off and I wanted to go home right then. So we did. But now as I look back at that time I have softened my feelings. Still I do not believe Preston had that convertible beyond the concept stage however Esval did produce a nice looking conversation piece. Quality looks very good compared to the early Brooklins.

Pic: My conversion of a Brooklin Tucker droptop

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The Original:

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Very nice. You did a great job.

'48 Tucker Convertible

I don't believe the car ever existed. I say it is a fantasy. I have and read cover to cover, all 3 books written about the history of the Tucker. Some of the people interviewed and the writer of the first book published were there through it all. There is no mention of a convertible in all 3 books. So I'm not a believer that there ever was a convertible.

#1 The Indomitable Tin Goose, Charles T. Pearson, published 1960
#2 Design & Destiny: The making of the Tucker Automobile, Philip S. Egan, published 1989
#3 Preston Tucker and his Battle to Build the car of Tomorrow,Steve Lehto & Jay Leno, published 2018

Great work Jacques!

Nice work!