Tucker Torpedo is being built finally

[TuckerCar]

Hehe, that's my gold Impala rental car behind the Stucker. What was that, the 2004 convention?

[streamliner]

All the credit goes to Superfleye, as seen on the Tucker Stock Car topic of the H.A.M.B. forum at jalopyjournal.com:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.tuckerclub.org/uploads/stucker/2.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php%3Ft%3D321140%26showall%3D1&usg=__zhsdSKqibHHa9P5GUIaTv3RTTf0=&h=768&w=1024&sz=330&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=RFFGl8T38HU3RM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstudebaker%2Btucker%2Bmovie%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4SNYI_enUS342US342%26um%3D1

[TuckerCar]

Oh. I took those photos. I can see they are the ones I uploaded to to this site.

[streamliner]

TuckerCar, you have my sincere apologies.

With the advent of the internet and especially Google, the sharing of information and potential misinformation grows exponentially every day. It makes the world so much smaller yet can also lead down so many interesting tangents that you soon forget what it was that first started your search.

In the same way, the posted information gets passed around through so many twists and turns it’s amazing that it sometimes stays accurate through all its travels. It must be quite surprising to see your work boomerang right back to you.

Anyway, excellent Stucker pix! I’m just relieved that it doesn’t have #57’s wrap-around rear window…

[TuckerCar]

No need to apologize. I was just curious where they came from and didn't even recognize my own shots.

[streamliner]

Here's another slight tangent: On Tucker's design patent, his attorneys also referenced a 1944 patent by George Walker, assigned to Bohn Aluminum. Harry Toulmin, Tucker's attorney, thought that it was important enough and similar enough to disclose to the patent examiner for the Tucker design.





One possible reason is that part of Alex Tremulis' portfolio at the time included a strikingly similar design for a 6-wheeled (ala the 1962 Ford Seattle-ite and the 1976 Tyrrell P34) rear-engined bubble-top that Tremulis rendered on March 20, 1937. If you follow the lines of the side windows, you'll see some similarities that ended up on the Tucker '48, like the Tucker's rear "opera-windows".



But perhaps what Toulmin should have disclosed was also in Tremulis' portfolio, his rear-engined bubbletop from February, 1936. It was this rendering that Tremulis says he relied heavily upon for early inspiration for the design of the Tucker '48:



A small world it is, since Tremulis would soon be working as head of advanced styling in Walker's design group at Ford just a few years after the demise of the Tucker Corporation. Perhaps great minds do think alike...

[tuckernut]

A new version of the Tucker Torpedo video has been posted on Youtube. A search of IDA Automotive Tucker Torpedo will bring up the video option.

[streamliner]

If Alex Tremulis could have had things his way at Subaru, at least part of Preston Tucker's advanced thinking could have made it into a production car...







Put that interior into this center-positioned Subaru laser-lighted targa coupe, complete with the Tucker '48's front bumper, and you're on your way to driving a modern-day (at least for 1981) car with at least some of the Tucker-promised features. But alas, this too just couldn't pass the Subaru brass.

If the Stude-Tucker is the Stucker, I guess this must be the Tuckeru...

[streamliner]

As far as George Lawson goes, Tremulis had the utmost respect for him. I think that he and Tremulis at least kept in touch over the years. Here's a photo that appears to be from the camera of Alex Tremulis, dated 1979.

Even though Lawson had a debilitating heart attack in 1969, if this is him, he looks absolutely wonderful. When I find the negatives and the other photos taken during this series, I'll post them. If only we could have been a fly on the wall during their conversations and reminiscences over their experiences...

[Tuckeroo]

I believe that Lawson and Tremulis did have mutual respect, I cite this article from SIA in 1978 where Tremulis praises Lawson for his sail boat designs:

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2009/05/10/sia-flashback-george-lawson-designer/

That Subaru Laser is something though, isn't it? In an alternate universe where the Tucker Corporation thrived, such a vehicle would not be hard to fathom, given how most American car makers had entered into international collaborations by the 1980s. Perhaps even more striking, even in 1948 Tucker was considering such a collaboration - with the Italian Cemsa-Caproni group. (Does anyone have the drawings of what the Tucker version of the Cemsa-Caproni would've looked like?) As if that weren't enough, the Cemsa-Caproni was a pioneer of the front-mounted horizontally-opposed 4 cylinder/front-wheel drive layout, later adopted by Subaru - a coincidence that Alex Tremulis was quick to note in Collectible Automobile (July 1985).

[SuperFleye]

Streamliner, thanks for the history lesson! I love seing those old Tremulis designs. The bubbletop car designed in 1936 looks like a futuristic 1930s version of the Tucker! Man, somebody should build that one instead

Here are some other Tucker designs I have saved on my computer. Do you know where in the timeline to place these, and are these all Lawson designs?

[streamliner]

SuperFleye, I don't have any actual dates when these were done, but my guess (based on the small design detail changes) is that you have them in the right chronological order. I'd bet that they each appeared in various ads and PR from 1946 to 1947, and that should help date them. I would also guess that these are all George Lawson drawn, but I'm not certain. Anyone else have any dates for these???

[Tuckerfan1053]

Tatra Man would probably know, but its been a while since he's poked his head in here, so I don't know if he'll see it or not.