Rediscovered Footage of the Combat Car

[Tuckerfan1053]

And no, this is not the clips from the Tucker Promotional film that's on the DVD. Its the promotional film Tucker made of the combat car for the military, and shows how easy it is to swap out the bulletproof windows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTga-68fplQ

[Tuckerfan1053]

And this picture from the end of the video raises a whole lotta questions.

[MD]

Great footage.... I wonder if any still exist, or if they were all scrapped.... Hmmm.

[Phantomrig]

I just showed this video to my family last night. I was suprised at the end of the video when they showed the complete line of Combat Cars, I thought there was only one made. what happened to them all I wonder. and what was with that camo job they had, it reminds me of the way the luxury liners were painted during the war to confuse the U boats.

[Coach_B]

What a neat car. I cant believe the military didnt want it. I would have to guess that they were all scrapped early on. With the limited availabilty and high cost of steel and materails during the war it would have not made much sense to have these sitiing around doing nothing. I am sure they were recycled into something usable. But who knows maybe one day one will magicaly show up as a convertible

[Tuckerfan1053]

It seems the Soviets had their own version, that they actually produced!



Judging from the specs, it doesn't look to be nearly as capable as Tucker's (and from the video clips, it must have been noisy as hell on the inside).

[Nickshu]

I count over 20 of them in the video. The end of the video refers to the "Rahway plant". After searching some I found some info that directed me to "American Armament Corp" in Rahway, NJ. I know that some AAC guns were used by Tucker on the combat car...was AAC contracted to build these for Tucker? Interesting thougts.

I agree with above that they were probably scrapped since they were built with high quality steel and that was in huge demand for the war.

[Tuckeroo]

"...from Tucker's standpoint, there was nothing either dishonest or immoral at the time in referring to something that was still on paper as fact [...] anything he had decided to do was already fact, for all practical purposes, and there was no point in complicating things with a lot of tiresome detail an explanations."

-Charles T. Pearson, The Indomitable Tin Goose

I think what we're seeing is a simple but well executed matte effect...I wouldn't go searching for multiple combat cars. Coincidentally, a matte effect, possibly not unlike this one, was used in Tucker: The Man and His Dream to the same end: to duplicate 3/4 front views to create the illusion that there are more cars parked next to each other. No one I've spoken to who was close to the development of the combat car (including Preston Tucker, Jr.) ever indicated that there was more than one built.

PS: However, I have the one and only convertible (staff car) version of the combat car in my garden shed so don't bother looking for that either. Photos and announcement to follow.

[TuckerCar]

PS: However, I have the one and only convertible (staff car) version of the combat car in my garden shed so don't bother looking for that either. Photos and announcement to follow.

So YOU own the Nazi cars that Dean Kruse used as loan collateral!

[Tuckeroo]

Gonna need another shed! The I'll be "Two Sheds" Tuckeroo*!

*actually, that nickname would be the least of my problems if I really was sequestering former vehicles of the Nazi regime...I don't know where to begin with all of the things that would be wrong with that!

[tuckerfan1941]

A model railroader named John Allen used to use mirrors to achieve spectacular effects. He once built a parking garage that when you looked thru the window appeared to be FULL of cars. actually there were TWO cars in it , the way the cars were painted different colors on different panels & the way he had positioned mirrors made it look very populated.
Perhaps Tucker used some sleight -of-hand to display a whole row of combat cars?

[Tuckeroo]

The 1938 Phantom Corsair (of which there was only one built) cast in the role of multiple "Flying Wombats" in this entertaining footage from "The Young In Heart:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpUHvXIXFQY

At the 00:50 mark you can see a special effect of some kind employed for the same purpose. The post theorizes that they are wax copies.