Bill Hamlin's Tucker cars driven.

[awgcord@yahoo.com]

In the 60's I lived in Riverside,CA and owned am 810 Cord Westchester. We still have this Cord.
I became aquainted with Bill as he also worked on Cords. He owned the three Tuckers and I have had the pleasure of driving two of them.
The S/N #2 car that is Gold and at last report it is on display at the Auburn Cord Musium in Auburn, In.
The Blue Tucker S/N #14 is presently owned by Frasis Ford Copola.
The Tucker is a pleasure to drive, quick and responsive and of course it has the pre-selection 4 speed gear box the same as the cord so the shifting is slow, (A few seconds for the gear changes). Bill used to run the Blue one at the 1/4 mile drag strip then located near Upland, CA.

The first 12 Tuckers had Cord Transmissions built up by Arran Mcbride and the remainder had the R-1 Transmissions. The difference between the transmissions is that the Cord transmission has strait cut low and reverse and the R-1 is 1 3/4 " longer and incorperates helical cut low gears. (Aran Mcbride did the engineering on this change along with another modification change on the slider gears to prevent overriding the spring loaded centering balls.

In the 70's I owned a Bell 47 Helicopter Maintenance & Leasing facility in Riverside. (Every 1200 flight hours the Franklin helicopter engines must be disassembled and refurbished with new parts, Pistons, beartings rings, valves and valve springs, complete gaskets, oil pump gears), These parts were still road worthy so I donated them to Bill to be used in Tucker engine overhauls.

CORDially
Adrian W. Grieve

[Guest]

Bill owned Tucker 1002 and 1014. Others he had there such as 1004, 1009, 1017 and 1037 were being restored for other owners. I believe Bill restored at least 9 Tucker's.

[balthazar]

In '86 I bought a copy of The Indomitable Tin Goose sight unseen from a NY book dealer. On the dust jacket is Mr Hamlin's return address label and handwritten on the label is "Car #14". Same handwriting on the opening blank page lists some general engine & car specs under a small pasted 'Franklin' winged logo. A treasured piece in my automotive library.