#1010 To Be Auctioned at Scottsdale !

[Tucker Fan 48]

Tucker #1010 has been reassembled and is going to auction in January 2011 at Scottsdale!

1010 recent.jpg (57.91 KiB) Viewed 2661 times

This unrestored Tucker 48 should both ring the bell for Gooding & Company in Scottsdale.
Image courtesy Gooding & Company

The car will be offered to interested bidders by Gooding & Company at its 2011 Scottsdale, Arizona, auction on January 21 and 22. It’s a Tucker 48 sedan bearing serial number 1010 that hasn’t been seen in a half-century, which it apparently spent concealed in a private barn in the Pacific Northwest. According to Gooding, this Tucker has just 10,000 original miles, some of them rung up in record runs on the Bonneville Salt Flats, and wears its factory Waltz Blue finish.

I guess someone didn't have a clue what color Waltz Blue is !

[Phantomrig]

Gosh lots of Tucker's being sold lately. I wonder what 1010 will sell for and what the new owner will do with it?

[Tucker Fan 48]

Really hard to guess what it will sell for. #1045 wasn't really worth that much. It just sold for that much because there were two determined buyers and only one car. Every other interested buyer dropped out of the bidding at about 700k. I think both the final two bidders would agree that if one or the other had not been there that day #1045 would have sold for 750k tops.

The same will go for #1010. If there are two very determined buyers there the car could go for more than #1045. Would that mean #1010 is the best Tucker? Of course not. There is just a very limited supply of these cars and some collectors find them desirable. Others, like Jay Leno, aren't all that interested. Every collector is different.

Now that both of the top bidders for #1045 own a Tucker I doubt either will want a rematch on #1010. There are several serious buyers that were there for #1045 but they won't overpay. We are probably at a point where the value on each car will not be determined by what it is worth but rather by how bad someone wants to own a Tucker that day.

I'm sure it will draw a crowd and a lot of interested buyers.

As for what will the new owner do with it? As long as he doesn't cut the top off it I think everyone will give him a lot of support. It'll be nice to have this car out of the garage.

[Natalie]

So, according to the G&C Press release:

"1948 Tucker, No. 1010: Believed to have disappeared many years ago, Tucker Serial No.1010 has re-emerged
after more than 50 years spent tucked away in a private barn. Originally delivered to its first owner in Waltz Blue, this 1948 Tucker is spectacular in its near-original, unrestored condition, having traveled only 10,000 miles since new. It is believed that this car raced at Bonneville in the early 1950s, achieving an impressive top speed of 134 mph while defying the harsh elements of the Salt Flats. A very exciting discovery for collectors around the world, this car is expected to bring in excess of $1 Million at the auction."

But other, familiar to this board, sources (http://forums.aaca.org/f169/tucker-1010-going-auction-291610.html) seem to 1) state evidence that the mileage claim is bogus as well as 2) imply the claim of 1010 having "disappeared" may be overstated (as the owner was a past president of TACA, if ostensibly a reticent one in terms of discussion of his car). The latter claim is also a sentiment echoed here (http://underthehood.oldcarsweekly.com/2010/10/27/Notsolost+Tucker+Becomes+Available.aspx).

Does anyone have a more solid story on many miles are on this car, and how "lost" was it? Or is this another case of an auction house communique that belongs in the "Fact or Fiction" forum?

[TuckerCar]

The Club knew where it was all along, so it certainly was never lost. Hasn't been seen in a long time though.

[Tucker Fan 48]

The former owner, a past president of the Tucker Club, had confirmed the mileage at 109,819. Other sources put the mileage at 209,819. There are at least nine confirmed owners of Tucker #1010 prior to June 1956 so it seems unlikely none of them drove the car.

As a very early car, it would have been on the road from the day it was built as it was a prototype. In fact these cars were fitted with Cord transmissions so the company could get them on the road before the Y-1 transmission was ready. The transmissions were later changed out. Other cars of this serial number range, for example #1008, #1011, and #1014, all had nearly 100,000 miles or more by 1949.

Also, would a 9,000 mile car have required at least one, if not more, repaints on the exterior and a completely new interior?

There are some low mileage Tuckers but they are usually the very late numbered cars, #1038 and up, as they were not finished when the plant closed. Some of these ended up in museums or with collectors over the years and have never been driven. Tucker #1050 may still actually be a zero miles car according to a former owner.

If Tucker #1010 brings anything near one million dollars I'll be headed to Jacksonville with my shovel!

[plancor 792]

Tucker Car is correct. 1010 has never been lost. Bill Hamlin had records on it back in the 50's. Told me it could be for sale when I was searching for a Tucker. However Don Wright would never reply to any inquiries about the car.
Richard

[Frankthepressagent]

This car is showing a lot of corrosion. Probably due to salt contamination. I would be stunned if it was even salvagable.

[Phantomrig]

This car is showing a lot of corrosion. Probably due to salt contamination. I would be stunned if it was even salvagable.

I have seen cars in far worse condition be restored to like new or better.

[Tuckerfan1053]

This car is showing a lot of corrosion. Probably due to salt contamination. I would be stunned if it was even salvagable.

I have seen cars in far worse condition be restored to like new or better.

Not to mention, with nearly mint models being worth $1 million, tossing the car away is simply not going to happen. If you figure that it takes them a couple of years to restore the car, Tuckers (as a whole) will probably go up a few thousand in value (haven't they gone up something like $250K in the past 5-10 years?), so even if the cost of the car, plus restoration put it over $1 million total, you'll be able to get your money back fairly quickly.

[cicero]

This car is showing a lot of corrosion. Probably due to salt contamination. I would be stunned if it was even salvagable.

I have seen cars in far worse condition be restored to like new or better.

Not to mention, with nearly mint models being worth $1 million, tossing the car away is simply not going to happen. If you figure that it takes them a couple of years to restore the car, Tuckers (as a whole) will probably go up a few thousand in value (haven't they gone up something like $250K in the past 5-10 years?), so even if the cost of the car, plus restoration put it over $1 million total, you'll be able to get your money back fairly quickly.

If this car was restorable, even with it's much lower potential value, that Tucker will be a piece of cake.

http://www.insideline.com/features/the-resurrection-of-general-lee.html

Here is another very rare car, but still not worth anything like what a Tucker is worth and it's restoration to this point is quite miraculous. This was a coach-built Rometsch Beeskow, which was built in fairly small numbers in the early 50's on VW running gear. Those front fenders had to be recreated by hand.









That Tucker is very restorable.

Heck, look at all the work that went into building the fake convertible. Basically built from scratch.

[Tucker Fan 48]

Cicero makes an excellent point about the above car. All the more reason that if #1010 sells for over a million in its present condition, I'll head to Jacksonville with a very generous offer that will include a brand spankin new garage floor

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[cicero]

You also have to consider that the Tucker is not a hobby car for the average person. Most of us have some literature or a Tucker radio or other affordable collectibles. If you have the cash to afford a Tucker in the first place, disposable income is not a problem for you and you probably already have several classic cars and already know people who can restore it correctly. I would be surprised if it went for $1 million in it's condition but you never know.

[Tuckerfan1053]

The UK's Daily Mirror estimates that the car will go for over $1 million: http://www.mirror.co.uk/advice/motoring ... -22715491/

(Not that they, the Mirror, know a lot about cars, but if its getting interest on the other side of the pond, then the dollar value could wind up pretty high.)

[Tucker Fan 48]

It'll all come down to who shows up at the auction and how bad they want a Tucker. At the last auction for #1045 there were two people that both wanted a car so it went very high. People that were present at the auction have said that there was no one else, beside these two, bidding after the car reached $700,000. So if either of them had dropped out at that point or not been there at all the car sells for a lot less than $1,127,500.

Don't forget that the car was shopped pretty heavy before the present owner bought it and there was not a lot of interest at a much lower price.

If a couple people show up that really want to own it the car could go high but remember the higher the prices keep going the less likely we are to see the cars. There are already a few Tuckers in private collections that won't be seen again.