Preston Tucker

Spring 1945

Automobile manufacturers are rushing to build more cars. Production lines are running at full capacity. Workers, including the veterans returning from war, are making overtime pay. Some manufacturers are even flying in automobile parts to recently converted war production facilities, relying on Mafia connections to source steel and other materials at triple the normal prices. The end of the second world war is crating a huge demand for new cars, and manufacturers are responding.

However, the postwar car market was rather disappointing, at least to people who wanted new, exciting designs, and not just warmed over prewar cars with minor mechanical changes. Although in 1949 Ford would revolutionize the automobile industry by producing an entirely new automobile, many others saw the writing on the wall much earlier than the Big Three.

One of those people was Preston Tucker, a lifelong automobile enthusiast. He learned to drive at 11, began repairing and selling cars at 16, and landed a job as a police officer at 19 in order to drive their fast cars and motorcycles. However, his mother lost that job for him after reporting that he didn’t meet age requirements, so Tucker went to work for Ford Motor Company and manage a gas station with his wife.

He later was rehired by the police department, but dismissed after cutting holes in the dashboards of police cruisers to allow engine heat into the cabin. Although a very rudimentary upgrade, this was the beginning of Tucker’s career in constantly striving to make things better. He went on to sell cars, and establish connections with important people in the industry, designers, mechanics, and engineers like Harry Miller and John Eddie Offutt.

During the second world war, Tucker moved to Ypsilanti and founded the Ypsilanti Machine and Tool Company, where he developed an armored car powered by a Packard V12 engine, capable of reaching almost 100 miles an hour. However, the intended customer, the Dutch government never took delivery of the vehicles as the Netherlands were invaded by Germany.

Tucker next tried to break into the aviation industry with a conceptual plane, but never produced any for the Army Air Corps, so in 1943 he returned to Ypsilanti and founded the Tucker Corporation to produce something that no one else did — a radically new car.

Tucker originally called the concept car the “Tucker Torpedo” but abandoned that name to avoid bring to mind the weaponry of the just-ended world war. He changed the name to the Tucker 48, planned for introduction in the 1948 model year. However, Tucker was not able to obtain the Dodge Chicago Aircraft Engine Plant, the largest factory in the world at the time, from the War Assets Administration.

Although the production of the car was delayed, the Tucker 48 was still highly anticipated. Tucker's revolutionary car had a rear engine, a low-RPM 589 cubic inch engine that featured hydraulic valves instead of a camshaft, fuel injection, and disc brakes. All the instruments were located within reach of the steering wheel. The dashboard was padded. Self-sealing tubeless tires and independent springless suspension were designed to give more comfort and convenience. The chassis was designed to protect occupants in a side impact, and roll bar within the roof to protect them if the vehicle rolled over.

One of the most unique features of the car was a third, center mounted "cyclops" headlight which would turn when the wheel was pointed at angles greater than 10 degrees in order to improve visibility around corners.

However, not all these features made it into the Tucker sedans, of which only 51 were produced. Disc brakes, the 589 cu. in. Tucker-designed engine, and mechanical fuel injection were all dropped later in the year. The Tucker-designed engine was dropped in favor of a 334 cu. in. Franklin O335 aircraft engine with a cooling system added for automotive use. Preston Tucker liked the engine so much that he bought the company, Aircooled Systems, in order to have a reliable supply.

However, due to the intense amounts of government bureaucracy devoted to overseeing small automobile manufacturers, there were bound to be problems. Not only did Tucker have to compete for materials allocated by government agencies in the years after the war, but he also had to endure intense scrutiny.

One of Preston Tucker’s ideas to raise funds was selling dealerships before cars were produced. In this manner, the company raised over $30,000 dollars selling dealership franchises for $7,500 each. However, this action prompted a Securities and Exchange Commision investigation.

In 1949, this investigation proved the undoing of Tucker’s automobile business. Not because they found illegal activity, but because the investigation and subsequent report — which was never allowed to be read by Tucker or his attorneys on the grounds of secrecy — had portions leaked to the press, which ran negative stories about Tucker’s car company.

Tucker was put on trial, with the prosecution charging that Tucker never intended to produce a car, but rather defraud investors. They attempted to back up their charges by calling former employees, who testified to Tucker using “rudimentary methods” for developing the car and having financiers of the company testify to the expense of building so few cars.

This was the undoing of the SECs case. After calling a SEC accountant who had no evidence to support his claims that Tucker was illegally taking money from his company and admitted such on the stand, the prosecution rested their case. Tucker’s attorneys did not call a single witness in his defense, only offering the jurors a ride in a Tucker 48.

In an ironic twist, the U.S. attorney who had relentlessly pursued the Tucker Corporation for alleged financial misdeeds, Otto Kerner, Jr., was later convicted on 17 counts of bribery, conspiracy, perjury, and other offenses for stock fraud in 1974, becoming the first federal appellate judge in history to be jailed.

Although legally victorious, Tucker no longer had a factory or backing for his company. Therefore, the Tucker 48, one of America’s first postwar new cars, would never be mass produced. Only 51 cars were made. Preston Tucker later went on to design cars in Brazil, however they were never built.

The Tucker Corporation is no more, and some debate still goes on if Tucker really intended to build cars. But with over 400,000 drawings, letters, and other corporate documents created for and by the effort to produce his namesake car, Preston Tucker was a Ypsilanti man who could say he almost gave the Big Three a run for their money.

Tucker passed away due to pneumonia as a complication of lung cancer in 1956 at age 53. His legacy lives on, however, in the 51 Tucker 48s produced, and over 10,000 sotck certificates that he personally signed, now valuable collector items.

Preston Tucker A Ypsilanti man creates a truly new car for the postwar market, changing our perceptions of mobility during a time of innovation.