By Natasha Fujimoto
INNOVATION is a gift no matter the industry, but when it comes in the shape of an exquisitely designed automobile replete with pioneering feats of engineering, well then, it is simply stupendous!
Enter the famed Tucker 48 sedan, so breathtakingly advanced for its time that Hollywood even made a movie about it and its enigmatic creator, Preston Thomas Tucker (played by Jeff Bridges) in 1988.
At a mighty 5.5m long, this groundbreaking sedan, initially nicknamed the ‘Tucker Torpedo’, on account of its advanced aerodynamics, not only stunned consumers and industry bodies on its release but has had an incontrovertible influence upon the design and engineering of many cars since, including the cars we drive today.
Despite being an instant hit with the public upon its release in 1947, however, the Tucker Corporation was sadly only ever to build 51 of these remarkable sedans due to scandalous accusations relating to stock fraud followed by a wave of negative press. While these accusations were later debunked, no newer Tucker 48s were ever to grace the roads with such style and form again.
Fitted with an engine in the rear, the Tucker 48 derives its power from a motor originally made for the Bell 47 helicopter. Bringing torque and power (166hp/125W), Tucker had his engineers convert the 5.5lt (334ci), flat six motor to not only fit the road car but also changed the unit’s cooling mechanism from air to water-cooled.
Other visionary features include: the TuckerMatic gearbox (in many ways a predecessor of the automatic transmission), suicide doors cut into the roof, a shatterproof windscreen, push button doors and an eye-catching third headlight, dubbed ‘the cyclops’, ingeniously designed to pivot with the steering wheel.
Bedazzling under the lights at Shepparton’s Museum of Vehicle Evolution (MOVE), Australia’s only claim to a Tucker 48 is now on display. With only a few of the sedan’s innovations mentioned in this article, why not discover more of them with the kids these school holidays?
