Wednesday, June 9, 2010

1948 Tucker 48


I'm still working on my Vanna White pose but here's me with the 1948 Tucker.

 The 1948 Tucker is one of the cars that got me excited about LeMay - AMERICA'S CAR MUSEUM. It's a beautiful car in waltz blue which was named after the inventor's wife's dress color that she wore the evening that she gave him the okay to start production on the car. 

What's so special about a Tucker?
Well here's some of the reasons why I thought it was cool.

It has a third headlight that turns with the steering wheel when the car goes around the corner, very handy at night.



It has a Franklin air-cooled helicopter flat 6 engine in it! The engine was built in the rear which was quite a novel concept at the time. The engine weighs 320 lbs and produces166 hp.



Then there is the fact that instead of seat belts the car has a huge space for the driver and the passenger to slide into in case they were going to be in a crash, this was a time when seatbelts were thought to be a sign that the car was unsafe. Another really cool safety feature of the car was that it had pop out wind shields that would come out on impact if it was in a accident.

One other thing that made this car special is that there was only 51 produced! (This number included the prototype.)

They made a movie about the man behind the car called "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" which came out in 1988 which re-introduced this magnificent car to a whole new generation. I decided to get this movie from the library and was very glad that I didn't buy it.  It was insightful it but it wasn't really a movie that I would watch over and over again. I did however really enjoy getting to see numerous Tuckers when they came off the production line near the end of the movie and when they went as a sort of caravan to the courthouse.

I hope that you learned a little bit and enjoyed this post about this really cool classic.
'Til next time have a amazing day everyone,



p.s. LeMay Museum's ground breaking is tomorrow! If you happen to be in the Tacoma / Seattle area please come on by, its next to the Tacoma Dome at 3 pm. There is going to be a ton of classic collector cars too. I'm definitely planning on bringing my camera! For more info. check out the Museum's website.

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