User:Mjl0414/sandbox/Tucker Corporation

The Tucker Corporation is an automobile corporation that was founded by Preston Tucker in 1946. Its' most well known product is the 1948 Tucker Sedan also referred to as the “Tucker Torpedo” or “Tucker ‘48”. The Tucker Corporation operated out of a plant in Cicero, IL. In 1950 the corporation went bankrupt and closed down its operations.

Background
After World War II consumers were eager for new car models. Preston Tucker capitalized on this American desperation for cars and he founded his own automobile manufacturing company that he called the Tucker Corporation in his barn with just a few thousand dollars. The U.S. military was in possession of many factories that had been used to produce tanks, planes, and ships during the war and were no longer needed. The War Assets Administration (WAA) was created to watch over the liquidation of these facilities. Despite Tucker’s limited resources he was able to bid on old Dodge plant in Cicero, IL, and won the lease as the only bidder. On July 1946, Tucker signed the lease, agreeing to pay 1 million dollars for the first two years of rent and 2.4 million dollars for the third year, and was able to move into the plant.

The 1948 Tucker Sedan
The Tucker '48 was in production from 1947-1948. Only 51 cars were completed.

Drivetrain
Preston Tucker had experience working at the Indianapolis motor speedway with renowned mechanic/engineer Harry Miller and wanted performance for his new Tucker ‘48. Initially, Tucker hoped to utilize a 589 cubic inch displacement in-line V8 motor mounted onto the rear axle. Orienting the engine in this manner was unusual for the time, as front motor designs were the industry standard. However, placing the motor in the rear had performance and safety implications according to Preston Tucker. Placing the engine in the rear was supposed to yield an “almost ideal weight distribution”, resulting in better braking and handling. Additionally, placing the 589 engine in the rear was supposed to allow it to connect directly to the axle, eliminating the costly transmission.

There simply wasn't enough time to develop the powertrain properly. The corporation was given essentially six months by the War Assets Administration to design an entire new vehicle so that they could keep their Chicago Plant. Tucker and his team eventually substituted a smaller, 335 cubic inch displacement engine built by subsidiary Air Cooled Motors. At the same time that the new engine was being introduced, it became apparent that the direct drive via torque converters was not feasible in the time they had. Preston Tucker’s vision was to use the torque converters as an automatic transmission of sorts. Despite the setback he still wanted to have automatic transmissions as a standard on his 1948 model. He believed the public deserved better than manual transmission, and that automatic transmission should not be an expensive option reserved primarily for high end cars such as Cadillacs, Lincolns, and Oldsmobiles. Due to time constraints, manual transmissions from 1936 Cord vehicles were sought out, rebuilt, and modified to be automatic at immense cost until Tucker’s own transmission could be designed. All but two of the 51 Tucker’s produced utilized the modified/reworked Franklin 0-335 Transmission out of 1936 Cord automobiles, marketed as the Y-1 Transmission.

Design
The exterior design of the Tucker automobile was heavily influenced by wartime america. Coming out of WWII, the first major conflict fought primarily through the air, airplanes were in vogue. After the war the company hired Alex Tremulis as lead designer. Tremulis had served in the U.S. Navy air force before joining the Tucker team. His avian influence on the car was readily apparent throughout the design process. The exterior design of the Tucker ‘48 was not only designed to look fast, but also to actually improve performance. Streamlining had been done previously in automotive design, but little thought had been given to aerodynamics as it pertains to performance. Tremulis and his team brought the idea of aerodynamics to automobile design.

Prior to WWII, most “aerodynamic streamlining” has done in the interests of style. Tremulis and his team sent a wooden scale model of the Tucker ‘48 off for testing, and found that the coefficient of drag was remarkably low. Tremulis influenced the shape of the vehicle, from the focus on aerodynamics accompanying streamlining to the location of grills for the air cooled engine. Many of these designs were influenced by the Convair XB-46 single engine airplane. Airplane designs also influenced the interior. Preston Tucker wanted all of the driver controls to be on the steering column in order to improve safety and reduce distraction (Egan 87). .

Tucker eventually realized that he was going to have to create demand for his new vehicle through advertising. In 1947, he put out an advertisement featuring his “Tucker Torpedo” design. The car looked nothing like any of the other cars on the road. Tucker utilized this idea of psychological obsolescence which had been ingrained in the american psyche at this point to create demand for his automobiles.

Safety
The interior of the Tucker ‘48 was designed with safety in mind throughout. Moving the engine to the rear allowed Preston Tucker to build a padded crash area for front passengers. The padded area was located below the dash, and allowed the passenger to theoretically ball up and protect themselves if they saw an imminent crash coming. Additionally, the walls of the Tucker were padded all the way around to cushion injuries in the event of a crash, an industry first.

The Tucker ‘48’s windows were designed with safety glass that would shatter on impact rather than leave large, dangerous shards. The Tucker ‘48 was alos the first vehicle equipped with a front windshield that would pop out in the event of a collision. When impacted, the front windshield would pop out of its frame. The idea was that this would protect drivers from colliding with the windshield in deadly fashion .This feature made it to production, but it had some issues. Some tucker employees reported that the front windshield could be taken out with as little force as a plunger could provide, making it an easy way for thieves to break in.

The most distinguishable design feature of the Tucker ‘48 was its’ center “cyclops” headlight. The Tucker ‘48 featured a headlight in the middle of the front grill that pivoted with the wheels while the vehicle was turning, giving the driver better visibility at night. Preston Tucker envisioned this as an industry standard.

The Tucker '48 had disc brakes instead of traditional drum brakes and was also built with a roll cage. At the time, drum brakes were the norm for U.S. mass produced automobiles. Disc brakes offered reduced stopping distance. Tucker would have been the first to produce a mass produced automobile with both disc brakes and a roll cage as a standard. It would be six years until roll cages were even introduced to automobile racing let alone leisure use, and eight more years until European manufacturer Citroen made disc brakes standard. The roll cages and disc brakes came at a fairly high expense to the company. Several board members opposed the inclusion of these options. However, these features paid off and were proven effective when test driver, Gene Haustein, rolled one of the pre production models and was able to walk away from the accident.

Downfall
Tucker was forced to surrender all of his corporate records to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 1949. During February of the same year U.S. Attorney Otto Kerner, Jr. began a grand jury investigation. In June of 1949, Tucker and another six executives from the Tucker Corporation were accused of 5 counts of violations to SEC regulations, 25 counts of mail fraud, and 1 cont of conspiracy fraud.

The trial, presided over by Judge Walter J. LaBuy, began on October 4, 1949. On January 22nd of the following year a verdict of "not guilty" was returned by the jury after 28 hours of deliberation.

The trial ended as a big victory for the Tucker corporation. However, due to numerous lawsuits from angry dealers about delays in production, no longer having a factory, and a steep a amount of debt the Tucker Corporation was forced to close its doors after only 4 years. When the company shut down, Tucker “had spent more than $25 million and produced exactly 51 automobiles—each car, in effect, had cost roughly $500,000”

Conspiracy
In the short-lived history of the Tucker Corporation, there were allegations that outside forces had conspired to take the corporation down. These outside forces were the the three big automakers Ford, Chrysler, and GM. One of the alleged tactics used by the big three automakers was making sure their suppliers would not sell their parts the Tucker Corporation. Another alleged tactic was that the automakers enlisted help from the government and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.