What Happened to this 'Car of the Future'?

The Tucker 48 was Preston Tucker's attempt at becoming the next big name in car manufacturing in the United States, but sadly it was unable to build a long-term business in the sector. Tucker hoped it's advanced safety features and radical design would be well received by American audiences, but financing and legal troubles brought an early end to his hopefully company

[CEPrepper]

This is what happens when one person tries to poke their head up.

[jayyoutube]

There’s a very important American history lesson in the story of Tucker. I think every American should see

[Random_Pilgrim]

Ol' Henry butchered him. "Can't have no competition."

[SomeBavarianGuy.mp]

Didnt it have a helicopter engine or was that a different one

[Motor-City-Mike]

Too bad a "short" isn't long enough to mention ALL the safety features Tucker incorporated into the 48's design, the list is long and impressive.

[jimknight]

The mob had their heads into destroying the Tucker Factory with a little bit of help other car companies because they were jealous of his ingenuity.

[SweetBabyRey]

I wouldn’t be surprised if automotive manufacturers paid some of their friends in Washington to give tucker a hard time

[tamerasmith]

The big 3 was in fear of it being better than theirs so they fixed it for him to fail

[Kodachrome]

And George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola made a movie about Tucker and wrote off the restorations of their Tuckers as a production expense.

[tim.iteland.]

The biggest corporations stitched tucker up badly .

[charlielucio]

false allegations to break the competition.

[WorldGoods]

This is what happens to regular people when they try to work hard and pull themselves up

[wyattlipscomb]

You should've mentioned it had a helicopter engine and was twice as fast as all the other automobiles of the time.

[brianwells]

The "Big Three" in Detroit were scared to death of Tucker! And came at him tooth and nail. He'd have revolutionalized car manufacturing forever, and they saw it as a threat!

[Spencer]

You can see how low the safety bar was in the 1940s when a padded dash is considered a major safety feature

[eightycubicft]

Tucker was the man back then, he had the brains of at least two car manufacturers. Read up on him and you’ll find some very interesting stuff.

[hubertdeyette]

So sad. When I was a boy in service more than 50 years ago a man made a car battery that world last 25 years. He sold out for big money to other car battery companies.

[williamowings]

Only one I think looked better than the original was the Restor-Mod and they didn't use an original.

They got permission to build it from the Tucker Estate and use the original blueprints to fabricate the sheetmetal to original specifications but modern suspension and different powerplant.

Wish I could. I'd call mine the Tucker Phoenix.

I've always loved this car.

[michaeljackson]

Imagine if the big boys upstairs actually took on the challenge instead of talking to their buddies in Washington to get this guy in deep legal water. We would be years ahead of where we are now

[dthbrny]

Had the powers that were back then (GM, Ford, Chrysler, etc., and the GOVERNMENT) not fucked with Preston Tucker this would have beat the Chevy Corvair to market as the first mass-produced American car with a rear-mounted engine. Think about that!