An icon of American culture (with Francis Ford Coppola movie Tucker in 1988), a 1948 Tucker 48 will be auctionned during the Arizona Sale next January through RM Sotheby's for about $US 1,500,000.

History of the Tucker 48

The Tucker 48 is a model car made by Preston Tucker (office boy in Cadillac Engineering to regional sales manager for Pierce-Arrow) in 1948 of which only 51 examples were produced in Chicago. This large sedan was designed by Alex Tremulis with an aerodynamic finesse and a third directional central headlight.

The concept, known as The Torpedo, was revolutionary with the engine (designed by a friend Harry Miller) mounted in the rear, all-independent suspension, disc brakes behind each wheel and a wide windshield that pop out in case of accident. But the Miller engine was very bad, Preston Tucker bought an engine to Air Cooled Motors, company making air-cooled helicopter engines :-).

But the Tucker Corporation had somes difficulties with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission the production stops well before the 1,000 examples that had to come out for this year.

Specification

The engine, 5.475 litre H6 OHV, produces 166 hp, more power and torque than the Cord V-8. This model was the 40th of the 51 cars built and was sold at the bankruptcy auction in October 1950.