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Brother Preston Tucker

Blake Bowden

Administrator
Staff Member
preston.jpg


Preston Thomas Tucker was born September 21, 1903, on a peppermint farm in rural Capac, Michigan. He grew up in the suburban Detroit community of Lincoln Park where, even as a child, he was fascinated by anything having to do with automobiles. He learned to drive at the age of 11 and quit school two years later to become an office boy for Cadillac. Tucker subsequently worked at a number of other automobile companies, including Ford, Studebaker, Chrysler, and Pierce-Arrow. Although he began his career as a mechanic and test driver, he eventually moved into sales after attending Detroit's Cass Technical High School.

During the 1930s, Tucker dabbled in a number of unsuccessful business ventures, most of them automotive-related. In 1935, for example, he teamed up with famed engine designer Harry A. Miller to build Indianapolis 500 race cars for Ford Motor Company. But none of the ten cars they completed managed to make it across the finish line, prompting Ford to withdraw from the project. Then came World War II, during which time the major automobile manufacturers dedicated their assembly lines to the war effort. From 1942 until 1946, no new models were introduced. Thus, by the mid-1940s, American consumers were desperate for cars. Spying an opportunity to challenge General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler for a share of this eager, fast-growing market, Tucker formed his own automobile manufacturing company, which he named the Tucker Corporation.

As envisioned by Tucker himself, the "Tucker Torpedo" (as the concept vehicle was known) represented quite a departure from the standard fare offered by the Big Three automakers. Long, low, and substantially wider than other large cars then available, with sleek lines reminiscent of a rocket, it had doors that slid up into the roof and six chrome-plated exhaust pipes. Its unique safety features included headlights mounted in fenders that moved with the front wheels to illuminate the road as the car made a turn, a windshield made of shatterproof glass, seat belts, disc brakes, and a heavily padded dashboard to protect front-seat passengers in the event of a collision. In another unusual twist, the driver's seat was positioned in the middle rather than on the left, with separate passenger seats on either side. It boasted a gigantic, fuel-injected, six-cylinder engine mounted in the rear that its creator claimed could hit a top speed of 130 mph, maintain a cruising speed of 100 mph, and deliver an astonishing 35 mpg gas mileage. In addition, it sported a revolutionary power delivery system of "hydraulic torque converters" that Tucker said would eliminate the need for a clutch, transmission, drive shaft, and differential.

Tucker's 1948 Sedan's revolutionary ideas in car safety helped formulate car safety standards

Brother Preston Tucker

Source: wikipedia/answers.com
 

pointwithinacircle2

Rapscallion
Premium Member
Few people remember Preston Tucker unless they are car buffs or saw the movie about his life starring Jeff Bridges. Even though I am a fan of the Tucker automobile I did not know until today that he was a Mason. When I read the title of this thread immediately thought "What a good topic for a talk in Lodge this this fall".
 

flipster

Registered User
I knew a man who drove the Tucker on a track near Lansing, Michigan. I didn't know Tucker was from Capac, or that he was a Mason and Shriner.
 
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