1948 Tucker Torpedo


The original owner of the 1948 Tucker shown above was Preston Tucker, the founder of Tucker Motors. According to the security guard who was watching over this car at a charity car show in Beverly Hills, CA in 1996, it had been purchased for $750,000.00 by Robert Petersen, the founder of Hot Rod Magazine and giant in the publishing industry. It was purchased for display in the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles, CA. 

This unique rear engine car, sometimes called a Tucker 48 or Tucker Torpedo, isn't really what I would call a bullet nose, but I'm sure every bullet nose owner has had their car mistaken for a Tucker at one time or another because of the 1988 movie "Tucker: The Man and His Dream". Some Studebaker owners tried to duplicate this look by adding a third headlight in place of the bullet on their cars.

 

The gold colored Tucker at the right was owned by Walter Ready, formerly of Lake Havasu City, AZ.  It was a real Tucker, number 46 of 50, but the body had been mounted on a Mercury chassis and it has the Mercury engine and drive train.

 


Photo by Ida Automotive

Ida Automotive is now making a fiberglass replica of this unique car and it's being marketed as a Tucker 48. They will only be producing 50 of them, just like the original car, and the starting price is $150,000.00, which sounds like a good deal when compared to Mr. Petersen's car above. This car is powered by a modern Cadillac Northstar drive train and will take 6 months to complete after you order one with your 20% ($30,000.00) down payment.