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Deconstructing the Indomitable Tin Goose: Separating Fact from Fiction

6/28/2014

6 Comments

 
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Over the past few decades, an entire new generation of automobile enthusiasts have been introduced to Preston Tucker's "Car of Tomorrow", yet many rely upon rumors and innuendo as to why and how the company failed.  The controversy continues as no "smoking gun" has yet been found that definitively points to the US Government conspiring with the "Big Three" to put Preston Tucker out of business for creating a car that was too good.
So although there is room for various opinions on the demise of the corporation, the facts surrounding the design for the car are a bit less controversial, yet no less fascinating.  So here's a look at the evolution of the Tucker Tin Goose prototype and how each of its design elements evolved into the car that is instantly recognizable as the Tucker '48. 

DESIGNER TIMELINE
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A quick review of the timeline for each of the designers who worked for Tucker.  Shortly after the Lippincott team arrived at the Tucker plant on March 11, Tremulis was sent on "vacation" for several weeks.  This likely coincided with his completion of much of the initial bodywork on the Tin Goose as well as completion of the Clay #1 around April 4.  He would return just prior to the Lippincott team's abrupt departure on May 3, 1947 and finish the Tin Goose's design details that were introduced on June 19, 1947.
The transformation from Tremulis' layout into the Tin Goose with no clay (direct to metal) had started in January 1947 and was well-underway, if not nearly complete by April, as far as the body's sheet metal was concerned.  Phil Egan, a designer on the Lippincott team, recalled their first discussions with Preston Tucker: "Preston Tucker gave us this charge: to style the car based upon the essentials of his mechanical concepts and upon Alex Tremulis' body layout.  At no point in the meeting was there any mention of our changing the fundamentals of wheelbase, wheel tread, interior dimensions or even basic body shape.  It was a classic case of pure styling.  The primary dimensions were inviolate, as were the the tapering roof, and of course, the Cyclops eye front and center (we were to have fun with that feature).  Outside of these requirements, there were no constraints.  We were expected to go all out in our efforts."
The following paragraphs were discussed in Part 1 (click HERE to learn more about how the Torpedo design morphed into the Tucker '48), but it's worth repeating as it is relevant to the analysis of the design changes that went into building the Tin Goose:

On March 11 the Lippincott team arrived at the Tucker plant, led by Hal Bergstrom and accompanied by additional designers Budd Steinhilber, Tucker Madawick, Read Viemeister and Phil Egan.  Here's how Phil Egan described Alex Tremulis' plant tour and his reaction to seeing the "Tin Goose" for the first time: 

“Here we saw embryonic shapes in raw sheet metal coalescing into the frame and part of the body of an automobile. A nearby drop hammer pounded sheet metal from flat to contoured with ear-splitting vibrations, and the junctions of formed sheet and frame were fused under the bright sparks of welding torches.  Elsewhere, men at work stations devoted themselves to the mechanical details of torching, cutting, bending, and drilling the parts of a prototype automobile.  Alex [Tremulis} gave us a cursory introduction to all of this and then led us to the design area.

Since he had accepted the position of chief stylist in January, Alex had brought the design of the Tucker automobile from the nebulous to the three-dimensional.  He had developed a firm layout of the car which he showed us in a 1/8 size drawing, with every outside and inside dimension carefully indicated.”


So, even though Alex Tremulis had said to Phil Egan that he felt the Tin Goose's body was 95% complete before the Lippincott arrival, it's probable he meant that it was 95% complete towards the design as it stood at that time.  It's also entirely possible that it was also 95% complete during its refinement period while the Lippincott team was in-house, even through all its layers of modifications, right up until its introduction.  Much like shoveling snow off a driveway in a snowstorm, it never really is finished. 

After the Lippincott team's styling contributions were completed on May 3, and before the Tin Goose introduction on June 19, Egan further clarified Tremulis' role: "Alex Tremulis was primarily responsible for guiding the fabrication of the Tin Goose to conclusion.  He was privy to Preston Tucker's decisions regarding those portions of the no. 1 and no. 2 clay models that would be shown to the public.  The logistics were mind-boggling. Alex had to coordinate his collegues in sheet metal forming, body engineering, engine and drivetrain design, interior furnishings, instrumentation/controls and painting to produce the final product to the satisfaction of the boss.  It had to be beautiful, it had to be convincing and it had to run."  - Phil Egan, Design and Destiny: The Making of the Tucker Automobile, 1989

J. Gordon Lippincott had stated that once the clay models were completed (May 3, 1947) it was left to Tucker and Tremulis to assemble the prototype and the cars themselves.  Lippincott's involvement was over.  Phil Egan and J. Gordon Lippincott both were in agreement that "Tremulis deserves most of the credit for the car design, but that the front and back of the car reflect the Lippincott team's work."  Lippincott continued, "it's hard to pinpoint responsibility when many designers have a hand in a project."

In any case, It's very clear that the Tucker '48 represents the best design elements from each of the designers that contributed to its creation, and each of them, George Lawson, Alex Tremulis, Budd Steinhilber, Hal Bergstrom, Read Viemeister, Tucker Madawick, Phil Egan and Audrey Moore got it right when the final design rolled out of the Tucker manufacturing plant.  The car would not have been the same without any one of their design inputs and should be celebrated as such.


So here's a look at the individual design elements that made the Tin Goose and their evolution from initial design to the Tin Goose to the production Tucker '48s...


REAR GRILLE
The rear grille of the Tucker '48 perhaps best exemplifies how each of the designers involved with the Tucker were able to contribute to the final design for the rear end of the car.  And it clearly happened in a 'round about way over many months of design variations. 


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The egg-crate grille was a carry-over from George Lawson's 1942 Buick design that he used for the first Tucker Torpedo design.  It would be Tremulis who would apply the same theme to the rear of the car.
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December 1946 - January, 1947:  Alex Tremulis first applied the egg-crate grille as two rows on his first proposals to Preston Tucker.  This rear end would soon be replaced by the one shown in the patent illustrations two months later.
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March 15, 1947:  Tremulis' rear end design had changed as of the patent filing.  The non-descript back end was now devoid of the egg-crate grille.
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May, 1947: The rear grille of the Lippincott Clay #2 reincorporated the egg-crate.  Tremulis' initial two rows of square holes were replaced with four rows of rectangular slots that mirrored the front grilles.  Tremulis would confirm that he felt this design on the rear of Clay #2 was excellent.
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June 18, 1947: The rear of the Tin Goose.  The grille was modified for three rows and the individual exhausts were moved from within the bumper to half-underneath the bumper.  The Tucker nameplate was added to the riser on the bumper so everyone would know they had just been passed by a Tucker.
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Tucker '48:  The stamped production Tucker's rear bumpers were horizontally flat again as on Clay #2, but remained faithful to the Tin Goose design, a perfect blend of Lawson, Tremulis, and the Lippincott team of Hal Bergstrom, Budd Steinhilber, Read Viemeister, Tucker Madawick, Phil Egan, and of course, Preston Tucker.
TAILLIGHTS
Such a simple part of the car, yet it carries with it some significant confusion.  As Alex Tremulis was quoted in The Indomitable Tin Goose, "They [Lippincott] worked on that model several months, and when they got through the only part of their design that was used was the two taillight castings.  They were undoubtedly the most expensive taillights in automotive history". 

Tremulis' sense of humor and possible shared frustration with slow progress may have been taken out of context by the author, Charles Pearson, as it has already been pointed out that the Lippincott team provided significant input towards the final design of the Tucker '48, however Tremulis was probably accurate about the cost of the taillights.  The Tin Goose's taillights are the only two castings (possibly machined?) in existence, and vendors were known to overcharge Tucker for products and services. 
Phil Egan described the taillights in Design and Destiny: "Our idea of a long bright metal form with a lens at the end, resting on top of each rear fender, became a cause celebre.  A number of Tucker personages put in their two cents on how it could be achieved.  It was really quite simple: use a chromium-plated die casting for the front part and acrylic plastic molded in clear red for the lens.  It would require die casting and injection molds costing probably eight thousand dollars at the time, a pittance compared to the tooling costs for an automobile.  However, we soon discovered a reluctance on the part of the company to undertake such a specialized custom artifact.  Due to time and financial constraints, almost all of the parts for the Tucker '48 were going to be bought outside and brought into the plant to be assembled.  Thus the solution was to seek an existing tail light design and plan on using it.  A pre-war Dodge design was eventually used".

But neither the taillights on the Tin Goose nor on any of the Tucker '48's appear to be off-the-shelf Dodge lights, so perhaps custom (and expensive) castings were made for both the Tin Goose and the subsequent cars. 
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1941:  The taillights for the 1941 Dodge Business Coupe and Luxury Liner are immediately recognizable as leading to the design on the Tucker '48's back end.  It doesn't appear as if the curvature on the stock Dodge taillight would match the contour of the Tucker's fender.





May 4, 1947:  The taillights on Clay #2 were modernized versions of the Dodge taillights, with a sleeker profile, squared-off edges, and a much cleaner look.


June 18, 1947:  These unique Tin Goose taillights reverted back to the 1941 Dodge design, with a more rounded look and a heavy chrome cap to hold the lens in place, but they don't appear to be from Dodge.  These are the only two known taillights of this design, so Tremulis' comments as to their cost may have been right on target.



Tucker '48:  The final taillight design was similar to the sleek Lippincott design on Clay #2, with the leading edge lens angle reversed, combined with the top cap similar to the 1941 Dodge. 

Even then, though, it wasn't over.  The first 25 cars had one casting and due to a rear fender shape change, the last 25 cars were finished with a different contour to the casting.  So, yes, the Tucker tail lights were probably the most expensive in automotive history!



REAR AIR INTAKE
Towards the end of Lippincott's involvement, Phil Egan detailed how the rear intakes evolved: "The two competing projects [Tremulis' Clay #1 and Lippincott's Clay #2] had become increasingly interdependent.  It simply wasn't possible for each to ignore the travails of the other.  Alex didn't ignore what we were doing and made many suggestions which helped us.  We, in turn, contributed a few ideas to him; certainly a just aid to a worthy compatriot.  A constrained delicate and very successful rear fender air intake on the #1 clay model was one of the results of this cooperative effort.  Ultimately, it was Alex's accomplishment, but Read [Viemeister] and Budd [Steinhilber] contributed ideas which helped carry it off."

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February 1947:  The intakes of Tremulis' design cover the top half of the rear fender and incorporate horizontal slats.  This is presumably where the intakes on Tremulis' Clay #1 started.
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April, May 1947: The intake contours on both the right and left side of Clay #2 are similar, except for the number of slats and thickness of the surround.
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June 1947:  The Tin Goose intakes were a collaboration of both Tremulis and the Lippincott team's efforts.  The Tin Goose's handmade fitting is evident in its fit to the fender, not quite following the contour of the fender's leading edge.  The production intake more closely follows the straighter leading edge of the fender.

Fun Factoid: The intake on the right side of the Tin Goose has 15 slats, while the intake on the left side only has 14.  Vintage photographs show that the Tin Goose left the factory with this overlooked detail.  The Tucker '48 has fewer still, numbering 13.



FRONT GRILLE AND BUMPER

The evolution of the front bumper and grilles resulted in the now-legendary steerhorn front bumper that identifies the car as a Tucker '48.  The creativity that Read Viemeister displayed in his initial proposal that included the bumper was key to finishing off the front end design that never was quite complete despite the efforts by Lawson and Tremulis before.  It wouldn't be until just before the Lippincott team left that the front bumper and grille design would all come together. 
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1942: George Lawson's design for the 1942 Buick incorporated the egg-crate grille and vertical bumper that he would carry over to his initial Tucker Torpedo designs.
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December 1946: The Tucker Torpedo in its final form with the horizontal bumper added. 
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February 1947: Tremulis' redesign of the Torpedo into the Tucker '48 maintained Lawson's design elements including the egg-crate grille and both the center vertical and horizontal bumpers
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March 1947: Just prior to the arrival of the Lippincott team, Read Viemeister drew up a Tucker proposal that the team seemed to keep coming back to.  The bumper was probably the very first incarnation of the Tucker '48's "Steer Horn" bumper.  This concept would prove pivotal in the front end design for the Tucker '48.
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April 1947: Clay #2 is getting close to the final design for the bumper, with just a few more details to be worked out.
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April 1947: Tremulis' Clay #1 mostly resembles the February advertising campaign, still retaining the Torpedo's overall feel, while Lippincott's Clay #2 is still morphing into what would become the Tucker '48's front grille.
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May 1947: The front end of Clay #2 has now incorporated Read Viemeister's steerhorn bumper as the backbone for the grillework. 
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June 1947: The Tin Goose's (top) front bumper and grille would remain virtually intact with the exception of a few missing slats in the centerpiece.  The catwalk area above the bumper has now eliminated all chrome pieces or further grilles, vents or turn indicators as on both clay models.  Tremulis did much of the lead solder filling and shaping on the deep drawn areas in the catwalk.

The Tucker '48 front end would add turn indicators to the areas just above the bumper, but remained true to the Tin Goose.



OVERALL SILHOUETTE

As was described in The Indomitable Tin Goose, the basic outline for the side silhouette of the car was dimensionally worked out by Tucker's planners in December 1946.  It would be these same dimensions that Tremulis would use for his first sketches and the ones that went into the build for the Tin Goose.  So it's no surprise that the passenger compartment for the Tucker '48 follows those same dimensions that harken back to George Lawson's Torpedo design.
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The windshield (and probably the firewall) was moved forward approximately 10 inches, but the roofline profile of the final design for the Tucker '48 (in blue) as of September 1947 matches the roofline for George Lawson's plaster model for the Torpedo.  Every design in-between matches, as well, including Tremulis' original sketches from January, Tremulis' advertisements for March, the March patent illustrations, the Lippincott Clay #2 (and presumably Tremulis' Clay #1), and finally, the Tin Goose. 

So, Charles Pearson's account for their work in December 1946 appears to be an accurate account, at least for the cabin: "The dimensions set up at this time were, with few exceptions, the ones that were used in the final body design.  There was no great attempt at styling, though the side silhouette was nearly identical with the finished design.  An extra four inches were allowed on wheelbase, because Tucker was still insisting on fenders that turned with the wheels, and the production man said there would be plenty of time to talk him out of that later." - Charles Pearson, The Indomitable Tin Goose, 1960

As a quick check, comparing Tremulis' very first renderings for Preston Tucker in December 1946 to the final tooling dimensions as of September 1947, the dimensions remained little changed throughout all the development of the Tin Goose and the production Tuckers, confirming Pearson's accounting of events.  It also serves to highlight Tremulis' innate ability to pull off some remarkable styling, moveable fenders or fixed, while remaining within the confines of fixed dimensions.  A closer look reveals that the doors, window locations, and fender contours for the final design were changed very little from his initial reactions to the car, further suggesting that those dimensions were frozen. 
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And that helps to explain the activity in the photographs (below) from within Tremulis' styling studio during the early build of the Tin Goose.  The full-scale drawing on the back wall of the studio supports the accurate dimensions for the initial building of the Tin Goose, going direct to metal, while the small 1:10 scale clay model provided the necessary dimensions for the design change to the fixed fenders with the flowing pontoon fenders.  Most likely, the other gentlemen in the photo with Tremulis (front right) are Tucker's expert metal shapers, Al McKenzie, Herman Rigling, William Stampfli and possibly Emil Deidt. 

It appears that a new full-sized drawing is being prepared of the flowing fendered design that became the Tin Goose.  This also would explain why there were several layers of metal on the Tin Goose, where they had changed from the initial drawings to the fixed fender design, to the small sheet metal changes provided by the two full-sized clay models during the Lippincott team's residency.  It's clear the metal body of the Tin Goose was evolving from the beginning and constantly changing throughout the first half of 1947, up until its introduction in June of 1947.

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REAR FENDERS and SIDE WINDOWS
The rear fenders are best compared to Tremulis' drawings used for the March 1947 advertisements for the Tucker '48, since that is what has been described as the foundation for Clay #1.  So the most suitable scale side profile drawing comes back to the March 15 1947 patent filing for the Tucker '48.  Comparing Tremulis' rear fender to the patent filing shows a near-perfect match of contours and intake location.  Additionally, the side windows on the Tin Goose are in the exact locations as the patent drawing (in blue).  Tremulis had said that as of March 1947, a million dollars had already been spent on the tooling for the locked dimensions on the rear of the car, and this comparison confirms that the design had not changed from at least as early as February 1947 through the June introduction of the Tin Goose.    
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Both sides of the Lippincott Clay #2 show a markedly different profile to the rear fenders on the Tin Goose.   The leading edge was more of an arrowhead design than the fully curved contour of Tremulis' advertising and the patent application.  Similarly, the opera windows on both sides of the Lippincott Clay #2 show they were extended more rearward for improved visibility than the Tin Goose.   Phil Egan had mentioned that the left side of Clay #2 was only used as potential styling for a 1950's model.  It very well may be that the rear of the Tin Goose was already complete by this time which would explain why the extended windows were not implemented on either  the Tin Goose or the Tucker '48.  Tremulis wouldn't reintroduce the better visibility of the wrap-around rear window until much later in 1948, so it wasn't because there was a better design in the works.
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FRONT FENDERS
The shape of the front fenders, along with the Cyclops headlight, are some of the unique features that immediately identify the Tucker automobile.  The front fenders changed very little from the time Tremulis arrived on the scene to the final closing of the doors.  Their length and top profile were consistent from start to finish, with slight modifications to the lower contours, but remained faithful to Tremulis' vision.
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January 1947:  Alex Tremulis' first series with the moveable front fenders. 









February 1947: The fixed-fender design as used for advertising.







April 1947: Tremulis' Clay #1 in the foreground and the right side of Lippincott's Clay #2 both carry Tremulis' sweeping pontoons.






June 1947: The Tin Goose, now with all the side chrome eliminated.







March 1948: The Tucker '48 again with the pontoons closely mimicking Tremulis' contours of February 1947, just slightly more pointed than those on the Tin Goose.




So it's evident that Tucker's synergistic design process brought together elements in such a way that the final design as a whole is so much better than had any one of its contributors built the car in a vacuum without critique or reflection. Perhaps that is part of Preston Tucker's genius in bringing together such talented individuals: That regardless of opinion of authorship, they could combine talents to create one of the most revolutionary designs the automotive industry had yet to see...
REQUIRED READING
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To learn more about Alex Tremulis' involvement with Preston Tucker and the iconic Tucker automobile, just click the photo at left for Part 1...








Published in 1960, The Indomitable Tin Goose provides an insider's accounting for the events during much of the building of Tucker's "Car of Tomorrow".  The author, Charles Pearson, was Preston Tucker's public relations manager from mid-1946 until the end of 1947.  This would be the most active and productive timeframe for the design efforts to build the Tucker '48.  The details of Tucker's travails in obtaining the facilities and financing are particularly interesting. Written so that it's readable, despite containing so much historical information that could have been lifeless.
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Published in 1989 at the height of the popularity of the Francis Ford Coppola movie, Tucker: A Man and His Dream.  The author, Phil Egan, was a member of the Lippincott design team that spent two months at Tucker prior to the unveiling of the Tin Goose prototype. Alex Tremulis would later hire Egan directly to help with the many design details that would be needed to produce the 50 Tucker '48's that represent the entire production output from the factory.  Many of the great photographs from inside the Tucker walls were provided by Lippincott designer Budd Steinhilber, to document the progress made on the clay models used for styling ideas.
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A must watch.  Very entertaining and fast paced account of the rise and fall of the Tucker Corporation.  Nominated for three Academy Awards in Best Supporting Actor (Martin Landau), Best Art Direction (Dean Tavoularis), and Best Costume Design (Milena Canonero), Landau would take home the Oscar.  Alex Tremulis was portrayed by actor Elias Koteas, a near-perfect look-alike, for the automobile design veteran.  Although fictionalized, it provides a great backdrop to learn more about the Tucker cars and the people that produced them.
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Click here to visit the FaceBook page, and then "LIKE" the page for updates and other interesting articles. 
copyright 2014 Steve Tremulis
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Tucker Design History Files: Torpedo and Tucker '48...  and why Rob Ida Concepts' Tucker Torpedo is an Important Addition to Automotive Design

6/19/2014

3 Comments

 
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Preston Tucker's car of the future evolved from several earlier concepts that had promised the world "The First Completely New Car in 50 Years".  Only 51 examples of the Tucker '48 were built: The first prototype "Tin Goose" plus 50 additional pre-production units.  The design was revolutionary for its streamlined styling and many technical firsts, but the initial concept for the car was even far more exotic than the car the public was introduced to on June 19, 1947.  That initial Tucker concept, the one that only made it to the drawing boards and one known plaster model, is now being built full-sized in a New Jersey workshop where automotive dreams become reality. 
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At left, Rob Ida holds a copy of the "Torpedo on Wheels" magazine article from Alex Tremulis' personal archives of the Tucker concept. The car that Rob Ida is now building from scratch is the pre-Tremulis design for the Tucker Torpedo, the same one that inspired Joe Ida and his brothers to open a Tucker dealership and the same one that inspired Tremulis to approach Preston Tucker with his own ideas on the car's design that eventually became the Tucker '48.
It's by no coincidence that the Ida's Tucker builds are fully endorsed by Preston Tucker's descendents, after all, it was Rob Ida's Grandfather who had first signed up to be a Tucker dealer.  Back in 1947, It would be Joe Ida, along with brothers Frank and Dominic, who was first inspired by the Tucker "Torpedo" dream car through initial reports in newspapers and magazines.  The Ida's went through the process of buying a Tucker dealership and after having been officially open for only three days and taking 130 deposits on the Tucker '48, the Ida Brothers' Tucker dealership was forced to close its doors to new orders and the dream of supplying New Yorkers with the beautiful car were dashed.  No Tucker cars were ever delivered, however the Ida's made sure to return each of their customer's deposits on the car.  Everyone was disappointed.
Jump ahead 67 years and now it's Joe Ida's son and grandson, Bob and Rob, along with Preston Tucker's great-grandsons, Sean and Mike, who are building the Tucker from scratch.  The car that's currently being built is called the Tucker "Torpedo", designed well before the car that today embodies the automotive images we think of when we hear the name Tucker.  Indeed, this was an entirely different car than the Tucker '48, and one that only appeared in magazines and newsprint.  The Ida's Tucker Torpedo will finally bring Preston Tucker's original concept car to the public for the first time in almost 70 years. 
How Preston Tucker initially envisioned his car of the future and how it eventually became the Tucker '48 sheds light on how manufacturer's one-of-one show cars evolve into mass-produced automobiles for the buying public.  So it's worth a look at how the Tucker design progressed through the years and morphed from the Torpedo concept into the Tucker '48 automobile.
The timeline breaks down the development into two distinct periods.  George Lawson's initial design was called the "Torpedo" until his departure from the company around December of 1946.  At that time Alex Tremulis was brought in and oversaw the development of the "Tin Goose" prototype and the 50 pre-production "Tucker '48's".  Tremulis officially resigned on December 31, 1948, but stayed on with Tucker to help out until the very end and remained loyal to the vision throughout the remainder of his career and retirement.
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December 1946 was pivotal in the design of the Tucker as that was the month which marked George Lawson's departure and the arrival of Alex Tremulis, as well as the name change from "Torpedo" to "Tucker '48.
TUCKER TORPEDO

It all started during 1944 when George Lawson would be the first to illustrate what Preston Tucker's "Car of the Future" would look like.  Just as all designers are influenced by their prior work, so too was Lawson.  He relied upon his earlier work as a GM designer in the Buick division to form his initial drawings for the Tucker Torpedo.
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George Lawson's 1942 Buick concept that would form the basis for the initial Tucker Torpedo concept. Photo: Hemmings/Special Interest Autos
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Lawson's Tucker Torpedo illustration incorporating his 1942 Buick theme into the Tucker concept car. Photo: Hemmings/Special Interest Autos
He may have started with his 1942 Buick concept, but he was also able to blend in Preston Tucker's revolutionary concepts into an exciting new package.  The rear engine layout, aircraft-inspired streamlining, and headlights mounted on the moveable front fenders all contributed to the public's excitement over this all-new car.  Preston Tucker was mounting a public relations campaign in order to acquire a manufacturing plant in which to build his new car, so these images were invaluable in providing his vision of what would be produced in the facilities.  This was big news in the automotive world, especially as the "Big Three" had to rely on dated pre-war tooling for their post-war cars.   Tucker, on the other hand, started with a clean slate and had no pre-war body stampings to limit his creativity for an all-new car design.
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An early Tucker Torpedo brochure introducing the world to the revolutionary automobile. The public was thrilled with such promises for their post-war automobiles. Nothing like it had be seen before. Interest and support for Preston Tucker was growing, and safety with styling would be the Tucker's mantra.
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The drawing which Lawson used to make the plaster model. This sketch is shown below, immediately next to the model.
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Automobile designer George Lawson, Preston Tucker's first stylist for the Tucker automobile, working on the only known model for the Torpedo. Photo: Hemmings/Special Interest Autos
By the end of 1946, Preston Tucker had been making statements that his new car would be seen soon, yet he still only had drawings and a single 1:4 scale plaster model of the car.  So in order to provide photos of the new car, the plaster model was placed in realistic settings and the photos retouched to look like a full-sized automobile. 
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Front 3/4 view of the plaster model retouched to appear as a full-sized car.
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Convincing retouched photo of the plaster model in a realistic setting, used in Tucker advertising.
DECEMBER 1946, A PERFECT STORM

By December 1946, after almost two years, George Lawson and Preston Tucker had a falling out over unkept promises.  George Lawson sued Preston Tucker for $50,000 and presumably Tucker countered that he still had no car to show after almost two years' effort.  The matter was eventually settled out of court with Tucker reportedly paying Lawson a $10,000 settlement.
December 1946 would also be noteworthy with the publication in Science Illustrated magazine in which the new Tucker Torpedo would be described as having a "series of spectacular engineering innovations."  This would be the same image and description that would capture the hearts of Joe Ida and his brothers as well as Alex Tremulis.  The page below is from Alex Tremulis' personal archives that he had saved.  The article had made such an impression on the designer that he kept it for the rest of his life, after all it was this article that inspired him to pay Preston Tucker a visit that would shape automotive history.
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Just as Tremulis was planning to get an interview with Preston Tucker, Tucker's planners and metalworkers were desperate to start building the first car.  In September, Preston Tucker had promised a prototype car by Christmas.  In October, he again promised a prototype demonstrator would be ready by the first of the new year.  So by December, without Lawson to provide any guidance, the basics for what would become the Tin Goose were planned out in full scale by Tucker's production planners and mechanics. 

In 1960, Charles Pearson described his frustrations inside Tucker's design studio, and directed his anger squarely at Lawson: "Early in December [1946], during the lull in the housing fight, I was complaining to one of the top men planning production that I wished to hell we had something better than the lousy art work we were using, because it was getting tougher to sell every day.  It was too arty and stylized to start with and, worse, still, even a layman could see that it was a long way from the six-passenger sedan Tucker said he was going to build.

The production man said he was just as disgusted as I was, and if he had even an idea as to what the body and chassis were going to look like he could at least start figuring out how to build it.  That was what started the first actual work on the final body design, and the entire job was completed in less than a month."

"The dimensions set up at this time were, with few exceptions, the ones that were used in the final body design.  There was no great attempt at styling, though the side silhouette was nearly identical with the finished design.  An extra four inches were allowed on wheelbase, because Tucker was still insisting on fenders that turned with the wheels, and the production man said there would be plenty of time to talk him out of that later." - Charles Pearson, The Indomitable Tin Goose, 1960
ALEX TREMULIS ARRIVAL

The date of the first meeting Tremulis had with Preston Tucker was described by Charles Pearson in "The Indomitable Tin Goose" as being on Christmas Eve, 1946, but records show it may have actually taken place a few days later, with a call for an appointment on the 27th and a meeting on the 28th with Preston Tucker, Lee Treese (VP of Manufacturing), and Kenneth Lyman (VP of Engineering).  At that meeting Lawson's drawings were reportedly discussed.  But Tremulis had also described meeting Preston Tucker for the first time at the Drake Hotel on Christmas Eve and again at the offices at Tammen and Denison on New Year's Eve, so it's probable there were a series of meetings at various locations to discuss progress on Tremulis' new designs.

In any case, it was late December when Tremulis finally got an appointment with Preston Tucker.  Tremulis had brought along his portfolio of futuristic concept cars.  He had a wealth of prior experience as chief stylist at Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg as well as his design and custom builds while at Briggs Manufacturing, American Bantam and Custom Motors of Beverly Hills.  By then, Tremulis was also an authority on streamlining, having designed many advanced jet aircraft and guided missiles for the US Army Air Force during World War II, often using the wind tunnel as a design aid.  Tremulis' design philosophy of marrying aircraft technology with automobile design was identical to Preston Tucker's vision for his car. 

Tremulis' timing was perfect.  Preston Tucker, now without a stylist for his car with the unwelcome departure of Lawson, found his car's future designer in Tremulis.  At the time, Tremulis was working at the industrial design firm of Tammen and Denison and the Tucker account would give him full authority to pursue his automotive design philosophy.  Part of Tremulis' pitch to Tucker was undoubtedly the same as his April 1946 pitch to Henry Ford II.
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Tremulis could immediately see numerous potential issues with the Lawson design and in his initial discussions with Preston Tucker he sought to re-design the car for mass market appeal and manufacturability.  

On January 5, he met again with Preston Tucker, but this time he was joined by Harold Karsten (a/k/a Abe Karatz), Fred Rockelman and Preston Tucker Jr.  This was to be a defining moment in automotive history.

TRANSITIONAL DESIGN

Tremulis had created a series of impressive renderings that fed off of Lawson's design, yet provided more practical design changes for post-war Americans.  Specifically, he designed a four-door sedan where the doors opened into the roofline to allow ingress without bumping your head.  On the bottom of the doors was a raised rocker panel so that the doors wouldn't hit the curb upon opening.  The desire to seat three Chicago Bears linemen in the front and rear mandated a more conventional roofline, lower in the middle and higher on the sides, so that three could sit abreast in either the front or the back seat without the end passengers bumping their heads on the side windows.  Each of the fenders sported streamlined sheet metal flowing back from the wheelwell that conveyed a unique blend of the pre-war pontoon fenders with the latest in flat-fendered side treatments. 
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Preston Tucker was impressed, to say the least.  From that point on, Tremulis would be the new Tucker's chief stylist in function if not in title, regardless whether or not he was still with Tammen and Denison or working directly for the Tucker Corporation.  If there was a three-month contract between Tucker and Tammen and Denison (as he reportedly described in courtroom testimony), or if Tremulis was directly hired on the spot (as he had previously described in magazine articles), he was functionally the chief stylist for Preston Tucker, regardless of who signed his pay stubs.

In any case, Tremulis had managed to retain the styling cues and relative dimensions of the Lawson design, yet provided a clear and realistic direction in which to proceed.  The moveable front fenders of the Lawson design were retained for the time being, but they would be entirely eliminated within the next few days.   Charles Pearson had described the side silhouette of Tremulis' design being very close to the dimensions Tucker's men had laid out and it appears very close to the Torpedo's silhouette as well. 

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In profile, both the Torpedo (top) and Tremulis' initial designs were dimensionally similar, a testament to Tucker's craftsmen who roughed out the initial dimensions to seat six. The same basic profile carried all the way through to Tremulis' final plan view for the Tucker '48 as of September, 1947.
THE END OF THE CYCLE FENDERS

As Alex Tremulis stated, his first task was to eliminate the moveable front fenders in favor of a more conventional design.  Time was of the essence and the engineering difficulties in sorting out the cycle fenders did not support Preston Tucker's desire to have a prototype built within 60 days.  So Tremulis re-designed the car with conventional fixed fenders, and made the center headlight turn with the wheels.  He also eliminated the flowing pontoons from his first design series as he felt they were already dated.  And Tremulis wasn't alone in his desire to remove his earlier pontoons.  As Charles Pearson described them:

"I liked all except the front fenders which I thought stunk, and said so.  My popularity couldn't have dropped faster with a sudden attack of smallpox.  Tucker scowled at me for a week, though much later he admitted that at least he agreed with my logic." - Charles Pearson, The Indomitable Tin Goose, 1960.

Preston Tucker liked the first fenders and felt first impressions were usually correct, so the unique pontoons stayed.  A great decision, as these characteristic fenders would forever be identified with the Tucker '48. 


Tremulis' elegantly simple solution retained the safety factor of being able to see where you're turning, yet significantly shortened the timeline to completion of the first prototype.
 
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To support his argument for the design change, Tremulis used the safety aspect that resonated within Preston Tucker.  He brought up the potential instability problems of the land speed record car of Frank Lockhart's 1928 Stutz Black Hawk.  Like the Torpedo design, Lockhart's car incorporated front cycle fenders but Tremulis felt it was shown in wind tunnel tests that the car would not produce "weather cocking" at speed, in this case around 200 miles per hour.  Weather cocking is a term used to describe a vehicle's tendency to turn into a strong wind and helps to straighten out a vehicle if it starts to get sideways.  Without it, the stability of a car may be dangerously compromised.
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Frank Lockhart and the Stutz Black Hawk. Lockhart would be criticized for forging ahead with trying to break speed records in the car when the US Army wind tunnel tests had shown it exhibited no "weather cocking" at speed. Lockhart was fatally injured in a crash on the beach at Daytona just months after an earlier crash.
It's doubtful that the Tucker Torpedo would have exhibited similar handling characteristics to Lockhart's Stutz, especially at only highway speeds, but Tremulis' safety angle was convincing.  Undoubtedly, Charles Pearson and the production men would have given their full support to Tremulis' arguments for eliminating the cycle fenders. 

TUCKER '48 BODY DESIGN FINALIZED

By January 14 1947, Preston Tucker, Alex Tremulis and Tucker's Vice President of Manufacturing, Lee Treese, were off to source new glass to fit the prototype four-door sedan.  By then, the fixed-fenders of the car re-incorporated the flowing pontoons from Tremulis' first design renderings. 

So the transition from Lawson's Torpedo design to Tremulis' Tucker '48 design was exceptionally quick.  From the date of Tremulis' first reported interview with Preston Tucker to the time when Tremulis' fixed-fender design with flowing fenders first appeared, a maximum of 3 weeks had elapsed.  If the first meeting between Tremulis and Tucker was after Christmas Eve and you allow for some time for the first drawings of the final design to have been created, then it looks like the time span of 6 days from initial concept to final design (as has been reported elsewhere) is entirely possible and even more remarkable.  Whatever the actual date may have been, from that point on the building of the first prototype would be the focus of everyone involved for the next two months.

As Phil Egan would tell in his book "Design and Destiny: The Making of the Tucker Automobile": "Between the first of January and our [Lippincott Team] spring of 1947, Tremulis had managed a crash program calling for exhausting hours of work by a dedicated crew.  They brought an automobile design project from scratch to a recognizable body shape in metal without a clay model (there had been an embryonic 1/8 size clay model of little help).  For a production car undertaking this bordered on the ridiculous, but he had done it." 

Egan further clarified: "Up until the time of our arrival, all efforts had been directed at forging the metal marvel [Tin Goose]."

TIN GOOSE

Phil Egan also gave the credit to Alex Tremulis for the naming of Tucker's first hand-built car.  The prototype they were working on would be nicknamed the "Tin Goose" out of reverence to Bill Stout's Ford Trimotor airplane which shared the same nickname.  That revolutionary airplane was one of the first all-metal aircraft to be used in civilian transport and had a safety and reliability record that was second to none.  So much so that it was dubbed "The Safest Airliner Around".  A fitting nickname for Tucker's safety car with aircraft-inspired looks.
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Bill Stout's Tri-Motor airplane, nicknamed the "Tin Goose" gained a reputation for safety and reliability, qualities that Preston Tucker intended to emulate with the new Tucker automobile.
As the Tin Goose prototype was taking shape, Preston Tucker was satisfied that this new design could be shown to the public.  Six weeks later, on February 28, Tremulis was asked to produce the artwork for a series of advertisements that would be used throughout the nation.  The body of the car retained the flowing fenders. 
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One of several drawings produced by Alex Tremulis in February 1947 for advertising the new design of the Tucker '48.
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Various ads placed nationwide as early as March 2nd of 1947 for the new Tucker '48.
At this point in the development of the Tucker '48's styling, all of the design changes away from the earlier Torpedo were made by Alex Tremulis and Preston Tucker.  The Torpedo's original design was gone, the name was changed to the Tucker '48, the dimensions for the car were locked, and the Tin Goose build was well underway having its recognizable shape hammered out by Preston Tucker's master craftsmen.  Even with the design at this advanced stage, Preston Tucker sought out further input, leaving no stone unturned in his quest for the ultimate post-war design.

On March 4, 1947, the design firm of Lippincott and Margulies was hired on as consultants to provide some fresh ideas.  


On March 11 the Lippincott team arrived at the Tucker plant, led by Hal Bergstrom and accompanied by additional designers Budd Steinhilber, Tucker Madawick, Read Viemeister and Phil Egan.  Here's how Phil Egan described Alex Tremulis' plant tour and his reaction to seeing the "Tin Goose" for the first time: 

“Here we saw embryonic shapes in raw sheet metal coalescing into the frame and part of the body of an automobile. A nearby drop hammer pounded sheet metal from flat to contoured with ear-splitting vibrations, and the junctions of formed sheet and frame were fused under the bright sparks of welding torches.  Elsewhere, men at work stations devoted themselves to the mechanical details of torching, cutting, bending, and drilling the parts of a prototype automobile.  Alex [Tremulis} gave us a cursory introduction to all of this and then led us to the design area.

Since he had accepted the position of chief stylist in January, Alex had brought the design of the Tucker automobile from the nebulous to the three-dimensional.  He had developed a firm layout of the car which he showed us in a 1/8 size drawing, with every outside and inside dimension carefully indicated.” - Phil Egan, Design and Destiny: The Making of the Tucker Automobile, 1989


It was at this time as well that there would finally be enough clay available to build two full-size models, one for the current design and one for the soon-to-arrive Lippincott team.  Tremulis had begun work on what would become known as Clay #1 shortly before the Lippincott team's arrival.  As Phil Egan would attest: "A two-man crew worked on the beginnings of a full-size clay model of a car.  We could discern a shape in that brownish clay which was clearly the essence of the Tucker '48 I had seen in the newspaper advertisement.  I noticed that the details at front and rear were vague, without resolution".

Further refinement of the Tucker ’48 details were carried out with design input from both the Lippincott Team and Tremulis, the significant details of which will be discussed later, but for now, the Tucker ’48 was complete enough to identify it as a distinctly different car than the one described as the Tucker Torpedo.
And that is why the build of the Tucker Torpedo by Rob Ida Concepts is such a significant addition to automotive art.  It will show the public for the first time in almost 70 years "The Car of the Future" as it would have looked had the Lawson design been built as originally promised.
LAWSON AND TUCKER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

If there was any lingering doubt that these weren't two distinctly separate designs, one needs only to look at the intellectual property generated for the Tucker Torpedo and the Tucker '48.  What transpired with the patent filings brings to light how the two designs were viewed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). 
On January 16, 1947, shortly after George Lawson left the Tucker Corporation, he filed a patent application for what he considered his design of the Tucker Torpedo.  The illustrations used for the patent application were the same photographs of the plaster model used in the early Tucker Torpedo advertising. 
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As part of the patent process, the inventor is required by law to disclose any and all prior art that they know of that may have relevance to their invention.  In this case, Lawson disclosed that US Patent Number 88,083 may relate to this design.  As it turns out, this patent was for the 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow, a magnificent show car that was then considered to be a most daring design with radical streamlining. 
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In issuing a patent, the USPTO looks at all the prior art and makes a determination whether the applicant's design is significantly different than the prior art.  If so then a patent may be granted.  If the applicant's design is too similar to a prior design, the patent application will be rejected and the applicant must make significant changes in order to be awarded a patent.  In the case of Lawson's application, the examiner took the Pierce Arrow Silver Arrow reference under consideration and issued the patent to Lawson on June 1, 1948, about a year-and-a-half after it was first filed.  So in the eyes of the USPTO, the Lawson-designed Tucker Torpedo is not the same car, nor could it be confused with, the 1933 Pierce Arrow Silver Arrow.  Their conclusion seems reasonable, as the comparison between the two are rarely made, if ever.
It's interesting to note that Lawson didn't assign this patent to the Tucker Corporation, so presumably his stance was that he alone owned the Torpedo design and Tucker had no rights to it.  That viewpoint would certainly have been challenged by Tucker if Lawson performed the work as an employee of either Preston Tucker or the Tucker Corporation.  Since Lawson didn't file the application until several weeks after he left Tucker, it can be assumed he knew that his patent application may be a potential source of negotiation in the future litigation that ensued.  As it turned out, Tucker would not have needed Lawson's Torpedo patent for the production of the Tucker '48.
In any case, on March 15, 1947, Preston Tucker filed his own patent application for Tremulis' design that appeared in the Tucker '48 advertisements. 
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It's also important to note the references cited by the Tucker '48 patent.  The first is a patent issued to designer George Walker in 1943 for a Bonn ad featuring the car of the future.  It was considered by the USPTO and deemed not to have an impact with the issuance of the patent for the Tucker '48.
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Most important is the second reference to the issued design patent of George Lawson for the Tucker Torpedo.  In this case, the patent examiner reviewed the design in the Tucker Torpedo's issued patent and found that it wasn't the same as, nor could it be confused with, the design in the Tucker '48's application.  Preston Tucker was awarded the patent for the Tucker '48 on June 14, 1949, over a year after the USPTO granted a patent on Lawson's Torpedo.
So in the eyes of the USPTO (representing the People of the United States), the Tucker '48 is uniquely different than the Torpedo, just as the Torpedo is uniquely different than the 1933 Silver Arrow. 
And that's what brings us back to Rob Ida's build for the Lawson design of the Tucker Torpedo.  By all accounts a completely different car than the Tucker '48 and one that deserves its own recognition as such.  Without its images provided by George Lawson, Preston Tucker could never have secured Chicago's Dodge plant or captured the imaginations of the likes of Joe, Frank and Dominic Ida or Alex Tremulis.  With Rob Ida's Torpedo, the world will be a richer place with the embodiment of the American Dream as it was first envisioned by Preston Tucker. 
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Photo of Rob Ida by Marc Steiner/Agency New Jersey.
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Click on the photo for part 2, the making of the Tin Goose prototype and the various designers who contributed to its creation.

Copyright 2014, Steve Tremulis

Special thanks to Hemmings Motor News/Special Interest Autos for their historical archives and images, and to Larry Clark, Tucker historian, for his tireless research and dedication to the Tucker automobile and all those that helped create it. 

Some Tucker must-reads: 

The Indomitable Tin Goose, Charles Pearson, 1960

Epitaph for The Tin Goose, Alex Tremulis, Automobile Quarterly, 1965

Design and Destiny: The Making of the Tucker Automobile, Phil Egan, 1989



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