Vanderbilt Cup Races

In my search for everything on Tuckers over the last week, I found this wonderful 2012 YouTube by David Allen Rivera. the slideshow/film highlights the Tucker history, features and individual profiles of the 47 existing Tuckers including #1044 seen here in 1981.

Enjoy,

Howard Kroplick

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Published on Oct 2, 2012

 David Allen Rivera
 
Ever since I saw the movie about Preston Tucker in 1988, then saw my first Tucker in the early 1990s, I've maintained an interest in this classic automobile. My concern has always been, for such a historically significant vehicle, it continues to be shrouded in mystery. Even the official website (www.tuckerclub.org) is not very forthcoming with information and the pictures there are low resolution. There are very few high resolution pictures out there, and what is out there often doesn't even convey the true color of the car. For example, a particular car can look like it's 3 different colors in pictures taken by 3 different people. It's also hard to find in-depth information. Many websites just glean some of the major information to give you, and even then the accuracy differs. Many websites say that the Tucker was the first car to offer seatbelts. Even though it is something he wanted to do, the are other websites which say that the car did not have seat belts in it because the executives thought that it would make the car appear to be unsafe. Who's right? Then there is a discrepancy in what Preston Tucker wanted for his car, and what was actually produced; and some websites are not accurately differentiating what the true features are.
 
Because there really isn't a website out there where you can really get a good feel for the car, especially if you've never seen in person; I wanted to put something together that conveyed how special this car truly is, and why it needs to be preserved.
 
My hope is that one day, there will be a website that will authoritatively give a complete breakdown of the mechanics and appearance of the car, with high quality and high resolution close-up pictures of everything. In addition there needs to be professional (color-corrected) high resolution pictures taken of each Tucker: without people in the picture, museum ropes and barricades, signs, and other cars. It seems that you only get something like this when a car is put up for auction and they want to put it in the best light possible.
 
Some of the Tuckers are readily accessible in museums and collections, and some of those in personal collections are taken to frequent Car Shows; and these get photographed often. But there are others that are not seen, and don't get photographed. Because of how spread out these cars are, many people will never, ever have a chance to see one up close, and I think it would great if someone, possibly the Tucker Automobile Club of America (TACA), would establish a showcase website to share to the world the attributes of this magnificent car. Nevertheless, the TACA website is the best place right now to get credible information, though you have to spend a lot of time reading and digging to get to it.
 
That being said, this video is my way of paying tribute to the 1948 Tucker, so that people can have a concise picture of what this car represents and why it is important to automotive history for it to be documented.
 
UPDATE (10/25/15): YouTube threatened to take down my video if I didn't remove the copyrighted background music- which I fully identified and gave credit for. So I removed all the music

Highlights (Note: The film's starting mark on the left corner of the image)