1948 Tucker

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 12:37 am

http://www.laubly.com/1948tucker.htm

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 9:30 am

Wow, he was actually driving it. That's crazy. Only 51 were made & he's driving it. That car usually catches about 1 million at auction.

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:57 am

I've seen one at a local World of Wheels car show a few years ago. They were very ahead of their time, probably too much so and probably also expensive then.

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 12:38 pm

Wasn't this the automobile maker that produced a car with a water-cooled engine, which not suprisingly made all the other manufacturers make it hard for Tucker to get the parts/equipment they needed since they themselves would have been hurt real bad in business by the popularization of the car/engine?

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 1:04 pm

sweet

there's a great movie about this car starring Jeff Bridges

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 6:27 pm

Wasn't this the automobile maker that produced a car with a water-cooled engine

No, water cooling was common then, actually decades earlier.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 9:34 pm

The Wright Flyer had a water cooled engine, so yeah water cooling goes back a long way. Wilbur Wright was badly burned by radiator fluid when he crashed the Wright Flyer in 1908.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 pm

Actually, it's funny you mention it, because everyone was puzzled by the fact that he DID water cool the engine. Because the engine originally was designed to be air cooled.

Post by **MidnightSin** » Sat Oct 17, 2009 4:44 pm

Yes the original design was for an air cooled aircraft engine. I forget the model but it was in surplus from WW II and I believed he change to water cooling due to time constraints on having to produce the first 50 before the court date.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 3:42 am

The engine was a helicopter engine (one of the first) & was in fact quite popular. Tucker ended up buying the company that made it to keep a reliable supply. Oddly, he stopped their production for aircraft , which was kinda stupid, because they supplied 2/3 of the engines for air use in America at the time.

It isn't known for sure, but suspected that the engine was converted to water cooling so people would feel that it was a reliable engine, since at the time, water cooling was a big thing for making a car reliable (never mind Porche or VW's success). Oh yeah, did I mention that the engine manufacturer was originally named "Air Cooled Motors".

I was intrigued from a bit of research that this is what is considered a "boxer" engine since the pistons are horizontal & the entire intention of a boxer engine is to provide more surface area around the cylinders for air flow & thus air cooling.

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 9:47 am

One doesn't just "convert" any engine from air to water cooling or vise-versa, an engine (block and heads) is designed and cast one way or another in the very beginning.
Subaru has used water cooled boxer engines since (at least) the early '70s but yes, I can't think of any air cooled auto. engine that's not a boxer engine.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 1:48 pm

They really did recast the cylinders with water jackets. The crank case & pistons on the other hand remained the same. I'm not saying that a boxer shouldn't be water cooled, but he went through a lot of trouble to water cool an engine that was already proven not to need it.