1948 Tucker 48
Preston Tucker’s ambitious sedan featured a central directional headlight that activated at steering angles exceeding about 10 degrees, illuminating corners ahead of the vehicle.
The four-door body incorporated doors extending into the roof for easier entry, a padded dashboard, a pop-out windshield, and a perimeter frame surrounding occupants for crash protection. An integrated reinforced roof structure functioned as a roll bar.
Power came from a rear-mounted 335 cubic inch horizontally opposed six-cylinder engine originally designed for helicopters, converted from air to water cooling by Air Cooled Motors of Syracuse, New York.
The flat-six was rated at 166 horsepower at 3,200 rpm and 372 lb-ft of torque at 2,000 rpm, driving the rear wheels through a Cord-derived four-speed preselector transmission with a torque converter.
Top speed reached approximately 120 mph despite the sedan’s 4,200-pound curb weight.
Production took place at a former Dodge B-29 engine factory in Chicago between 1948 and 1949. Just 51 examples were completed before financial and legal difficulties forced closure in March 1949, with 47 surviving today.
Each automobile varied from the previous, as Tucker continually refined engineering concepts throughout the abbreviated production run.
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