Rare piece of automotive history travels to town for limited time

By Bree Harding

Jul 5, 2024

There were only 51 built and only 47 of them remain.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

There’s just one in Australia and, at the moment, it’s on display in Kialla.

The Museum of Vehicle Evolution (MOVE) welcomed the rare beauty — a Tucker Torpedo — to its showroom floor on Sunday, June 23.

MOVE’s Andrew Church, who is no stranger to being up close and personal with rare and unique pieces of automotive history, said transporting the Tucker up the Hume Hwy — from Terry Dowell’s personal collection in Melbourne — to join the museum’s current collection had created nerves, as well as the usual excitement.

“It’s certainly not every day you are entrusted with one of the world’s rarest automotive wonders,” Mr Church said.

“It was a unique experience and one that turned many heads along the way.”

The Tucker 48 might have been a short-lived story, but it has oodles of fascinating history surrounding it. Photo by Bree Harding

The innovative icon of automotive history was built in the 1940s by inventor, designer and entrepreneur Preston Tucker, who was years ahead of his time with the vehicle’s design.

Its futuristic features included independent suspension at all four corners, an integrated roll bar, a shatter-proof windshield that could pop out of its housing in the event of a crash, a park brake that doubled as a theft-protection mechanism, doors that extended into the roof of the vehicle for easier entry and exit, and a ‘crash chamber’ in the front passenger foot well.

MOVE’s Andrew Church said it was both a nervous and exciting time transporting the rare vehicle from Melbourne to the museum in Kialla. Photo by Bree Harding

The Tucker also came equipped with a distinctive third headlight in the centre of the grille, nicknamed ‘the cyclops’. The central headlight activated when the steering exceeded 10 degrees of articulation left or right to illuminate the road around corners.

Attention to detail was key when the Tucker Torpedo was built. Photo by Bree Harding

While these innovations were extraordinary for a car built in the 40s, they weren’t the Torpedo’s biggest talking point; it was that it was powered by a motor originally made for a Bell 47 helicopter.

Its release set new standards in the automotive industry, even inspiring a film — Tucker: The Man and His Dream — which documented the story of Tucker’s vision and struggle against existing industry giants.

The history of the Torpedo, also known as the Tucker 48 (for its production model year) is fascinating.

After a successful accessories and Tucker dealership pre-sale program, following the prototype’s reveal in June 1947 to a crowd of about 3000, the Securities and Exchanges Commission suspected the company of fraudulent activity.

Tucker and six of his executives were indicted on several charges, including conspiracy to defraud.

The case was thrown out of court in 1950, with all charges dropped, but the negative press and legal expenses spelled the end of the Tucker Corporation, leaving just 51 Tuckers in existence, including the prototype.

‘The cyclops’, a third and central headlight activated when the steering exceeded 10 degrees of articulation left or right to illuminate the road around corners. Photo by Bree Harding

Some still speculate Chrysler, Ford and General Motors deliberately orchestrated the court case against Tucker to put him out of business.

The Tucker Torpedo has ‘suicide doors’. Its doors also extend into the roof of the vehicle for easier entry and exit. Photo by Bree Harding

Mr Church said unlike some of the museum’s vehicles that might only be on display for a few days, the Tucker would be around for a while yet until Mr Dowell — whose Rolls Royce, Thunderbird and DeLorean are also currently showing at MOVE — calls his car back to the big smoke.