In 1948 , Preston Tucker introduced a revolutionary motorcar , amongst rear-wheel drive , an air-cooled , aluminum block , horizontally opposed engine , together with a streamlined trunk that would revolutionize the auto industry.
Whoops. Wrong Car.
In a previous posting , I mentioned offhand that many people similar to brand a saint or hero out of Preston Tucker together with his quirky car. It turns out that the motorcar was actually non that innovative or special. In fact , ane wonders if the watch of the motorcar came to him after he saw Volkswagens after World War ii or mayhap before. Or maybe got the watch from the Czech Tatra 87 - simply about other rear-engined aerodynamically designed car.
One matter is clear , though , the Tucker motorcar was neither master or unique. It used a apartment "pancake" motor , inwards this instance , a helicopter engine made past times the Franklin Corporation of Syracuse , New York , which he bought equally business office of his scheme. Franklin , similar most aircraft engine manufacturers , was struggling after nation of war equally demand for aircraft engines plummeted. It didn't aid that Franklin's reputation was non the greatest , compared to Continental together with Lycoming.
Some would debate that Tucker drove the Franklin companionship into the solid set down amongst his system - cancelling all existing aircraft contracts together with so the companionship could "concentrate" on edifice engines for his car.
But a flat-engine , aluminum block , air-cooled car? (Note: afterwards converted to water-cooled , without much success). Not actually a "new idea" but ane that Ferdinand Porsche together with Adolf Hitler had inwards the 1930's. And the parallels don't terminate there. Many people similar to tout the Tucker's "advances together with innovations" which were actually non innovations at all. Fully independent suspension? Again , the VW had this , together with many High German together with European cars featured independent intermission good before the war.
The "safety" features of the motorcar were laughable past times today's standards. Tucker topographic point a large footwell inwards forepart of the rider topographic point , amongst the watch that when an accident was imminent , the rider could "duck" into this "safety zone" during the wreck. The reality of course of educational activity is , that accidents accept house inwards milliseconds , together with no ane inwards a motorcar has fourth dimension to duck , pair , or otherwise react to an impact. This is why nosotros receive got airbags today.
Even the center "swivel" headlamp wasn't a Tucker innovation. Again , the Czech Tatra had this characteristic together with it was fifty-fifty available on U.S. of A. cars inwards the 1920's. For simply about argue , people desire to believe inwards Tucker together with thence attribute these "innovations" to him. But you lot can't "innovate" something invented past times individual else , decades earlier.
So the Tucker wasn't a revolutionary pattern at all , really. Maybe for the U.S. of A. his European ideas seemed "far out" but they non inventions of his.
The "safety" features of the motorcar were laughable past times today's standards. Tucker topographic point a large footwell inwards forepart of the rider topographic point , amongst the watch that when an accident was imminent , the rider could "duck" into this "safety zone" during the wreck. The reality of course of educational activity is , that accidents accept house inwards milliseconds , together with no ane inwards a motorcar has fourth dimension to duck , pair , or otherwise react to an impact. This is why nosotros receive got airbags today.
Even the center "swivel" headlamp wasn't a Tucker innovation. Again , the Czech Tatra had this characteristic together with it was fifty-fifty available on U.S. of A. cars inwards the 1920's. For simply about argue , people desire to believe inwards Tucker together with thence attribute these "innovations" to him. But you lot can't "innovate" something invented past times individual else , decades earlier.
So the Tucker wasn't a revolutionary pattern at all , really. Maybe for the U.S. of A. his European ideas seemed "far out" but they non inventions of his.
Where Tucker failed , Volkswagen succeeded. And past times the 1960's , VW had established itself equally a instrumentalist inwards the U.S.A. , together with today is ane of the largest manufacturers (sometimes the largest) inwards the world. Oh , correct , the "big-3" automakers were inwards a conspiracy to suppress the Tucker. Funny how they allow the VW sideslip correct through their net!
And VW didn't receive got it rattling easy. After the nation of war , the ruined remains of the VW manufactory were offered to Ford Motor Company , who turned it down. They literally had to commencement over from cypher , to prepare upward into the powerhouse they are today. Tucker , on the other manus , had an entire manufactory nearly given to him for the asking. No bombed out facilities to commencement from scratch. And withal Tucker could non brand a become of it , without all of these disadvantages.
In the car-starved marketplace of the postwar era , ane wonders why. Why non enhance funds using conventional way - a stock offering , for example. But instead , he relied to dealer franchises , together with deposits on cars withal to locomote made - selling "future owners" radios for cars they would never own.
The even sounds familiar. Whether a wild-eyed dreamer or a con human being , the terminate lawsuit was the same - you lot can't prepare a radically novel concept motorcar on a shoestring budget. It simply can't locomote done. And fifty-fifty if the SEC investigation hadn't sealed the bargain , odds are that past times the mid 1950's or the 1960's at the latest , Tucker would receive got gone the way of Hudson , Studebaker , Kaiser , Frasier , Willys , Packard , Crosley , together with a let on of other small-time marques that eventually faded into history (including American Motors , LaSalle , Pontiac , Oldsmobile , together with Mercury , amidst others).
So why practice together with so many people desire to believe the myth of Preston Tucker? Why did Francis Ford Coppola brand a moving painting close him? And the answer lies inwards the question: Belief. Belief tin sack locomote an evil matter , blinding people to actual facts , difficult information , together with numerical analysis. If the Tucker motorcar was such a corking innovation , people would continue making them. Recall that after the Studebaker flora shut together with the companionship got out of the motorcar trouble organisation , the Avanti stayed inwards production for decades. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 let on of people stepped upward to purchase the rights to brand the motorcar together with made together with sold them , which is to a greater extent than than tin sack locomote said for the Tucker or the Bricklin , or whatever ane of a let on of "dream cars" that turned into nightmares.
Of course of educational activity the punchline is that the VW Beetle was a horrific motorcar - if you lot lived inwards that era you lot recollect this. It was tinny together with inexpensive together with was a deathtrap to anyone who drove or rode inwards one. VW stopped making them because of this. I receive got friends who receive got been injured or burned severely inwards VW accidents. It was a rattling successful motorcar because of its depression cost for the time. But inwards today's litigious climate? You could non sell a one.
So when you lot listen close "visionary dreamers" trying to sell commodities similar cars , you lot receive got to wonder what the heck is going on. After all , it takes millions , if non billions , to prepare a novel motorcar , together with this takes the resources of non ane , but frequently ii or 3 major corporations working inwards concert. Consolidation of the motorcar manufacture has been the lawsuit of this - the huge sum of coin needed to R&D a novel car. And many smaller automakers are teaming amongst their opponents to prepare niche cars , much equally BMW had done amongst Toyota inwards evolution of the novel Z-series car.
Preston Tucker? Not a human being together with his dream , but a human being together with a nightmare. It is lamentable to run into he went downward this path , mayhap deluding himself that he could trounce the odds together with select a motorcar into production , amongst together with so piddling coin to operate with. And maybe he knew all along it wasn't possible , or at simply about signal realized it wouldn't operate out together with went for the stock fraud instead. Who knows? The terminate lawsuit is the same.
But today? What excuse practice nosotros , equally investors or "depositors" receive got to locomote together with so naive?
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