Video: What if Tucker was the new Tesla?



Welcome to What If cars! In this series we are going to make alternative universe cars, based on my own fantasies or your request!

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48 Comments

  • I think that Tucker would have held onto the Franklin Flat 6 far longer as it had promise of delivering even more power, and still being reliable.
    In the current day, I can picture Tucker offering a hybrid car using a micro turbine powered APU to maintain battery charge on long trips. That could also be used as a nod to the history of the '48 being powered by a helicopter engine. That could make Tucker the only American auto manufacturer to successfully market a turbine powered car.

  • Ralph Nader’s “Unsafe At Any Speed” killed rear engined US made cars in the early 60’s. Certainly both VW and Fiat had rear engined cars into the 70’s, but they were not US and did not attract the same attention (IMO unfairly) as was bestowed upon the Corvair.

  • Ed, brilliant beyond brilliant! Your take on the American auto industry is always refreshing. As you had noted at one time, SAFETY DOESN'T SELL. Americans were groomed through marketing to desire the latest, greatest, most bizarre thing on wheels–with a new bizarre presented every couple of years. Was it any wonder that American designed autos were the laughing stock of auto design in Europe in the 50s and 60s (form follows function vs. marketability/profits determine form with an every-two-year-designed obsolescence). All of what you have outlined as being ahead of its time can be found on Harley Earl's Dream/Concept Cars from the late 30s to the late 50s–radar, aerodynamics, ergonomic designs, etc. Detroit would respond only when federal regulations were imposed,. There were countless hearings/objections from the Big 3 and how these features would add significantly to the price of a car. Anybody remember the Pinto and how Ford calculated payouts for lives lost to known poor design? Even with multi-million payouts, Ford maintained profitability–for a while. ED: IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO KNOW IF OTHER THAN AMERICAN AUTO MANUFACTURERS NEEDED LEGISLATION IN THEIR COUNTRY OF ORIGIN TO DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT SAFETY SOLUTIONS VS. MANDATED U.S.AUTO INDUSTRY REGULATIONS/LEGISLATION (and not considering American standards to be met for imports).

  • What if, as a side effect of the USSR managing to reform it's economy in the '70s (kinda like how China did in the '90s), and thus avoiding collapse, there was still a Soviet automotive industry today? What would their cars be like today?

  • This is a wonderful video, like 50's sci-fi! I'm and EMU graduate that caught the tail end of the muscle car era; first job pumping (up to 101 octane) gas at the Sunoco station by the four corners off Telegraph Rd. Learning folk lore about Preston Tucker in Ypsilanti made it my heart felt home, always routing for the underdog…this video is most satisfying…thank you!

  • Tesla is a garbage car company funded by carbon credit trading. Tucker was a real engineer with a real car company. Wish folks would stop putting tesla motors on a pedestal – they belong in the recycling bin.

  • The super high tech got a little much especially by the end
    that said, how about: what if Ford a Edison managed to make a massed produced consumer electric car and ev's became part of Ford's standard lineup since the 30's?

  • I can't imagine a car company never making a minivan, SUV, or pick.up. I could maybe imagine a mid-engine pickup truck, would be very desirable to certain market segments, because of its secure front trunk.

  • a bit of a flair on the rear and cover up the rear tires giving the car a bit of a )( look
    slightly bigger difuser and bootom reds should be multi round o-o-o o-o-o
    there needs a feature around the front wheel to the side skirts ending at the back of the door also shorten or lower the front
    "rally/sport" bubbled roof ^-^

  • What if ? Cars: Delorean

    80's: Talking about the Delorean we know about.

    90's: a new decade for the Delorean. With a curvy body style by 1996. Still adopted the stainless steel body.

    2000's: Delorean in the 21st century making mini vans.

    2010's: Giant Suv's

    2020's: EV cars.

    Come on Ed get to it chop chop.

  • Water-cooled Cadillac V8 rear-mounted in a 1968 Tucker… you're begging for cooling issues. Tucker had purchased Franklin outright to use their aviation engines, no reason to think they would have outsourced for water-cooled engines.

  • The Tucker was an advanced design when it was introduced. Way ahead of anything else made anywhere in the world. Then you go on to say Tucker would had adopted the styles of all other mainstream US corps in the mid-50s? please!
    Tucker would have have gravitated towards the Citroen DS19 of 1955, not the mainstream US junk of the time.

  • OK, Ed, you’ve proven your ability to take vehicles like the Tucker into the future. But can you move ahead with dead ends like the PT Cruiser or the T-bird that Halle Berry drove to the party? Or can you take the original Citroen DS and just add an amount of aerodynamics to bring it back intact?

  • Movie line from an alternate timeline: Wait a second Doc you mean to tell me you made a time machine out of a….Tucker?
    Grandfather was the general contractor on converting the old Dodge aircraft plant into the Tucker plant and even had some Tucker stock certificates until an overly clean freak younger brother took it upon himself to clean out the basement after gramps passed but til his dying day gramps believed in Tucker and was absolutely certain he was shut down because the big guys would have been playing catch up for decades because he was proposing standard features in 48 that would take 25ish years and federal legislation to be on all cars.
    Also if anyone's interested Preston Tucker's grandsons have a YouTube channel called Preston Tucker Speed Shop and I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count as to what they cover

  • In all my long life and having lived and worked in various countries, I've never been able to understand how absolutely ugly most American cars were and are. They are analogous in their lack of beauty to grossly obese women and have utterly pointless chrome features to distract from their ghastliness, very much in the way that horrifically unattractive women will often employ tatoos, piercings and garish hair colourings. Cars with useless "fish tails", fake grills, white walled tyres, etcetera are a nightmare of the poorest examples in taste. European and even many Japanese cars are good examples of how form follows function, where the appearance and features can usually be justified by necessity and furthermore aren't wasteful of materials, so being about half as heavy as American monstrosities..

  • Like it!!1 Looks interesting!!! I wonder what would AI THiNK of doing it!!!???? ME I want OLD models BUT the the NEW HeadLights!!! I THiNK it would be cool. AND Lets NOT forget the Cup Holders and the side mounted Bottle Holders too!!! :)))

  • -In my theory or "dream", VAG of Germany would produce a new division, headquartered in Detroit. They would produce small sports sedans called "Tucker" based upon the platform underpinning the Porsche 992/982 cars but stretched into a four door, and powered by a rear mounted 9A1 flat 6 engine from the 911/Cayman/Boxster cars.

    Later cars could be electric and based upon the Taycan. Styling would be by descendants of Preston Tucker himself, with help from Porsche designers.

    Great video!

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