MOD CAR 1948 TUCKER SEDAN (TUCKER TORPEDO) FOR CAR MECHANIC SIMULATOR 2018
 
After World War II, the US government decided to privatize the excess plants. It is hard to believe that such things happen, but when redistributing them, preference was given to small companies. Henry J. Kaiser and Preston Tucker followed suit Studebacker, who first put on the conveyor a completely new post-war model. The idea to release your own car arose out of nowhere. Previously, Tucker was a policeman, taxi driver, worked in several car companies, and before the war he built cars for racing, including the Indy 500, together with Harry Miller. The ambitious Preston wanted to create the most advanced car that would compete with products General Motors, Ford and, naturally, Chrysler. The calculation was simple - the vast majority of automakers after the war offered outdated pre-war models, and against their background a truly modern model would definitely find its buyer. Tucker Sedan (Torpedo) was notable for its extraordinary design, innovative technologies and, what is noteworthy, a high degree of security.

How can one not recall the aerodynamic De Soto (Chrysler) Airflow, which failed miserably in the mid-thirties. According to the creator, Tucker was supposed to be equipped with a six-cylinder engine with a fuel injection system located at the rear. The rear-engine layout largely determined the design of the car and, we dare to assume, gave the name of the model. Alex Tremoulis, who previously worked for Auburn Cord and Duesenberg, was hired to develop the look at the end of 1946. The designer had only six days to create a general concept for the car. In early 1947, Tucker turned to J. Gordon Dippencott to develop an alternative design. A full-size prototype was created in just eight weeks. And this is at a time when it took several years to develop a new model! But, despite the scanty deadlines,

Due to the location of the motor in the rear of the body, the front grill was purely decorative. And, perhaps, one of the first (if not the first) Tucker Torpedo designers combined it with the front bumper. But the rear grill for obvious reasons was quite functional. And, nevertheless, later it was widely used by designers of the Big Three as a decorative element. Think of the Cadillac Eldorado brush (or pencil?) Harley Earl. The same fate awaited the air intakes in the hind wings and brake lights, which later evolved into the famous keels. We are no longer talking about a turning central headlight - a solution that is half a century ahead of its time. For the elongated nose, in the center of which it was located, the car was nicknamed the "tin goose." The headlight automatically turned on about a turn more than ten degrees, and lit the turn. Do you know what is the most interesting? The aerodynamic drag coefficient of the body (Cx) was only 0.27! For comparison, the 2008 Chevrolet Cruze, this figure is 0.31.

Inside, Torpedo turned out to be more conservative, but innovation was not without it. Switches and buttons were grouped around the safety steering column, which was located on the prototype in the center of the dashboard. The gear selector was also located on the steering column. But the box is a different story. The transmission has become one of the weak links in the Tucker design. The Cord gearbox developed for front-wheel drive and front-engine cars was used as a prototype. It is not surprising that such a box could not be successfully adapted to the layout of Torpedo. To develop a new transmission, the author of the Buick Dynaflow gearbox was involved. The box consisted of only 27 elements, while usually their number exceeded one hundred parts. But, as it turned out, there were no less problems with Tuckermatic. If only because that the car had no reverse gear. Her absence was the occasion for numerous ridicule of the press.

Things were even more complicated with the motor. Technological flat overhead valve motor with hemispherical combustion chambers did not want to develop the one hundred and fifty horsepower promised by Tucker. And even the fact that the engine and the mentioned Cord transmission were installed on a separate subframe, which were fastened with just six bolts for the speed of repair (the experience of building racing cars affected) did not save the situation. Preston had to urgently seek a replacement for the 9.7-liter engine, and he found it not among the huge V-shaped monsters of the Big Three. In the engine compartment Torpedo placed the motor from ... a helicopter! True, simple implantation was not enough, the engineers again had to equip the flat six-cylinder Franklin O-335 with water cooling. And the direct injection system had to be replaced with traditional carburetors in the amount of two pieces. But it was worth it - the motor successfully passed the life tests and with a maximum power of 166 hp accelerated the car to 200 kilometers per hour, and gained the first hundred in ten seconds. The delighted Tucker bought four engines worth $ 5,000 each, which at that time was comparable to the cost of an entire car. And not one - Torpedo was planned to sell half the price. And for greater reliability, Preston bought the entire company for the production of helicopter engines.

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