Automobile Engineering in the 1940s
In order to appreciate what made Tuckers so remarkable in their day (and indeed, even today), we need to know a little something about not only the kinds of cars being manufactured at the time, but also the conditions of the time in which they were being built. Cars of the era were different, not only in the way the looked and the materials they were made of, but also in how they were driven and maintained. Today, people think nothing of putting a 100,000 miles on a car, and only performing such minor maintenance as oil changes, belt changes, and possibly a tune up. Cars back then were a whole 'nother breed, and most cars were worn out by the time they reached 50,000 miles, let alone 100,000 or 200,000, as car routinely do today. Depending upon the make, model and year of the car, one could expect to perform all or some of these tasks during the time period in which Tucker's were to be built at roughly the same interval a modern car needs an oil change: Brake adjustment, valve adjustment, clutch adjustment, chassis lube, timing adjustment, and tune up. Mind you, in many cases you had to perform these tasks, if you wanted the car to last any time at all. Failure to adjust the brakes, for example, could result in you being splattered all over the road because you had no brakes.
Additionally, cars had metal dashboards and no seat belts, which meant that if you were a front seat passenger in a wreck, you could expect to find yourself slammed into a steel wall, if you didn't get ripped to shreds by the windshield as you flew through it. Rear seat passengers fared little better. They didn't have a metal dash to contend with (though there was always the possibility they could get thrown from the rear to the front), but there were exposed door handles, window cranks, and in some cars, metal door panels and armrests.
For the driver, however, a worse fate awaited them him or her in the event of an accident. Indeed, smacking into a metal dash, or going through the windshield was a blessing, compared to the fate many drivers experienced. Steering wheels of the era were built out of some combination wood, metal, and/or phenolic plastic. These tended to shatter upon impact, while the driver's body would continue forward, impaling itself on the steering column. It get's better.
Since there were no headrests, even a “minor” fender bender could result in whiplash for the occupants (the front seats would some times collapse, adding to the injuries) of the vehicle. Roofs were often little more than thin pieces of sheet metal with no reenforcement, which would collapse in the event of a rollover, allowing some 4,000 lbs of automobile to come crashing down on top of the occupants. Without crumple zones, to absorb the impact of a collision, occupants had to endure the forces transmitted to the car by the impact of a 4,000 lb car.
The six volt electrical system tended to fall victim to the cold quite easily and the illumination produced by the headlights, while adequate for cars which rarely exceeded 50 MPH, was too dim to give the amount of light needed to reveal obstacles far enough away for cars traveling in excess of 60 MPH to avoid them. This problem was worsened by brakes which were often undersized and prone to fading in panic stops.
Door latches were flimsy and in impacts tended to spring open. If the car was equipped with suicide doors, the occupants could find themselves pitched headlong into the streets. (Which is supposedly how the doors got their name.)
Now, to be fair, not all models suffered from these problems and even today, car makers discover, much to their horror, that things like door latches and seats can fail in the event of a collision. Nor is it known, at this time how many of these problems would have affected Tuckers if they had gone into production. It is known, however, that Tucker was trying to address some of these problems.
The Birth of the Tucker Corporation->
