[ Tucker Auto] This sedan is the 39th of 51 samples the Tucker Corporation built in 1948. Preston Tucker intended to mass-produce a "car of the future" with advanced safety, styling, and engineering features. The automobile has its engine in the rear, an area where the front passenger can crouch during a collision, and a center headlight that turned with the steering wheel.

The sedan's most striking feature is its avant-garde styling, developed by Alex Tremulis and J. Gordon Lippincott and Company. Its features-- including pop-up tail lights and irregularly shaped windows--give it a futuristic appearance even today. The Tucker never went into actual production because a federal investigation into the company's management practices led to its collapse.

Courtesy of the National Museum of American History, transfer from the U.S. Marshals Service.

Tucker Automobile, 1948, conceived by Preston Tucker (1903-1956)

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