The Richard Kughn Tucker is not the Convertible.....
This past week many people have had many things to say regarding the 1948 Tucker Convertible Prototype for sale on eBay. Reviewing all of this information has brought me to the conclusion that the car sold in 2002 by Richard Kughn, is not the convertible for sale today. Whether or not this is an actuall prototype I do not know but it is not the Richard Kughn car. Dates and information provided by the seller and other Tucker authorities attest to the validity of their claim. Please see note from the seller:
"The car that was in Detroit was #27, was on frame #52, and was outfitted with parts from various other Tuckers. #27 is listed on the Tucker Club's website as being the car the was rolled during testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It has been and still is in Roscoe, IL. The information you have about there only being 50 cars is incorrect. The first Tucker ever produced was a prototype sedan, known as the "Tin Goose". Fifty-eight frames and bodies were built at the factory. From these parts, 36 sedans were finished before the factory was closed. In addition, one prototype convertible known as "Vera" was started but not finished at the factory. Since the factory closed, an additional 14 sedans have been completed for a total of 51. The convertible is expected to be completed in May of 2009, pushing the total to 52. The car we have is body number 57, not 27 or 52. We have a letter from a verified Tucker Corporation accountant that reads “Dear Allan (previous owner), Long time no see. I hope your address hasn’t changed and this gets to you okay. Did you ever get the Tucker convertible finished? I would like to drive over and see it sometime. Give me a ring at 414-275-XXXX and tell me when it will be convenient to get together and bring each other up to date. Sincerely, Mel Koeppen”. We have paycheck stubs, tax withholding statements, and a picture of Mel Koeppen (the accountant mentioned above) in a newspaper from 1948 that further verifies he was an employee. “The Indomitable Tin Goose” (page 90 softback version and page 99 of the hardback version) verifies that #57 was in Tucker Corporation experimental department when the plant closed.#57 was mentioned in a “Tucker Topics”, the Tucker Automobile Club of America’s newsletter in 1994 as being a convertible. The person we bought the car from interviewed Tucker Corporation employees who said that they knew that the project existed when the plant closed. He is willing to sign sworn affidavits that outline his interviews."
Originally posted:
http://www.classiccar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17123
This story has many facets and it would irresponsible of me not to have presented my theory. I am thankful to all who have presented information and thoughts behind this issue.
Where is the Richard Kughn car and can it be viewed?
Author: Glenn H.
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The Richard Kughn car was sold to a private owner in the Rockford, IL area. It is not on public display.
ReplyDeleteWe don't care. We in the collector car realm believe the Tucker convertible is real. Some people are just jealous that they don't own it!! That is just the flat out truth!!
ReplyDeleteThe Tucker Club is not even a club anymore, therefore they are irrelevant!
ReplyDeleteRegarding Body #1057 not being possible, The Tucker Corporation Factory Pilot Assembly Line had enough components on hand to build 58 complete cars when assembly commenced in early February of 1948.
ReplyDeleteProduction was shut down when the SEC seized the plant in late October of 1948 with 37 cars completed. A skeleton crew of former Tucker Corporation Factory employees returned on their own time, knowing they would receive no pay, to assemble the remaining 13 cars to guarantee the 50 cars required to be built before January 1, 1949 were completed. There were, however, still 7 incomplete body shells on the assembly line, Body #1051 - Body #1058.
Body #1057 was pulled by Alex Tremulis to start work on the 1949 prototype, but all he was able to complete before the plant closed was to modify the rear window into a wraparound curve.
When the asset liquidation auction took place in 1950, the body shells were not part of the inventory and were discarded, eventually winding up in an open field, exposed to elements and deteriorating for the better part of 35 years before a collector bought the partially complete Car #1051 and wanted to build a complete car, located and salvaged body shell #1054 for the project, the completed car is now Car #1051C.
In 2013, a collector had acquired the chassis #1052, the front clip of Car #1018, and body shell #1055, along with other NOS factory body panels and interior fittings and combined them together to create Car #1052C in 2015.
These two additional cars were assembled using leftover NOS factory parts and items salvaged from wrecked Tuckers, referred to as the C or “continuation” cars to prevent their inclusion among the original 50 factory built cars.
Now as far as Project Vera or the convertible prototype, considering that only 37 of the necessary 50 cars were completed by the time the plant was seized and shut down; to divert time, manpower and resources away from the pilot car assembly line to start work on a new project under these circumstances would be insane. If the convertible had officially been started by the Tucker Corporation Factory, there would be a clear and concise paper trail to reference. A purchase order would be on file to get bodywork done. There would be volumes of design, engineering, project notes and memos in the factory archives along with those same records for the 50 pilot cars - but there never was in 1948 and there is not today.
Chassis #1057 would have been sold and easily obtained at the 1950 liquidation auction, along with all the other necessary body and interior components to produce a completed car. Body shell #1057 was salvaged around the same time as #1054. There were 76 NOS crate motors available. The only component not readily available was a Y-1 transmission.
So anyone, at any point between 1950 and the 1980s when the car first publicly became known, anyone who had or had access to these components could have started building the convertible, all while insisting that it was started by the Tucker Corporation Factory and should be considered as one of the factory built 50 cars.
All of the available evidence points to the conclusion that there was never a convertible prototype under construction or ever a convertible in the works by the Tucker Corporation Factory, including statements from the Tucker Family and his descendants directly who all emphatically dispute the concept.