This February has been an eventful one for the Tucker community. Apparently a long lost Tucker Prototype Convertible has been discovered and placed up for auction at the hefty sum of $5 million. Strange that with only 50 cars rolling of the Tucker assembly, all of which accounted for, that this one should fall through the cracks and resurface 61 years later.
When I first saw the Tucker Convertible turn up on ebay, I was reminded of a similar project, seen seven years before. It was at the Novi Expo center in Michigan. A large chunk of the Richard Kughn collection was being offered at no reserve. Among the many low mile collector cars was a large collection of Factory Tucker parts. If memory serves me correctly the parts included the pieces from the two Tuckers wrecked, one in an auto accident and the other by the Tucker Company for a roll over test. All of these, along with several surplus parts were cobbled together on top of a chassis right of the Tucker line. Unfortunately I don’t remember the number. Taped on the side of car were the plans Richard Kughn had drawn up by a friend to turn this collection of rare parts into the first Tucker Conv.
If somebody can present me with the location of the Kughn car I will shut up but for now what I propose, is that the car for sale right now is the very same car from the Richard Kughn collection. When this information was proposed to the seller there was no response. If they in fact have an actual prototype why don’t they say it? Why ebay and not Barrett Jackson? I do not claim to be an authority on Tucker but I know what I saw in 2002 and I have pictures:
Author/Photographer: Glenn H.
