Preston Tucker Was a Revolutionary

Preston Tucker was a revolutionary and at the same time a rebel, an inventor and at the same time, a hero. He was a man before his time who managed to design an automobile that was so very advanced for this time that till today no one has been able to catch up with that invention. He was a man who dared to stand up to what he believed in, and he was a rebel in that he stood up bold and strong against the 'Big Three' as they were known at the time, the three big automobile manufacturers of that time. The Government of the United States of America as well as the so-called 'big business' was against him, but still he stood up and faced them with all his courage. In other words, when he was creating and manufacturing simple and safe and economical car designs, the entire U.S. government was in fact against him. This did not deter him in the least, however, and he continued to be a revolutionary despite all odds. (Preston Tucker: A Rebel, a Visionary, a Hero)

Born in the year 1903 in Michigan, the United States of America, Preston was alternatively called a visionary, and a con artist. Whatever he may have been, he was responsible for the creation of a futuristic car design that the car manufacturers of today have still not managed to emulate or imitate, and the man achieved all this in the year 1948, when his first futuristic car was launched amid great fanfare. However, after just a mere two short years, the Tucker Corporation had to close down because of speculation about certain bad business practices being followed by Tucker. The fact was that this was the Post-War boom period when the average consumer was in the mood for purchasing an automobile, and the automobiles that were displayed by the giant corporations of Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors were found to be quite old-fashioned and unimaginative and completely unexciting. This is when Preston Tucker started to take advantage of the situation, and with his powers of persuasion and marketing and also his innovative and exciting automobile designs, and with the famous advertising tag line, "The Car of Tomorrow Today," came out with his radically different aero dynamical automobile with numerous extra safety features that were not present in other cars of the time. (Biography of Preston Tucker)

Preston Tucker had helped to design Miller Racing Cars even before the eras of the Second World War, and he almost realized his very own ambition of manufacturing an extremely innovative and 'completely new' automotive car after the War. What happened was that his associate and himself took on lease a former Dodge Aircraft plant in the state of Chicago for the purpose of manufacturing this new car. It was here that fifty-one identical Tucker Automobiles were manufactured, with great success. Almost everyone who saw these cars became very interested in the cars, and the automobile was an instant success. However, what followed was that there were rumors being circulated about the bad business practices and frauds that were being allegedly perpetrated by Tucker and the Tucker Corporation that had manufactured cars that had been designed by the team made up of Preston Tucker, Alex Tremulis, and J. Gordon Lippicot and Company had to down their shutters and declare that they had closed down their business. (Information about Tucker Automobiles)

What was the Tucker Automobile and what was so special about the car? It is a fact that the Tucker car had many innovative and novel features that had not been integrated into any car at the time when it was manufactured, in fact, even today; car manufacturers have not been able to create a reasonable imitation of a Tucker Car. Its very shape was new, that is, it was in the shape of a 'fastback', and a swiveling center headlight, and also an independent four-wheel suspension. An increased passenger safety was an important feature of this car, and this included a pop-out windshield, a padded dashboard, and a unique space in the front of the car where a passenger could crouch in the case of a collision. However, this novel automobile never managed to enter full-scale production, but it is a fact that the car and all its new and futuristic features came to be representative of the future of automobile designs. Some of these important features were avant-garde styling, certain innovative mechanical features that had not even been thought of at that time, and also the interest that had been generated in the issue of passenger safety because of the safety features that Tucker had utilized in his car. The Tucker Car was also indicative of the need for new trends and newer designs in automobiles, that the general man preferred to the boring traditional designs that were being doled out by the Big Three Car manufacturers of the time, Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors. (Information about Tucker Automobiles)

Tucker was in fact one of the few people in America at that time, during the years after the War, who dared and also managed to things differently, and also was one of the very few real innovators in the automobile industry of that time. His innovation of placing a third headlight right in the center of the nose of the car, which would swivel along with the front wheels whenever they turned proved to be an excellent idea that would extremely valuable to the user. The reason why it was so very useful was because of the fact that it would light up the entire area where the passenger was going to, with every turn of the wheels. This would be especially useful when there happened to be a storm or a fog that made visibility difficult and at times impossible, and especially when going around a turn or bend in the road. The automobile manufacturer Citroen adopted the very same feature, in later years, but two regular swiveling headlights were to be used instead on one single in the middle of the car. This feature was used in their DS model about two whole decades after the automobile designed by Tucker had initially used it in his car. However, no other car manufacturer has ever attempted the idea of having swiveling headlights in their automobiles even after so many years. (Preston Tucker, we miss you)

What actually happened to Preston Tucker's design was the result of sheer stupidity on the part of the government of the United States of America, which ruled that swiveling or moveable headlights in an automobile would only result in the lack of safety of the passengers of the car, and it is indeed sad that not one single car manufacturer has had the courage to defy the existing rules and come up with something that would be as totally revolutionary as Preston Tucker's automobile design that was far ahead of its time and a refreshing departure from the boring and staid designs of the Big Three Automobile manufacturers of the time, Ford and Chrysler and General Motors. This is a real pity, because it is very much evident that as far as automobile designing is concerned, it is way too far behind the existing technology in all other aspects of the lives of people today where technology plays a major part, and there is no hope that it would be able to catch up with events any time soon. Whatever has been the result of technology in the automobile-manufacturing sector today, it has gone only as far as anti-lock brakes and engine computers, and that's all. (Preston Tucker, we miss you)

From time to time however, there are several small efforts being made to incorporate some from of technology into automobiles, and small electronic gadgets are being added to the car. These may never be anything more than mere frills, like the CD ROM-based position sensors that are electronic and more of the modern times than anything else, but still only very marginally useful because what can be accessed on a road map while traversing a strange country can only be much better than electronic sensors. What is actually needed is something that would make road travel safer for the passengers of the car, and one good example is the variable-pulse brake light. This light would blink rapidly when the individual is stopping fast, and slowly when stopping slowly. This would show the driver at the back of the car whether the car in front of him is stopping immediately or not, and this would make him control his own car accordingly. This would in fact help to prevent accidents where the car in front happens to stop too fast and the car at the back is not able to stop in time to avoid a collision and an accident. If such unique and novel features were to be incorporated into the automobile of today, then car driving would be infinitely safer. However, the government happened to reject this idea too as being impractical and of no real value, and at present there is no Preston Tucker to oppose the government and stand up for what he believed in. (Preston Tucker, we miss you)

Preston Tucker was a person who acknowledged the fact that wealth can indeed be created, and that the entrepreneur is actually the man who is the driving force behind the creation of wealth and of economic growth. Thus it was that Tucker happened to hit upon the idea that even poor people needed to keep their milk fresh and edible at all times, and therefore needed a refrigerator that would help them to do it. This was why Tucker set about creating a refrigerator that would work on kerosene and not on electricity, and this would be something that the poorest of the poor would be able to afford with ease. This would have been 'capitalism at its finest' if it had been accepted and created, but it was neither accepted by the government nor was it created. Thus another brilliant idea was laid to the dust. (Hollywood's Views of Capitalism)