SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — Russo and Steele's 10th annual auction in January will have a true novelty on the block: The only Tucker convertible, known as the experimental Tucker and never owned or driven, will be up for sale.
Preston Tucker's star-crossed enterprise is generally agreed to have resulted in 51 completed sedans, which generally sell for high prices to collectors. RM Auctions sold one for $1,017,500 in 2008 in Monterey. The convertible to be sold by Russo and Steele was an uncompleted prototype that is numbered as experimental car number 57. The restorer, Benchmark Classics of Wisconsin, has responded to questions about its authenticity with a Web site that details the history of the car and its restoration and proffers a video showing the convertible top in operation.
Benchmark Classics says the convertible "started life as a Tucker 48 sedan in the Tucker factory and is stamped 57 in multiple places." Referring to it as the "top-secret two-door convertible project," the firm says Tucker's engineering team took off the sedan's top, decided the body needed strengthening, then "disassembled the car and devised a plan to strengthen the convertible's chassis." They re-engineered the frame and next lengthened the doors and installed a shortened windshield frame. Then they modified a late-'40s GM convertible top frame by adding a Tucker Corporation header. At that point, the company went out of business, and the car remained uncompleted, Benchmark said.
Russo and Steele say the convertible has "less than two original test miles, zero owners, never titled" and that it has the authentic rear-mounted Franklin-Tucker flat-6 engine and Cord "Invisible Hand" semi-automatic transmission. The car has been authenticated by a classic-car expert, Al Prueitt of Prueitt and Sons Restorations.
The auction takes place January 20-24.
Inside Line says: This gives history buffs something to talk about, and so should the price it's likely to fetch. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
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rollo_tomasi says:
09:07 AM, 02/04/2012
Unfortunately the Tucker convertible story was proven to be a hoax. Vintage documents from the 1950 auction, photographs, letters from the early 1950's and eyewitness accounts have since surfaced and confirmed that #57 never was and never could have been a convertible.
The news owners have basically given up on the convertible story. But all may not be lost as if it can be determined that the frame and cowl for #57 actually does sit underneath the convertible, then it would be the prototype for 1949 that would have been a coupe with a wrap-around rear window. The real body to #57 was cut up long ago, but look for the frame and cowl to be pulled from the convertible in an attempt to recreate the coupe as in the LIFE magazine photographs of #57 from 1950...
tyrone5 says:
08:03 PM, 10/31/2011
I think the Tucker convertible is more authenic than the Tucker club is. It seems maybe they are trying so hard to discredit the so called convertible, that they appear to go over the top into the meniacal realm, where few return. When you become so purist and polarized in your thinking, you lose sight of the practical and then move into non-reality. Hitler did this in the political realm to the point where he started to believe his own dribble, especially concerning the Jews. Hitler thought he had the beginnings of a super race and was an elitest. The Tucker club seems to be moving into the same realm, only in the collector car realm. The elitest becomes engrossed so far into what they say is true, that any dissent is quickly put down to the point of publicaly denergrating them. At that point, your credibility starts to erode. Hitler's own officers, who were closest to him, started to realize that their leader was staring to crack and even tried to dispatch of him. I read recently on the internet where someone blogged about the Tucker's club's own members turning on their own leaders of their own club. They referenced the Tucker club's website called "Tucker Topics" under a title, You Learned Everthing You Need To Know In Kindergarden" posted on September 25, 2011. It appears they are imploding from their own weight of opinion, which is unfortunate.
stoneman69 says:
09:38 PM, 01/28/2010
To all the naysayers and non-believers ,all I can say is my hands worked on this Tucker and it is what it is ! The one and only TUCKER CONVERTIBLE !!! Best wishes to Benchmark Classics !
debus says:
09:29 PM, 01/14/2010
Who cares about it's authenticity...it's beautiful! I would buy it (if I had unlimited funds) with intentions of driving and enjoying the Convert for the rest of my life eventually willing it to one of my sons. The one other car I would like to own is a 1941 Lincoln Continental Cabriolet, the best looking true American classic ever produced. I would drive the Lincoln as much as possible also....no trailer queens for me! As a kid in the fifties my mother's "daily driver" was a 1947 Lincoln Continental Cabriolet that my father had restored. His driver was a 1946 Lincoln Coupe with a full race '53 Merc V-8, deep maroon paint, roll and pleat maroon interior, wide whitewalls, fender skirts, two spotlights and those mellow Smitty mufflers. Needless to say we were known around our small town as the wierd family who drove those "old cars, whatever they are".
roar02ram says:
08:14 AM, 01/05/2010
I wonder if it's being sold as a new car given that it's never been titled.
tourian says:
07:29 AM, 01/05/2010
I love the "never driven" claim, along with the "less then 2 test miles" right along with it. Either it has or hasn't been driven and with any completed car (this one was a sedan first, then taken apart) I'm going to assume its been driven at some point.
dagmar3 says:
05:16 AM, 01/05/2010
I'm not a big believer in 60-year secrets. In a world of bogus Ferraris and 300SL Gullwing knock-offs, I don't have the confidence to pull the trigger on this long-story; short-documentation vehicle. But I bet that Jay Leno can close this deal.