Video: The Tucker Combat Car – The Other Forward Thinking And Inventive Vehicle Preston Tucker Developed


Video: The Tucker Combat Car – The Other Forward Thinking And Inventive Vehicle Preston Tucker Developed

About a decade before Preston Tucker’s venture into the world of mass producing automobiles, he had another idea that was about as forward looking, advanced, and interesting as his cars. That idea was known as the Tucker Combat Car or the Tucker Tiger. It was unlike anything any other person had developed in a fighting vehicle before, capable of making speeds of over 110mph, armed to the teeth with machine guns, and even packing a revolutionary roof turret that became the last living piece of the legacy of a vehicle that people were impressed with but no one bought.

The Tiger was powered by a Packard V-12 engine and used a fully welded body, something that was pretty wild for 1940. No rivets were used in the construction of the thing and as such it was far stronger than other options that were available during that era. Its hull-like construction was literally decades ahead in its thinking and ability to deflect blasts and protect the people inside the vehicle. Some of the claims you will see in the videos below are fanciful like the pneumatic tires capable of withstanding .50 caliber arms fire and not deflating or its ability to remove itself from any stuck situation with individual wheel brakes (these were 2WD). That being said, you are looking at a vehicle in 1940 that wasn’t really improved upon until decades later when armored personnel trucks and combat vehicles came into vogue.

The US Army did not bite on the concept although they really liked the powered roof turret. Apparently they actually deemed the vehicle too fast and feared the repercussions of accidents and recklessness out in the fields of combat. Other foreign governments were interested but ultimately dropped out of the ordering process one by one. A company in Rahway, New Jersey was contracted to build the vehicles but there is no evidence that any more than one was ever produced. Yes, if you watch the second video to the end there’s a shot of about 10 of them in a row but the reality is that it was an easy to produce camera trick to take one image and reproduce it across a screen. There’re a little something weird about that moment in the film.

There is an irony in the Armies of several countries not seeing the value in a vehicle that could have out blitzkrieg’d the blitzkrieg during the early portions of WWII. Speed, as it happened was one of the things that won the war. The speed of tanks, of planes, and of moving armies provided the edge at a few different points in the conflict. Apparently that was just enough speed and the Tucker Tiger just had too much.

We have two videos below. One is a 30-second news reel and the second is a long and detailed look at what may have been the only Tucker Tiger ever produced.

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE A TUCKER TIGER IN ACTION –

 


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