Customer Reviews

Indomitable Tin Goose: A Biography of Preston Tucker

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One of the most interesting men in US history, Pearson's biography on Tucker is detailed and well written. While the Phil Egan book on Tucker (Design and Destiny: The making of the Tucker Automobile) is a must-read, the Pearson book is (in this reader's opinion) a much better account and includes much more detail on the life of Preston Tucker, as well as the making of the Tucker '48 sedan and the SEC downfall. Get it and read it while you still can!!

This book is the most detailed account I have yet read about Preston Tucker, the car, and those involved with the effort to bring it to market. The book leaves little doubt the effort to build a better car was real, points out Tucker's own personal foibles, and identifies key factors and players in the resultant failure to get the car to market in a mass production mode. Particularly interesting are the comparisons with Kaiser-Frazer and the multiple ways in which Kaiser also failed to bring to market what he promised yet Kaiser repeatedly received far more financial support from the government than Tucker. That small part of the book near the end is perhaps the most telling analysis for those who wonder if there is reason to question whether the government was fair and objective in its dealings with Tucker and his company.

Perhaps the questions the book left me most seeking answers to are these: If the automatic transmission well under development was truly better than industry leaders Hydra-Matic and Dynaflow from GM (in 1948 Packard was just getting Ultramatic into production while all others had no automatic) with better performance and far fewer moving parts why did no other manufacturer try to buy the rights or obtain a license to build their own version of the R-1 Tuckermatic? Also, why was the 335 engine, apparently more powerful and more economical than those of the Big 3 not sought out by another manufacturer for their cars? I have no idea if the answer to either is known or not.

If you are at all interested in the saga of the Tucker car and/or Preston Tucker the man this book is where you should turn for the most information you can learn in one reading.