A: It’s pretty easy for art to be ahead of its time. And fashion trends. Those tend to be ahead of their time a lot, too. But automobile safety? That’s one thing you’d think people wouldn’t mind getting a little early. But that wasn’t the case in 1948, when innovative car engineer Preston Tucker unveiled “The Car of Tomorrow Today.”
Equipped with advanced features that wouldn’t find their way into cars for decades, the Tucker automobile featured independent four-wheel suspension, a rear mounted air-cooled engine, disc brakes, a padded dashboard, and even seat belts!
Strangely, these highly beneficial additions were ultimately the reason for the car’s failure. All those bells and whistles were expensive, and when the Tucker Corporation was hit with a federal investigation into its “management practices,” it proved too much for the company bank account. Apparently, Tucker was ahead of his time in the Enron sense, too.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Tucker: The Man And His Dream is one of my favorite movies, and it tells the Preston Tucker story pretty well.