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Most Iconic Cars of All Time......

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  • pronstar

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    The 1948 Tucker Torpedo. A one year only vehicle that caused huge problems in Detroit! This could have been a really great car if they had left Preston Tucker alone and just let him make his cars. It was way ahead o the times with an aluminum flat six engine, four wheel disc brakes, rear engine and transaxle, and four wheel independent suspension. Only fifty one of these iconic cars were ever made. Sad.

    In my former life, I had a vendor that did high end car restorations. They did the exterior restoration mentioned (plus some mechanical) in this article...they’re the “shop in nearby Sun Valley”.


    The owners of the car were into the exterior/mechanical restoration for nearly $300k ...it was an incomplete early prototype and they had to fabricate nearly everything.


    Funny story and I’ll keep it brief:
    My dad is an “embellisher” and tells tall tales.

    My vendor had an invite-only open house, the Tucker restoration was a focal point.

    The president of the Tucker owners club was there, he had written a book documenting every known example. Knows literally everything about every single car.

    So I’m talking to him, and my dad blurts-our “my buddy just found one of these in a barn about a month ago!”

    The president of the Tucker club got a confused look on his face, I whisk my dad away, and that’s the last time I was able to take my dad to an industrial-insider car show


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    Capitol Armory ad
     

    pronstar

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    The 1948 Tucker Torpedo. A one year only vehicle that caused huge problems in Detroit! This could have been a really great car if they had left Preston Tucker alone and just let him make his cars. It was way ahead o the times with an aluminum flat six engine, four wheel disc brakes, rear engine and transaxle, and four wheel independent suspension. Only fifty one of these iconic cars were ever made. Sad.

    In my former life, I had a vendor that did high end car restorations. They did the exterior restoration mentioned (plus some mechanical) in this article...they’re the “shop in nearby Sun Valley”.


    The owners of the car were into the exterior/mechanical restoration for nearly $300k ...it was an incomplete early prototype and they had to fabricate nearly everything.


    Funny story and I’ll keep it brief:
    My dad is an “embellisher” and tells tall tales.

    My vendor had an invite-only open house, the Tucker restoration was a focal point.

    The president of the Tucker owners club was there, he had written a book documenting every known example. Knows literally everything about every single car.

    So I’m talking to him, and my dad blurts-out “my buddy just found one of these in a barn about a month ago!”

    The president of the Tucker club got a confused look on his face, I whisk my dad away, and that’s the last time I was able to take my dad to an industry-insider car show


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
     
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    Axxe55

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    Lost in East Texas Elhart Texas
    In my former life, I had a vendor that did high end car restorations. They did the exterior restoration mentioned (plus some mechanical) in this article...they’re the “shop in nearby Sun Valley”.


    The owners of the car were into the exterior/mechanical restoration for nearly $300k ...it was an incomplete early prototype and they had to fabricate nearly everything.


    Funny story and I’ll keep it brief:
    My dad is an “embellisher” and tells tall tales.

    My vendor had an invite-only open house, the Tucker restoration was a focal point.

    The president of the Tucker owners club was there, he had written a book documenting every known example. Knows literally everything about every single car.

    So I’m talking to him, and my dad blurts-our “my buddy just found one of these in a barn about a month ago!”

    The president of the Tucker club got a confused look on his face, I whisk my dad away, and that’s the last time I was able to take my dad to an industrial-insider car show


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

    From one of the articles I read a few years ago, most all of the Tuckers are accounted for, and have known locations, even the ones that are in very poor to non restoration condition.

    Restoring a Tucker would be a VERY expensive project. I did see the blue one that the director Francis Ford Coppola owns. (It was featured on Jay Leno's Garage episode.) Simply a beautiful car.
     

    pronstar

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    From one of the articles I read a few years ago, most all of the Tuckers are accounted for, and have known locations, even the ones that are in very poor to non restoration condition.

    Restoring a Tucker would be a VERY expensive project. I did see the blue one that the director Francis Ford Coppola owns. (It was featured on Jay Leno's Garage episode.) Simply a beautiful car.



    IIRC the Tucker in the LA Times article was also owned by Lucas. It was an incomplete prototype that he used as a parts car.

    Once the values went up, he sold it and that’s when my vendor’s shop got involved, to restore it for the new owner.


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    bbbass

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    NE Orygun
    Iconic, or no... you decide:

    1606490888911.png


    Morris Minor wagon. UK version of a "Woodie"?
     

    pronstar

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    From one of the articles I read a few years ago, most all of the Tuckers are accounted for, and have known locations, even the ones that are in very poor to non restoration condition.

    Restoring a Tucker would be a VERY expensive project. I did see the blue one that the director Francis Ford Coppola owns. (It was featured on Jay Leno's Garage episode.) Simply a beautiful car.

    Oh so one sorta interesting story to bring things full circle.

    My former vendor who did the Tucker restoration, had a great fabricator, a Greek dude named Jimmy. Did unbelievable work using old-school tools to beat metal into submission, definitely a dying art form.

    The vendor went under and last I heard, Jimmy works for Leno.

    Jay has a crew that does everything in-house. Because when you have cars like the only regularly driven Duisenberg on the planet, and something breaks, your only option is to fabricate replacement parts.




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    Axxe55

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    And there are cars that reach an iconic status from movies or TV programs they were in.

    1977 Pontiac Trans Am, from Smokey and the Bandit.
    1968 Ford Mustang GT and 1968 Dodge Charger, from Bullitt.
    1979 Ferrari 308 GTB from Magnum P.I.
    1972 Ferrari Daytona Spyder 365 GTS, and 1986 Ferrari Testarrosa in Miami Vice.
    1983 GMC Vandura from the A-Team.
    1970 Dodge Challenger R/T from Vanishing Point.
    1932 Ford Coupe, and 1955 Chevrolet from American Graffiti.
    1955 Chevrolet and 1970 Pontiac GTO from Two Lane Blacktop.
     

    mroper

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    And there are cars that reach an iconic status from movies or TV programs they were in.

    1977 Pontiac Trans Am, from Smokey and the Bandit.
    1968 Ford Mustang GT and 1968 Dodge Charger, from Bullitt.
    1979 Ferrari 308 GTB from Magnum P.I.
    1972 Ferrari Daytona Spyder 365 GTS, and 1986 Ferrari Testarrosa in Miami Vice.
    1983 GMC Vandura from the A-Team.
    1970 Dodge Challenger R/T from Vanishing Point.
    1932 Ford Coupe, and 1955 Chevrolet from American Graffiti.
    1955 Chevrolet and 1970 Pontiac GTO from Two Lane Blacktop.
    You forgot Chitty-chitty Bang Bang
     

    bbbass

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    And there are cars that reach an iconic status from movies or TV programs they were in.

    1977 Pontiac Trans Am, from Smokey and the Bandit.
    1968 Ford Mustang GT and 1968 Dodge Charger, from Bullitt.
    1979 Ferrari 308 GTB from Magnum P.I.
    1972 Ferrari Daytona Spyder 365 GTS, and 1986 Ferrari Testarrosa in Miami Vice.
    1983 GMC Vandura from the A-Team.
    1970 Dodge Challenger R/T from Vanishing Point.
    1932 Ford Coupe, and 1955 Chevrolet from American Graffiti.
    1955 Chevrolet and 1970 Pontiac GTO from Two Lane Blacktop.

    Did anybody mention the "Gran Torino" movie???
     

    Axxe55

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    As was mentioned in another thread here, the Chrysler K-car platform was iconic in a way. Not so much the car itself, but it the way it was done. With small changes and adaptations, it could fill many different roles of various types of vehicles, and done so very affordably. The iconic part of the K-car was the effect it had in bringing the Chrysler Corporation back from financial ruin during the early 1980's, and re-established them as major automaker again.
     

    pronstar

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    As was mentioned in another thread here, the Chrysler K-car platform was iconic in a way. Not so much the car itself, but it the way it was done. With small changes and adaptations, it could fill many different roles of various types of vehicles, and done so very affordably. The iconic part of the K-car was the effect it had in bringing the Chrysler Corporation back from financial ruin during the early 1980's, and re-established them as major automaker again.

    It could be argued that the K-car was the first modular platform, which has been all the rage for the last decade or so.

    Development costs for a platform are massive, so by making a single modular, flexible platform, these costs are amortized over several different models.

    Up to that point, platforms were typical specific to a car or perhaps a few very similar cars. But the K-car platform was flexible enough to spawn a minivan, sedans, convertible, coupes...it was truly ahead of its time.

    Even if the cars were all crappy LOL

    Nowadays, platform-engineering is the rule rather than the exception.


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    GoPappy

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    The 1948 Tucker Torpedo. A one year only vehicle that caused huge problems in Detroit! This could have been a really great car if they had left Preston Tucker alone and just let him make his cars. It was way ahead o the times with an aluminum flat six engine, four wheel disc brakes, rear engine and transaxle, and four wheel independent suspension. Only fifty one of these iconic cars were ever made. Sad.

    Did you ever see the movie with Jeff Bridges playing Preston Tucker? Good movie.
     

    benenglish

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    dad blurts-out “my buddy just found one of these in a barn about a month ago!”
    My high school chemistry teacher swore her husband had a Buick turbine car sitting in a field on their ranch. Funny thing is, I could never convince her to let me come out and have a look. :)
     

    oldag

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    My high school chemistry teacher swore her husband had a Buick turbine car sitting in a field on their ranch. Funny thing is, I could never convince her to let me come out and have a look. :)
    Chrylser made a turbine engine car. Think that maybe one survived. Others were destroyed due to stupid IRS tax regulations.
     

    Axxe55

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    Chrylser made a turbine engine car. Think that maybe one survived. Others were destroyed due to stupid IRS tax regulations.

    Last I read, there were nine or ten surviving in various automotive museums around the United States, with a couple in private collections. IIRC, the one Jay Leno owns is one of the very few operational ones left. He did an episode about his on Jay Leno's Garage. Very interesting vehicle.

    I think that Chrysler made a little over 200 of them for testing and promotional purposes. Most all were destroyed because they were prototypes, and couldn't be sold to the general public. That was standard practice with most all vehicle manufacturers. They did the same thing with some concept cars as well. I think this had something to do with liability reasons. That concept vehicles and prototypes didn't, or couldn't meet the required safety standards to be road worthy, so they ended up getting destroyed or parted out.

    Every once in while, some escape the crusher, and either end up in a collection, or in a museum somewhere.
     
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