Got A Spare $5 Mil???

AutoInsane · #1 02-27-2009, 03:34 PM

Thought you guys would be interested in this. The one and olny convertible Tucker!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cars-Truc...emZ250376617340

**PeteLeathersac** · #2 02-27-2009, 05:08 PM

Cool and all but in the lengthy description/story, nothing seems firm that this car is indeed THE original prototype ragtop?.
Stamped 57 in multiple places seems as close as it gets but are they original stampings, what's the history of this specific car, when did it surface, what state of transformation to a ragtop was it in then, does it have the frame modified by Tucker...etc?.
Could be but like so many cars where the pedigree is a large percentage of the value, if it's not specified, why isn't it?.

Thanks for the link..

~ Pete

AutoInsane · #3 02-27-2009, 05:17 PM

The description is a short novel!! Is this what you were looking for Pete?

Information given in interviews of Robert McLelland, Head of the Tucker Experimental Assembly and Test Department, and Joe Lenki of Lenki Engineering after the Tucker plant closed states that the convertible project was taken to Lenki Engineering headquarters soon after news of a potential Tucker bankruptcy broke.

There the car sat untouched and under canvas for many years. A retiring Lenki Engineering employee was allowed to purchase the unfinished project just before he left the firm. The employee had plans to finish it but never did.

The Lenki employee sold the project to another individual who also planned on finishing it. This individual could not finish the project due to lack of resources and sold it to Allan Reinert, the individual Benchmark purchased it from. Mr. Reinert has owned four Tuckers and has worked on those and many other Tuckers. He is a Tucker historian without peer and is a veritable walking and talking encyclopedia of Tucker history. If you want to know something about virtually any Tucker that exists today, from the Tin Goose to #57 he can probably tell you.

**PeteLeathersac** · #4 02-27-2009, 06:25 PM

I read all that but again if it truly is THE original prototype, why not say so instead of the lengthy roundabout way of leading one to believe it is?.
Again it's cool and sorry to be skeptical...perhaps more concrete info is available to potential buyers?.

~ Pete

AutoInsane · #5 02-27-2009, 10:07 PM

From the seller:

Hello, yes, this is the prototype convertible Tucker. We have a letter from a verified Tucker Corporation accountant that reads:

Dear Allan (previous owner), Long time no see. I hope your address hasn't changed and this gets to you okay. Did you ever get the Tucker convertible finished? I would like to drive over and see it sometime. Give me a ring at 414-275-XXXX and tell me when it will be convenient to get together and bring each other up to date.

Sincerely, Mel Koeppen

We have paycheck stubs, tax withholding statements, and a picture of Mel Koeppen (the accountant mentioned above) in a newspaper from 1948 that further verifies he was an employee. "The Indomitable Tin Goose" (page 90 softback version)verifies that #57 was in Tucker Corporation experimental department when the plant closed. #57 was mentioned in a "Tucker Topics", the Tucker Automobile Club of America's newsletter in 1994 as being a convertible.

The person we bought the car from interviewed Tucker Corporation employees who said that they knew that the project existed when the plant closed. He is willing to sign sworn affidavits that outline his interviews.

**quick-bowtie** · #6 02-27-2009, 10:24 PM

That car had been forsale/offered around for a while, there is nothing to prove its a real car and all the people in the Tucker Community believe its homemade now all of a sudden it has paper work?? There was just an article in Old Cars Weekly again about it. Cool car and has value but not and where Near or even in the same Galaxy what they think its worth. JMO

ChevyThunder · #7 02-27-2009, 11:38 PM

I could come up with the $500.00 deposit !

I grew up in a town about 20 min south of San Francisco and there was a Tucker that used to drive around every so often. Even though cars were already my passion I had no idea what it was and never really cared. When I saw the movie I knew exactly what I had been looking at all those years.