While America’s “Big Three” manufacturers concentrated on producing lightly updated prewar models to meet the incredible pent-up demand for new automobiles in the years immediately following WWII, smaller independent manufacturers and brash startups launched bold, new designs. Successful industrialist Preston Tucker remains among the most famous of all, with his drive to revolutionize the auto industry with his radical, eponymous creation.

Tucker’s company famously closed in 1949, and conjecture remains as to the causes to this day. His innovative, rear-engine car was poised to set the industry on its ear with its advanced engineering, comprehensive safety features, and futuristic design cues – many of which were later adopted by the Big Three.

Visionary passenger-safety features included pop-out windshield panels and a padded dash with a safety space below on the passenger-side, affording front-seat occupants safe haven in a collision. Further, a central headlamp switched on and tracked the driver’s steering-wheel inputs beyond 10 degrees to the left or right.

The roomy and sleek fastback body design was penned by talented stylist Alex Tremulis, whose many design credits include work with Gordon Buehrig on the Cord 810/812, the 1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt, and later a lifting-body aircraft design which foreshadowed NASA’s Space Shuttle.

A proprietary 589 cid engine and dual torque-converter drivetrain were under development but challenges forced replacement by the Franklin O-335 “flat-six” modified from its application in the Bell 47 helicopter. It was converted to liquid cooling and linked to a four-speed, vacuum-electric preselector gearbox adapted and updated from the Cord 810/812 design. Fuel injection and disc brakes were planned features but did not appear on the pilot run of 50 Tuckers built.

The now legendary automotive journalist Tom McCahill was the first member of the press to be invited to road test the all-new Tucker. For the August 1948 issue of Mechanix Illustrated, he drove a Tucker at 105 mph on Cicero Avenue in Chicago, and proclaimed it to be “the greatest performing passenger automobile ever built in this country.”

According to Tucker historical records, this Tucker, the 14th production car built, chassis 1014 finished in Waltz Blue, was dispatched to San Francisco and was purchased new in 1949 by Charles DeCosta, before passing to Isadore Rasinsky two years later. In 1952, 1014 was purchased by the already noted multiple Tucker owner, mechanic, and historian William Hamlin of Ontario, California, showing some 70,000 miles.

Mr. Hamlin provided Tom McCahill with the opportunity to reprise his article for Mechanix Illustrated in 1971, road testing Tucker 1014. Mr. Hamlin is known to have driven 1014 extensively; in fact, at the time of the 1971 road test, the car had logged over 155,000 miles, making it one of the most road-proven Tuckers of all. For his new article, McCahill drove 1014 on the freeways of Southern California, again attaining 105 mph before easing off the throttle. A brass plaque in 1014’s engine compartment memorializes the event, which also marked the occasion of Tom McCahill’s 25th year with the magazine.

Mr. Hamlin passed away in 1979, and 1014 was soon in the inventory of San Francisco dealer and Tucker specialist Beverly Ferreira. Around that time, Mr. Ferreira sold the Waltz Blue Tucker to Francis Ford Coppola, and a few years later, it was readied for yet another closeup – this time on the big screen.

A native of Detroit, Francis Ford Coppola was drawn to automobiles from an early age, and recalls the excitement that the advertised release of the Tucker generated in the late 1940s. Later in life, when the by-then celebrated filmmaker began to research Preston Tucker, he felt a strong kinship with him. Being a creative idealist and a visionary himself, who has had to contend with powerful hindering forces, there are certainly similarities between the two famous and influential men. It was not long before Mr. Coppola began development on the film, Tucker: The Man and His Dream. The 1988 film was directed by Mr. Coppola, and through Jeff Bridges’ memorable portrayal of Preston Tucker, the story of these would-be revolutionary cars was vividly told for the first time.

Tucker 1014 appears in several scenes in the production, and Mr. Coppola allowed it to be substantially disassembled for sequences filmed on the set of the Tucker factory assembly line. Following the release of the film, which raised worldwide appreciation of the cars and contributed greatly to their value, Tucker 1014 has served as the centerpiece of Mr. Coppola’s collection. An attraction in itself, the car is driven occasionally, and has been placed on public display from time to time at Inglenook, the Coppola family’s renowned Napa Valley winery.

The importance and allure of the surviving Tuckers to astute collectors is well understood; however, there are not enough to satisfy all of the collectors who would like to own one, and opportunities to acquire one are rare. Tucker 1014 stands as proof of Preston Tucker’s valiant effort to change the world, and it has been lovingly preserved for over 40 years by perhaps the most influential Tucker aficionado of all. Gooding Christie’s is proud to present Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker, an important and most unexpected opportunity