I can't take the "ahead of its time" claim. No vehicle of any kind was ever "ahead of its time". Not Tucker. Not this thing. Not anything. Bad ideas and lack of sufficient technology, and vanity about anybody being able to make a vehicle look appealing cause these products to be exactly what they are: ill-conceived, ugly, and problematic (from operational and/or assembly and/or durability and/or practicality and/or cost). They end up being different-but-not-better. Tucker's idea and execution were good. The vehicle COULD have become reality. But Tucker failed to see the business reality of the strangulation power GM, Ford, and Chrysler (and even the small-fries at Studebaker, Hudson, Kaiser, et al) had on their suppliers. ALL of them told suppliers that if they took Tucker's business, they would lose contracts with the larger companies. That's ILLEGAL, but how do you prove it in court when there are no documents or recordings of conversations or corroborating witnesses to testify against their cash-cows, the existing auto companies? Tucker should have had somebody on his team who understood how underhanded the bigger companies would be in trying to stifle Tucker. This could have led to Tucker becoming "self supplying" for things normally purchased from 3rd party vendors... wheels, radiators, heater cores, distributors, carburetors, transmission... everything. Tucker did the right thing by going with an aircraft engine out of reach of being shuttered by established auto companies. But not being able to contract for all the bits needed from outside suppliers made Tucker vulnerable to the economic power of the existing auto companies. History is FULL of people who thought they were GUARANTEED success or were OWED success for products that were in NO WAY WORTHY. They are like those HORRIBLE-PAINFUL-EMBARASSING auditions on American Idol where somebody thinks they are top level performers when they can't sing AT ALL and can't understand the negative feedback. That's exactly what this "safety car" is/was... a horrible, painful, embarrassing project that should have just faded away. Oh wait... that's exactly what happened to it! Imagine that! For us 60 or 70 years later all we have is the story and photos because the vehicle itself appears to be returning to nature slowly with the current owner not interested in restoring the vehicle. (What the hell is the "Products" thing for when posting a comment? It appears to have Hagerty articles, in a searchable format, but this article about Sir Vival does not appear in the choices so I had to pick some OTHER article????).
