Stillborn Cars: 1956 Tucker Carioca

We have all heard the tucker story about the infamous torpedo and its premature death, but after the Tucker Corporation was shuttered another story began, one much less documented, the story of the Carioca. Like DeLorean tucker did not give up, he began work on a new car with the help of Brazilian investors.  He enlisted the help of the famed Russian American designer Alexis de Sakhnoffsky to design this new vehicle. CLICK READ MORE

The basic requirements for the Carioca were that it had to be easy to build, and utilize as many premade parts as possible. Though the car could no longer use the Tucker name (Due to the fact that it had been purchased in the sale of the company) it still features many signature cues from the ’48, such as the center headlight, the streamlined front end, the rear-engined layout, and the articulating lighting. The exterior of the car was very poised, dramatic, and of course loaded with chrome. The fenders were separate from the body and could be removed for cleaning easily. The interior was designed to be simple, and once again easy to assemble. No known photos exist of the interior. The Carioca was planned to be a kit car, with the parts built at plants in Brazil, thanks to the president, who offered Tucker a deal for tax free factories. Dealer franchises could have been obtained for $60 and the cars could have been built at the dealership for the customer, or sold as a kit. Tragically Tucker died before the car’s completion and reports conflict as to whether it reached the prototype stage or not. A company called Rob Ida Concepts, which already builds Torpedo replicas, was working on a replica version of the Carioca, possibly for a limited run, but the project may have been dropped. Check back next week for a stillborn car with its engine in the same place as the Carioca’s