PastImperfect:Preston Tucker and the Tucker Torpedoes
In 1944, during the second World War, Preston Thomas Tucker, head of the Tucker Aviation Corporation, began to think about a new kind of post-war car. Tucker realised that post-war the car manufacturers would re-hash their pre-war models, and that by building something radically different he could capture the public's imagination.
To finance his venture, Tucker used the US government's industrial expansion schemes, and also sold nearly 1,000 dealer franchises to finance the car.
He then secured the biggest single-building factory in the world, a former Dodge factory which had been converted to build B-29 bombers, as a manufacturing plant on the south side of Chicago.
Tucker then issued stock to the value of $20 million to pay for the plant, and even covered the cost of tooling by selling accessories to buyers who paid a deposit to secure a specific chassis number when the new cars - by now named the Tucker Torpedo - were finally built.
If this all seems to have echoes of a certain venture in Northern Ireland, well, yes and no! Unlike De Lorean, the Tucker was genuinely innovative and certainly caught the imagination of the American public. Compared to contemporary American cars, the Tucker was wide and low-slung and had a modern styling far ahead of its rivals offerings.
Its most distinctive feature was its trademark Cyclops headlight which turned with the steering. The Tucker utilised a 5.5-litre flat-six helicopter engine and an electric gearchange which remained problematic on all the cars eventually manufactured.
Tucker's innovative thinking went as far as disc brakes - as well as safety features including pop-out windscreens, padded dashboards and collapsible steering columns; all at a time when safety was just about the last thing on the minds of American car manufacturers.
But Tucker's ambitions ran ahead of his finances, and the project which had seemed so promising failed. A three-year government investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission led by Thomas B Hart for suspected fraud followed.
Hart proved particularly vindictive towards Tucker and many believed that he was motivated by a motor industry that saw the radical new Tucker as a threat.
Eventually Tucker was brought to trial to face 31 charges but was found not guilty, and in 1950 was again a free man.
Just 37 Tucker Torpedo cars were built before the company closed down, while a further 14 were built by unpaid volunteer workers - a measure of the high regard his employees had for the man. Today the Tucker Torpedoes that survive are prized collector's cars.