Watch a Barn-Find Tucker Lay Numbers on a Dyno

From Road & Track

Preston Tucker built just 51 examples of his innovative rear-engined car. Today, 47 are known to survive. And for perhaps the first time ever, we finally get to see one run on a dyno to learn exactly how much power it's making.

Tucker #1044, recently purchased out of a barn in Ohio, was discovered in incredibly good condition. Showing just under 8000 miles on the odometer, it's served as a reference point for other Tucker restoration projects.

Now, #1044 is undergoing a restoration of its own. And the folks at Preston Tucker LLC put it on the dyno to see how much power that 5.5-liter water-cooled flat-six puts out.

The baseline numbers, according to Preston Tucker LLC, were 94 horsepower and 221 lb-ft of torque at 2700 RPM at the wheels. As Raphael Orlove at Jalopnik points out, that's down a bit from the 150-to-160-hp figure referenced by many Tucker historians, but it shows that the priority was low-end, low-stress torque. The engine was derived from a powerplant originally designed for a Bell helicopter, so a screaming redline wasn't in the recipe.

We continue to be fascinated by these amazing, unusual machines.

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