When car designer Preston Tucker first imagined the Torpedo, back in the 1940s, it seemed to belong in some fanciful future: butterfly-style doors, fuel injection, an airplane-like engine, and pivoting headlights that turn to light the curved road ahead. Alas, this Jetsons-meets-Gattaca-meets-aluminum-skinned road shark never got built. But Bob and Rob Ida are about to change that.
The father-son custom-auto team re-creates historical rides for films, and normally they have plenty of source material. But for the Torpedo, the concept car that inspired the iconic Tucker 48 and still inspires automakers, they had nothing but a few 60-year-old sketches—and a 1/4-scale plaster model unearthed in a tobacco barn. So they 3-D-scanned the model, using the data to CNC-machine a wooden frame. Then they hand-hammered an aluminum exterior to fit over the shape.
That's the easy bit. The hard part is staying true to Tucker's design when the vintage sketches clash with what's practical. Like swiveling front fenders. And keeping the whole design under 2,400 pounds. And having to climb over the passengers in back to get to the single, center-mounted driver's seat. The Idas have solved that problem, at least, by bolting the three seats onto a rotating disc: Open the door, hop in back, and hit a button to spin forward. Now they just have to argue over who gets to drive.
