I forgot to tell you guys about this v.awesome

[Joe_Cool]

I'm just going to paraphrase my posts from OT instead of rewriting the whole story.

I work for the US Forest Service on the IS helpdesk. People call when they have problems, and I fix them. So the other day (Tuesday last week), I had a ticket for somebody named Preston Tucker. I thought to myself, "how funny, what a cool name to have!" So I called him and asked if he was any relation to the car inventor, and it turns out he was Preston Tucker III, the grandson of THE Preston Tucker. The character played by Christian Slater in the movie was his father.

His own Tucker Torpedo is in the Ford museum in Michigan, and he still has the tank with the automatic gun turret they invented, and his dad made him build his own first car by hand. He still owns the Combat Car that his grandfather invented (the car was rejected because it was too fast with top speed of 115 mph, but its motorized gun turret adopted for the B-17 and B-29 bombers).

He told me all these stories about his dad and grandfather and all the shit they did and people they knew. He said when he was a little kid, he sat in the living room with his grandfather and ate popcorn with people like the Firestone and Ford families, Eddie Rickenbacker, James Doolittle, Prince Edward, and Howard Hughes. Apparently he knows George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and the whole Bridges family (Lloyd, Beau, and Jeff) from when they were making the movie.

And he invited me to go shooting with him in Arizona and offered me a ride in his M1151A1, the precursor to the HMMV.

[Joe_Cool]

Coolest phone call ever.

[Publius]

that's awesome

[Joe_Cool]

We talked for like 2 hours, even though his computer problem only took about 35 minutes. That guy has some awesome stories.

And he said Ford was the only car maker that didn't treat them badly. Which is why he allowed his Torpedo to be in the Ford museum.

[Joe_Cool]

Oh, and his grandfather died while sleeping with him on the couch after returning home from a business trip.

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by Joe_Cool

Oh, and his grandfather died while sleeping with him on the couch after returning home from a business trip.

That's a very personal thing to tell a someone who works for the park over the phone...

[Joe_Cool]

Originally Posted by JaJae

That's a very personal thing to tell a someone who works for the park over the phone...

He's obviously very proud of his family. He got to talking and one thing led to another.

[Joe_Cool]

I thought it was pretty funny a year or so ago when I saw an ad for a car that had a "revolutionary" safety feature: headlights that swivel when you turn the steering wheel so you can see where you're going as you turn. The 1948 Tucker Torpedo had that feature.

[7960]

Originally Posted by Joe_Cool

And he invited me to go shooting with him in Arizona and offered me a ride in his M1151A1, the precursor to the HMMV.

and you've already taken the vacation time and bought the plane ticket, right??

[Joe_Cool]

Originally Posted by 7960

and you've already taken the vacation time and bought the plane ticket, right??

Not yet, but you know I'm going to.