The 1948 Tasco Prototype Deserved a Better Reputation

As the economy picked back up after World War II, so did imagination. Everywhere you looked, auto manufacturers and just your Regular Joes were designing some pretty outrageous machines that seem wild to us even today. One of those incredible futuristic-yet-somehow-retro-classic cars was the 1948 Tasco Prototype. This prototype was the single vehicle ever designed by Tasco, The American Sports Car Company. To say its name was ambitious would be an understatement—after this one single attempt at challenging the status quo, Tasco called it quits. Only one model was ever made, and it was, uh, not received particularly well. Designed by Gordon Buehrig and backed by plenty of investors, this was supposed to be the American car that would take on its European brethren at Watkins Glen. Let’s show not only our ingenuity, but also how capable we are of winning! It started with a 1947 Mercury chassis that was heavily modified to accommodate the wild shit Buehrig had in mind. America at the time was obsessed with aviation, a result of advances being made in the field and the high-flying pilots of WWII. It made sense to try to combine the aesthetics of a fighter plane with that of a sports car. That meant it featured an enclosed cockpit like you’d find on a light aircraft and the introduction of the first ever T-bar roof, which didn’t end up in production for twenty more years, fitted with two plexiglass panels that you could lift out. The wheels were enclosed,… [Read full story]