Ah, what might have been... By the early 50s, post war Hudson was falling behind in sales, and taking a major gamble on a little car- The boxy and somewhat awkward Hudson Jet. The ... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Those are some cool tail lights. The little car really grows on you the longer you look at it. I bet it has a much greater appeal in person too.
Jay thanks for posting I would love to get my hands on one and chop it I mean fix it! HAHA Dave Hitch
Jive-Bomber Jay ... It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the Italian coachbuilders of the '50s & '60s ... but I'm embarrassed to admit that I have never actually seen pics of the '54 Hudson Italia . ... so thanks for posting this! Here's a (very) short video clip of an Italia at a 1954 Rhode Island Auto Show: <EMBED src=http://www.youtube.com/v/WMKMyhvQJyU&hl=en_US&fs=1&border=1 width=660 height=525 type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></EMBED> ... and now for something completely different ... Kate HUDSON singing "Cinema ITALIAno" in the movie NINE: <EMBED src=http://www.youtube.com/v/mmCbbtkRYR8&hl=en_US&fs=1&border=1 width=660 height=405 type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></EMBED> FYI: That little sky blue Italian Sports Car is a 1955 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider (with coachwork by Pininfarina)
Think of the potential of this car had it been tooled up for US manufacture and with a V8 (which Joe Public wanted in his new car!). While it might not have 'saved' Hudson from its ultimate demise, it would have gone out with a bang!
That's what I love to hear!-- Its pretty tough to find hot rod & custom subjects that haven't already been covered in length around here.
I've always liked this car, particularly the roofline, interior, and color combo, which looks great with those wire wheels. Some of the design details like the taillights and the scoops over the headlights seem a kinda forced, but it was the early '50s. With a new OHV V8 it sure might have been a great image maker for a revived Hudson Motors, instead of a footnote in the story of their decline. Speaking of footnotes, there was also an enlarged four-door prototype that has survived... http://hudsonmotorcarcompany.com/thecars/hudsonhornetitalia.html
Sounds like an opportunity for a number of new threads... How about doing a series on Italian studios' designs on American chassis? A lot of us old timers are already familiar with the Chrysler Ghia specials (a neighbour of mine in L.A. back in the '70s had TWO of 'em!), but there are dozens of others of other that have been built over the years. While not Detroit Iron, I've always loved the Fiat Ghia 8V - the father or one of my brother's classmates had one fifty years ago and I thought it was the coolest thing this side of a Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa. Here's an image of the Fiat:
Back in the 70's I was very involved in the HET Club. Several Italia's would pop up at the annual national conventions. There was one in Aberdeen, MD in the 80's, but for the life of me I can't recall the fellows name. He also was a big collector of Nash Healey's. The 4 door surfaced in California and bounced around LA for several years. It was eventually sold to one Elwin Muzzy who lived in Suffren, NY at the time. He had additional restoration work done to it before selling it when he moved to Vermont. I'll dig out some photos of it I took while it was in New York.
From Keels and Wheels in Houston 2009. One of my favorite cars at the event. Only took two pictures. ?
The Ghia body used on the Fiat was also used on at least one Jaguar 150 that I know of, there may well have been more.
In another life I owned Hudson Italia #IT-10015. I never got it restored but the fellow I sold it to did and it became a President's Award winner in the AACA. The styling overall is very attractive although the front and rear bumpers are hand made from dozens and dozens of individual pieces of metal all welded together and when bent, like mine were, are a total nightmare to work back to straight. I appreciate great styling but I never did learn to accept the way the tail lamps are cut into the quarter panels. The little 202" Hudson Jet flathead six cylinder with Twin-H Power was rated at 114HP and there was NO WAY to put a big Hudson six into this chassis without destroying the firewall and the value of one of these cars that is now advancing in six figures depending on the quality of the restoration. But getting that restoration done is a real challenge as every piece of brass trim is hand made for each car and every body panel was hand formed aluminum and those are Borranni chrome wire wheels on magnesium rims and all glass is unique to the Italia. And when you are done you are still driving the chassis of a Hudson Jet compact and I suggest you go to a Hudson club meet and take a test drive in one of those before raising your bidder's paddle at an upscale auction for an Italia.
64 Wildcat ... be sure to checkout these Blogs/threads: * 1963 Rondine Corvette * American Concept Cars & Ghia * The Ford Monte Carlo * The 1955 Chrysler Falcon ... and these threads: * 64 Apollo * Futura, Norseman, and ... re-creations... * lincoln futura concept * 1954 Dodge Concept Cars * 1956 Chrysler Norseman
I remember reading an article (Collectible Automobile maybe?) about 15 years ago detailing the provenance of that 4 door prototype. If I remember right it had been kept by a Hudson exec who eventually gave it to his chauffeur. Said chauffer lived in a lowdown neighborhood in LA and just parked the car on the street until it didn't run, and then it was moved into the backyard. It was the first thing I thought of when the Roth Orbiton was discovered sitting outside a porn shop in Mexico.
Jive-Bomber, Hemi 32 (and everyone else). This is the kind of thing I had in mind for future threads, Bertone's (well, Giugiaro's) Corvair Testudo... There were so many of these kinds of cars built through the years, and like you, Hemi 32, I have a real passion for them.
Hey, The picture of the Chrysler Ghia reminds me of a story I'd been told about Virgil Exner of Chrysler Design fame, and how ataken back he was to learn that Carrozzeria Ghia had pimped the design for the 300 Ghia to German coachbuilder Karrman, as in Karrman Ghia. Neither he or Chrysler got dick for the sale to Karrman AFAIK. Sorry no other info on the Itallia, but in the picture of the yella Italia with fellow HAMBer Coop & his buddy is not only the owner of the yella Italia, but also owner of the Tibbs Streamliner mentioned in previous posts , here on the HAMB. Gary must have one hell of a collection of cars! " Do not reach greedily for the Kool_Aid "
Further on the Hudson Italia and that big 4-door Italia-like prototype; I can't find it in my files at the moment but one of the designers who worked for Ghia later on had worked for Carrozzeria Touring when they did the Jet chassis Hudson Italias and the one 4 door proto and in an interview he verified a long-standing rumor in Hudson circles that there was also a 3-door big chassis prototype that was completed and was a running driving car. It was a 2-door on the driver's side and a 4-door on the passenger side. Its another one of those cars that is probably still sitting in a warehouse with a tarp juuussssst starting to fall off about now.
Sounds like the Avanti-based prototypes that were unearthed years after Studebaker production ceased. We can but hope...
At least one of the Hudson Italia's ended up in Sweden. In the 1970's-80's an Italia was at "Röjeråsen junkyard", outdoors as any other old junk car... The yard owner, Roland Pettersson, still have it, but now he is into old cars and it is taken care of and stored indoors. http://www.jvbk.nu/backspegeln/Backspegeln_varen_2009.pdf One of the the other saved Italia's is in France, the rest of them (19) are in the USA.
I've seen two of those in person...BUT they were 1/4-scale clay styling models, to show what the car would look like as a two-door AND a four-door in one model, versus building two. One was a '46 Super and the other was a '54 Hornet Special. I've heard of one real, moving, running car that was a 1948 Commodore. It was around for a short time in Detroit, then it disappeared, only to reappear years later in the area. I have no idea if it still exists or not.
Here are the six photos from my days in the HET Club. I also recall stories of the 3-door prototype, but have never seen photos of it...if it really ever existed in full scale. The 4-door photos were taken at Elwin Muzzy's home in Suffren, NY during a small gathering he had in the 70's. These were quite common back then, and would often include a tech session taught by retired Hudson mechanics or factory engineers. The 3 Italia shots were probably taken at a meet after the AACA Fall Meet in Hershey. The HET Club would gather in Carlisle on Sunday for a private show and flea market.
wasnt there 2 italias in sweden? i remember seeing one for sale in several car magazines like 10 years ago, and think i remember an reference to that the seller already had one or maybe it was what ever... such rare car it must have been the one RPW mentioned that was put up for sale atleast...
Rich I'm pretty sure that Italia in the pix belonged to Ray Robinson from Portland, Connecticut. Later passed onto his sister Hazel Robinson. Hazel sold the car a few years ago to Wayne Carini of F40 Motorsports. It pops up now and again at various car shows. When I was a kid I used to play in the car. In fact I think I have pix of me standing on the seats when I was 3 or 4.
True, when you said that I also remember seeing one for sale. I'm not all sure, but Roland Pettersson might have had both of them. One was sold back to the USA (#7) as a "basket case", and later resold for 100.000 USD according to this site: http://classicmotornews.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13225&page=3 . The one that still is in Rolands possesion is #9, here are some photos of it from the 1970's: http://scamac.kund.dalnet.se/ed/ I'm not 100% sure why the Italia came to Sweden but a vauge memory reminds me that I've read that it was shown at the International Auto Fair in Stockholm 1954. Well, I might be wrong... But one thing I know: One of the Italia's in Sweden was owned by Berl Gutenberg, a man known for a big scandal in Sweden in the early 1960's. He was responsible caretaker for the money of an early millionare lady, Miss Florence Stevens of Huseby maison (by now a museum http://www.husebybruk.com/ ). She remained unmarried but was known for her "very tight relationship" with the Swedish king in the 1930's-40's. With a Hudson Itaila in her caretakers posession you can guess what had happened: Big time fraud. All her millions gone, her maison was falling a part and she died poor and he ended up in jail. The Hudson Italia was to flamboyant for Sweden and ended up in the backroom of a local car dealer close to my home village, impossible to sell in the early 60's... My dad was interested in it, but thought it was too big (!). He ended up buying a crashed 1949 Porsche instead (a Gmund coupe for 400 USD... ). He restored/repaired the Porsche and used it as a daily driver until I was born in early 1964. Dad lost track of his old Porsche but in the late 1970's he was contacted by a restorer that had found the car in a junkyard. It was restored and was exported to the USA... Now worth a little bit more than in 1962.
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