The Hudson-Essex-Terraplane National event was in OKC this week. LOTS of exceptional car and trucks showed up. I believe the final count was 171 for the show and about 20 or so for the swapmeet. The HET meet is not judged in any way. There were several driving tours that folks participated in. Because of the heat this week (110+ in OKC!), several participants flew in and did not show their cars...can't blame them. Quite a few people showed up from outside the US! There were HET members from New Zealand, Holland, England, Sweden, Germany, and more! The Kiwi contingent bought a '52 Hornet coupe a month or so ago and did a driving tour of the US in it. They broke a valve spring, so one of the local chapter members offered up his shop, where they took the car and did a thrash on it in just one day! Enjoy the pics! I took those this morning (Friday) just as things were wrapping up for most of the participants. It looked to be about half/half of the cars that were driven to OKC for the meet, versus those that were trailered. The youngest participant with a car was 16 (1947 Hudson pickup) and the oldest was 92 (1952 Hornet coupe, driven from California! He has over 325K miles on his Hornet!) Below are some stock and hotrodded Hudson pickups, the only '39 Hudson panel known to exist, some cars and the two oldest Hudsons at the meet - a 1925 and a 1919; and the newest, the only 1957 Hornet present...
Had a great time there! Sold a lot of parts, took a lot of pics, and bought a new project car, too! It's a '47 Super Six 4-door, complete, and last tagged in 1963 in Kansas!
Today (Friday) is the last day of the event. The H-E-T organization intentionally schedules the Nationals to be during the week, rather than on a weekend. Monday is the day of the Regional Meet that the host chapter puts on, then the remaining four days are the Nationals. This is done so that participants have the weekends to travel to and from, and allows for a longer event versus if it were just for one weekend. Works out very well! This is my third National meet since 2002 that I could attend. They really are laid back and a lot of fun all around! The National event DOES rotate among the regions. In July '12, it'll be in Gettysburg, PA, and in '13, it'll be in San Mateo, California. They are planned two years in advance.
I hope to go to Gettysburg next year. only a little over two hour drive. Do you know the dates, looks like fun.
Couple more pics...the "patina" '52 Hudson Hornet coupe was driven from Indiana. The car looks like hell, but it really is pretty complete...and the guy DRIVES it. Plus, some other unrestored Hudsons that were there... The '47 on the trailer ('42 front clip) sold this morning fairly cheap, and it needs a great deal of work. The '47 on the grass was very much overpriced...I'm pretty sure he had it out there just to display and had no real intention of selling it. The $5K price tag pretty much eliminated any possibility of a sale. The '47 coupe sold less than ten minutes after it was trailered onto the swap area! That car is on it's way to Michigan, along with the '49 Commodore that was parked next to it.
Just a little history for those comparatively new to Hudsons, the annual "Nationals" used to be very eastern US centric. Somewhat understandable given the heavy distribution of members of the HET Club in that end of the continent. Thirty years ago, due largely to the efforts of Press and Janet Kale, we were able to get the National event held in the west for the first time, at Knott's Berry Farm. Fortunately the attendance was very high with attendees from all across the country, but especially the western reagion. I had the privelege to MC the banquet as well as a couple daily events. If memory serves correctly we had several hundred people in attendance. Good to see they're now rotating around the country more frequently. Thanks for the report.
I just got home from the meet. I had my swap space setup next to Patrick66. It was hot, but very fun. I didn't sell much (actually ended up giving most away so I could pull the trailer home empty). Tha cars are great, but the best part of the meet is the people. Don
geez.i wish i could have made it,i probably would have ended up spending more $ than I'd brought,thanks for posting pics well maybe next year.....
that 52 patina hollywood cought my eye as well. i thought i would include a couple of pictures too. it sure was a lot of fun to look at all these hudsons, and i spent too much money on parts.
Just found this and thought i'd say thanx for the compliment on our "patina'd" '52 hollywood. 57 clothes pins and 5 foot of aluminum foil cured the vapor lock that plaqued us the entire trip. 65-70 mph was the norm and we're glad the horns work. (got tired of wavin'!)
just found this and thought i'd say thanx for the compliment on our "patina'd" '52 hollywood. 57 clothes pins and 5 foot of aluminum foil cured the vapor lock that plaqued us the entire trip. 65-70 mph was the norm and we're glad the horns work. (got tired of wavin'!)
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