A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist. ~Stewart Alsop
I’d rather hoped to find a genuine Step-Down Hudson, and celebrate its brilliant life as the last true Hudson. It’s one of my (many) all-time favorite cars, and I now have a lead to one that will be followed up soon. But it looks like fate will have us do the Hudson story backwards: we took a sunny day off to hike and browse bookstores in Corvallis, and what do I find in a (locked) storage lot: a Nash-bodied Hornet. Hudson deserved a nobler death; this is just wrong.
The Stepdown Hudsons were the real end of the road for another of America’s independent makers in the mid fifties. The post war boom gave all the independents, Willys, Studebaker, Kaiser, Packard, Hudson and Nash their one last chance. Flush with defense contract profits, the results were some of the most innovative and flamboyant cars ever. Hudson’s new 1948 models were deeply inspired by the aerodynamic influences of the Tatra 87 as well as the chopped and channeled “California customs” and other new trends.
The result was quite spectacular, if in a distinctly American idiom. The Stepdown’s low center of gravity and sturdy semi-unitized body construction also endowed it with the best handling of any American car of its time. The legendary H-Power Hornets dominated the early stock-car circuit for several years, all the more remarkable since its engine was a flat head six at a time when the Big Three were unleashing a wave of new OHV V8s.
To make a long sad story short, the Stepdown Hudson’s body style ended up not being a la mode very long, if ever, really. GM’s more upright, glassy and rectilinear styling trend were the new direction, including wrap-around front and rear glass and hardtops. The Hudson’s semi-unitized body was very difficult if not impossible to adapt to the rapidly evolving styling trends. The Hollywood hardtop (above) showed the challenges of adapting the Stepdown all too clearly.
All the independents found GM’s increasing lock grip on the medium-upper end of the market very uncomfortable indeed, and started to look to the lower end of the spectrum for salvation, or at least a brief life extension until someone came up with a better idea.
Hudson’s effort at penetrating the lower end of the market, the dumpy Step-up Jet (above), was a dismal failure, and essentially their death warrant, as it burned up what little cash they had left. Well, that and the 1953 sales war unleashed by Ford, which ultimately was the final straw that forced consolidation among the independents. Two marriages of “un-equals” resulted: Studebaker – Packard, and Nash -Hudson.
Nash boss George Mason’s vision was to merge all four, a lofty goal that eluded him. But the 1954 merger he engineered with Hudson was the beginning of American Motors (AMC), and its name certainly didn’t belie his ambitions. Needless to say, like with the Packard-Studebaker hook-up, the merger resulted in near-instant rationalization of production. The last true Hudsons were 1954 models, sadly restyled a bit to look like the crashed Jet, no less. For 1955, the Hudson factory was put to defense contract work, and the “new” Hudsons were essentially badge-engineered Nashes, and derisively referred to as “Hashes”.
The Fairna-influenced Nash body that had arrived in 1952 started outquite clean. The 1955s become a bit more flamboyant. But any semblance of cohesiveness was tossed overboard with the Hudson versions. Actually, the 1955s weren’t all that bad, but they certainly weren’t Hudsons. The real coup de grace came with the 1956s: AMC probably wanted to hasten the Hudson’s demise by giving it a truly wretched re-hash, the so-called V-Line styling.
My photographs, taken over a chain-link fence at some distance, do the car the small favor of soft focus and blurry details, especially the front end:
Looks like something from Russia, no?
The “Hashes” also had a hash of engines to power them to their death. In addition to the small 202 CID six from the crashed Jet, the hi-line Hornets also got a jumble of engines to speed them along. The big 308 CID flathead six was still in action through 1956, and a Packard-sourced OHV V8 in 1955 and and 1956. That was replaced by AMC’s own new 250 CID V8 in ’56, and the final ’57s, which were now all Hornets, had the 327 CID version of that engine.
This ’56 Hornet was even graced with a continental spare, no less, to complement its four-tone paint job. Yes, the clean aero-look never seem to take hold for very long in America, every time it comes around, again and again. Americans do love a bit of ornamentation and “visual interest”, shall we say?
Sales plummeted: the last ’54 Stepdowns sold all of 36k units; the ’55 Hashes were down to 20k, the V-Line ’56s garnered 10k, and the almost-identical last year ’57s didn’t break 4k. It had been wrong to resist the inevitable death of Hudson with the Hashes, and it certainly was useless.
ateupwithmotor has a fine article about the Stepdown Hudsons here
A lady who wrote car reviews for the New Orleans Times-Picayune once stated that her grandfather was the designer responsible for Hudson’s V-line styling.
I think she did this in order to establish her automotive credentials, or maybe she was just really, really brave.
The person officially responsible for the 1956 Hudson was AMC head stylist Edmund Anderson, but supposedly the person who really designed it was independent industrial designer Richard Arbib.
What a find! I think I’ve seen one at a classic car show over the years.
The 1955 Hudsons were actually nice looking cars, as they opened up the covered wheels of the Nash body. The front is a thoroughly conventional, but better than that year’s Nash. That body was quite clean, but, as you said, the urge for greater ornamentation has been irresistible in America.
The 1956 Hudson is the perfect example of the challenges facing a cash-strapped car company as it tries to make an aging design look new. That year’s Nash really isn’t much more attractive…looking back, it’s hard to imagine anyone choosing either car over a contemporary Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Mercury, Dodge, DeSoto or Chrysler.
Fortunately, AMC had an all-new Rambler in the wings for 1956, and it proved to be the company’s salvation. George Romney cancelled a planned all-new body for the Nash and Hudson, figuring correctly that even a new car would not make much headway against the Big Three competition. He bet the farm on the Rambler, as it did not have any real competition at that time. This turned out to be the right decision, and AMC prospered through the mid-1960s, until the Big Three intermediates stole its market.
Romney cut orders to release the all new Rambler for ’56; it was to have been first introduced in ’57. Romney and the AMC board agreed that the Rambler was the key to survival; the marque whose sales climbed steadily from ’53-’55/’56 vice the Hudson/Nash brands which were sinking.
Cutting loose the names of Nash and Hudson was a last minute decision as the ’58 Ambassador (117″ wheelbase stretch forward of the “A” pillar of the Rambler) has Hudson V-line styling cues all over it and some ’58 clays had “Nash” and “Hudson” badges and decor.
The styling and colors remind me a bit of this…
Give me a Hudson, Nash, or Packard any day. (Now if I just had the money to restore one to its former glory.)
Over the years I’ve come to realize that I’d rather have “good condition” old cars over “restored” ones. Far less paranoia about the small flaws and potential damage.
I have heard and read that the ’56 “V-Line” styling was either Edmund Anderson or Richard Arbib. Most historians point to Richard Arbib since his work over the years tends to gravitate towards sharp creases, “v” shapes. Edmund Anderson was a GM man originally – I don’t think Anderson and his lieutenants (like Bill Reddig) would’ve been solely responsible for the 1956-57 Hudson monstrosities.
Still, I’d take a ’56 Hornet with a Twin-H 308 six any day of the week.
FYI . . . .Richard Teague was still a couple of years away from coming aboard AMC by the time the ’56 and even ’57 Hudsons hit the streets – still in the Packard “Bunker”.
From certain angles the car reminds me of the Edsel Bermuda wagon that had two tone paint and wood-grain trim. Sort of like wearing bermuda shorts with dress socks and a sport coat.
You forgot the really small “Brownie” camera around the neck!
I don’t think the Hashes were all that blasphemous. The Step-Down Hudsons and Air Flyte Nashes were conceptually similar with unitized construction, and the Nash-bodied Hudson still offered the legendary six. Considering how obsolete the Step-Down was, and how ugly the picture for independents had become in the mid-’50s, it was a reasonable, non-cynical move by AMC.
It was certainly better than the Packardbakers, anyway.
Both Nash and Hudson were doomed, anyway, after GM and Ford ramped production up to put everybody else out of business. I never quite understood what Hudson brought to the table in the AMC merger; Packard may have been a better partner, but Nance and Romney couldn’t coexist and a premium car line probably would have killed the company much sooner.
I’ve always wondered what would have happened if AMC hadn’t blown its budget trying to chase GM every time its conservative product line started gaining traction.
Found this online: “One quick result from the merger was the doubling up with Nash on purchasing and production allowing Hudson to cut prices…”
Nash seemed stronger since it had the Kenosha assembly plants, and Husdon production moved there.
I sure hope that car is being cared for by someone. It looks pretty decent for a 55 year old car. I’d hate to see it get turned into Chinese tuna cans.
There is one of these growing mossy in a Self Storage yard in Kenmore Washington northeast of Seattle. Exact same color scheme in fact.
There’s a nice red Step-Down (a ’48 or ’49, I think) parked around the corner from me in Pasadena (occasionally joined by a second example); I should get some shots and post them to the Flickr group. It looks to be in running condition and is far from neglected, though I’ve never seen it being driven.
If it could talk! I’d like to know in what year the fron clip got collision re-sprayed.
Waiting for Death in a Borrowed Four Tone Suit.
I think that’s the best article tagline I’ve ever read, well done.
You could have just left it at that and attached the photos. No other words required.
“Waiting For Death In A Borrowed Four-Tone Suit”
Incisive, snappy title for this story. Well done.
My grandfather pulled his camping trailer to the logging camps of the redwoods in his Hudson with a strait 8. Grandma said it was always broken though. But the story of it has always made me want a Hudson Hornet.
You got through this article with nary a mention of Doc Hudson, the “Fabulous Hudson Hornet” in the Pixar movie “Cars”. Doc Hudson (voice by Paul Newman) was my favorite character in the movie. In one scene, he gives his engine a few good revs and I’ll bet anyone $5 that the sound is that of a gen-u-wine Twin H 308.
As for the Hashes, I always wondered just who bought these? I just thought of a fascinating mind game: It is 1957. You have made up your mind that you are going to support one of the independents by buying a new car. So is it a Nash, a Hudson, a Studebaker or a Packard? This is going to take some soul searching. No wonder Chrysler had such a great year.
Methinks this car once had a Continential tire kit.
Help me raise $20,000 to buy a Pininfarina-styled, fully loaded, 1955 Nash Ambassador 2dr hardtop on Hemings!
The presence of the small chrome emblem directly under the vent glass on the front door (there was one on each side) indicates that this particular Hudson was equipped with factory installed air conditioning which was the “All Weather Eye” Heating and A/C System. Introduced initially in ’54, it followed Pontiac’s introduction of an air conditioning system that was completely mounted up front and ducted through the dashboard. For the Nash and Hudson models, there were two little flaps located at the extreme ends of the top of the dash that opened to direct the cool air.
Bill Sapp
Hamlet, NC
The 55-57 Hashes looked like their styling was supposed to be inspired by that of the GORGEOUS Hudson Italia, but it was cheapened and uglified to hasten Hudson’s fateful demise.
My grandfather was a millwright at Hudson, when the Detroit plant was closed, he was offered a transfer to Kenosha My grandmother who wanted to stay near her only child, my dad, nixxed the idea. So my grandfather just moved to Chrysler and worked there until retirement.
I once saw a poster, perhaps at the Depot Town Hudson garage, when the old man still owned it and it was the last Hudson garage, not a museum, and the pastor showed the amazing level of manufacturing vertical integration … Even down to in-house fabrication of the seat springs…