Front grill on early 50s Hudsons

Unknown

Here's something that I've been wondering about for a while.

I'm sure somebody here will be able to clear up my confusion.



For the early 50s Hudsons (around '51-'53), the front grill is almost always the same, with one notable exception.

Sometimes one sees the /'\ pattern on the grill, and sometimes not.



For example, with...





And without...





Why is this? Did it change from one year to the next? Did it distinguish different models (eg. Wasp vs Hornet)?

My initial guess is that this is one mark of difference between the '52 and '53 models. Not sure about other years.



Actually, now that I look closer, I see that the hood styling changed from year to year, as well...



Inquiring minds want to know!



Dave K

[Deleted User]

Yes those pics off my site show a 52 Hornet upper photo and lower is 53 Hornet. Hudsons attempt to streamline things and make the public believe stuff had changed and they should buy the new year.



51 and 52 Hornet had the inverted V the 53 Hornet did not. It was also absent in other Hudson models.



Hood does not really change only the Hood ornament. The 53 had the fake hood scoop ornament.

Unknown

That lines up with my initial guess.

Although I didn't know that the /'\ was absent from non-Hornet models.

Pity, that. I rather like it.

I do notice on my '53 Hornet, that there appears to be a mounting bracket for the chrome /'\ (You can sort of see it on the '53 in the second picture above, as well). If I had the piece, I might consider adding it on.



I like the grill styling on these early '50s Hudsons a lot. More so than the late '40s models.



Thanks for clearing that up.

TwinH

NO WAY! The early stepdown grilles rule!

Not like a Buick with its teeth knocked out... OK, now guess what year I have.

Uncle Josh

The 48/49s had a happy face, my favorite. After that they got frowny and mean-lookin.

Unknown

Hm.

I have just put it to the test.

Showed my friend pictures of a '49 and a '53. He's not a Hudson enthusiast, and therefore neutral.



He prefered the '49 grille.

Bah. The unwashed heathen masses are ignorant.

Unknown

54's are probably my favorite...



48-49 has a good look....



then 53



then 50 and last but not least, 51 and 52



someone should start a poll....

rambos_ride

Aren't those affectionatly called "cow-tongue" grilles by those who love Hudsons?

[Deleted User]

I had a '49 grille on my late, tornadoed '50 Pacemaker coupe. Looked much better than that stock '50 grille!!!

[Deleted User]

Rambo ,The "cow tongue" That you refered to was actually a moniker for the 52 Pacemaker hood ornament a stand alone model that appeared for that year only. Desirable now and quite rare.

Unknown

ATTENTION, THE 51 AND 52 GRILLES WERE THE SAME except for the center ornament that holds the red plastic, the 51 is taller and prevents you from changing hoods, 51 Hood is unto itself 52 and 53 grill ornaments and hoods are the same, but center triangle omitted from 53 grill, I LIKE THEM ALL, bill albright

Unknown

hudsonkid wrote:

54's are probably my favorite...



48-49 has a good look....



then 53



then 50 and last but not least, 51 and 52



someone should start a poll....

Darn you guys are crazy...1929 Hudson of course. What do you think I own The greatest Hudson ever made. Ron

hdsn49

Guess which year I prefer.



Hudsonly,

HDSN49

Unknown

I like mine to have HUDSON front and rear.

[Deleted User]

I saw a hudson top center grill emblem on eBay that was lighted. What years did this apply to? And was it certain models only?

Unknown

You can see what my favorite is. Look at the little picture.

Unknown

The 51 and 52 Hudson Hornets where mean looking!Just take a look at the Stock Car records set by Tim Flock 1952 Champion, Herb Thomas and Marshall Teague Real Nascar Drivers in real STOCK CARS,THE FABULOUS HUDSON HORNET.WOW THATS WHY I OWN ONE.

7XPacemaker

On the subject of tailights- I think the stepdowns all had nice looking tailights with the exception of the 52's and 53's. I didn't like that they put them so low in those years.

hudsontech

Uncle Josh Weathersby wrote:

The 48/49s had a happy face, my favorite. After that they got frowny and mean-lookin.

Yeah, back in the NASCAR days that mean-looking grille intimidated the hell out of a lot of non-Hudson race drivers. LOL ROF Did on the highways too. You just didn't want to see that coming down on you.



Hudsonly,

Alex B

Unknown

Here's a "mean" Hudson picture showing the competition what it does best....



I think this is 52, when they wiped the field at Daytona, finishing 1-2

rambos_ride

hudsonkid wrote:

Here's a "mean" Hudson picture showing the competition what it does best....



I think this is 52, when they wiped the field at Daytona, finishing 1-2

Love the picture - that was REAL stock car racing back then - notice except for missing the fender skirts all chrome, stainless and even the antenna is still on the car.



Did they run stock interiors or where those stripped? Are either of these original racers still in existence or on re-creations?

Unknown

glad you guys like the picture....



I got a ton of time in fixing the picture, the best I had was a rough copy of it....



with a bad line going thru the center....



BTW, I have seen pictures of Hudson race car interiors, they all seem to be stock, the one I remember best was a 53 with the chekerboard pattern visible...



Also, I think they had a rope they used as seatbelts in the early days, not sure if that made it into the 50's too much....



doesn't Mario Andretti have one of Marshall Teague's hornets?????

coverton

I certainly agree with U !!! I grew up in Salisbury,NC next door to the Concord track and in HS in the early 50's. The Flock Boys were my heros along with Marshall Teague and Herb Thomas. I have actually seen all of the run and beat hell out of the 88's and othe "junk" . Got a clipping from Tim's death and a picture of Fonty in a 37 Ford.Always liked the bit about Tim and Jocko his monkey.Main reason I have looked long and hard for one is this picture you display and that grill.

thanks for the picture I downloaded for my collection

Carroll Overton

coverton

I also agree with you about "stock" car racing . Built a 2 dr dodge out of someones mind -don't even make a 2dr model when dodge got back in it ? All its about now is taking a Red Necks money and hanging a gold 3 around his neck to be someone in a beer joint.We need to all support Howard Scruggs down in Kings Mountain NC as he still races a HudsonHornet on the Ledgens circuit ? Or so ray Pschirer informed me.

Big O

Unknown

I generally agree with the previous comments on the stock car issue. It's a lot of fun to watch the drivers racing a vehicle similar to the one parked in your driveway.



It should be noted, however, that even in the fifties, these cars were not completely stock.



For instance, from the NASCAR website:

Through this period, Marshall Teague of Daytona Beach, one of racing's true innovators who was largely credited with bringing the Hudson Motor Car Company and Pure Oil into racing, pioneered the use of Chevrolet truck spindles and suspension parts when he was competing in AAA stock car racing. The giveaway that a car was running the heavier axles and beefier suspension components was a six-lugged wheel, not the typical five-lugged version.

Also, my memory may not be correct, but didn't the version of the Hornet used by racers have a larger bore engine?

hudsontech

Stock car racing is definitely NOT stock today. In the 40's, 50's and 60's cars were pretty much stock - in that we didn't have the equipment, ie, radios, body templates, etc, they have today. Engine swaps, like putting the 53 small block hemi engines in late 30's Mopar coupes as we did, were common. And a lot of the Ford flat heads wouldn't have been familiar to old Henry. But the Ford modifications came from the midnite tripping that was the fore-runner of stock car racing.

Teams today spend more on lug nuts than we did in the 50's - including buying a car at Uncle Henry's Junkyard (yeah, back then they were called junkyards - not "recycling yards" or some such). It was possible to build a car for under $100 - and have something that would be competitive.

About the only "safety" device we had were seat belts - as someone said some used a rope, most didn't use anything - being in the Navy at the time (which is why I ran under a different name - the Navy frowned on such dangerous behavior by their people such as stock car racing, duh!!!) - we had access to the safety harnesses out of aircraft that were on their way to the boneyard.

Thing of it was, you couldn't get much over 70, maybe 75, but rare, on a lot of those old 1/3rd mile dirt (or red clay down south) tracks. Most tracks ran a bunch of 3 to 5 lap heats and the winners of those ran the 25 lap features. Tho, some tracks did run more, but 75 laps was about it. By the time you got to 50 everybody was in pretty poor shape.

There was, of course, aftermarket speed equipment available, but most didn't have the money for it. Some tracks, if you could nail the promoter to the ground long enough, paid maybe $10, $15 on a good night, for winning a heat lap and $50 for winning the feature was good money. So you could walk away with $60, $65 for the night. And it was a hell of a lot more fun than watching the races today.

Most tracks didn't have lights so no night racing - but some did. A lot of local tracks did start the races around 6pm - by the time the feature race was over it was getting pretty dark, so most races ended by 8:30, perhaps 9. Saturday nite with a bunch of red necks drinking shine - like the man said in the book "Safest place to be was in the middle of the track on your roof!!!!!"

Tossing beer bottles at the leader, if he wasn't local, was a favorite sport back then. We took two pieces of 1/8 inch plexiglass with chicken wire between the two and used that for a windshield. Rocks - yeah they tossed them too - and bottles would pretty much bounce off the plexiglass. We ran 8 or 10 ply truck tires - broken bottles on the track wouldn't cut them flat. And we ran a soulution of about 90%/10% antifreeze/water with a special 21 pound pressure cap to keep the engines from overheating. It wasn't that we were out there long enough to really overheat the engines, but if they had a watering truck to wet the track down to cut down on the dust within a couple laps the grille and radiator would be plugged with that red clay. And that stuff was a bear to run on - dry you were driving in a dust storm; wet is was like roller skating on an ice rink.

Those were the days for sure.



Hudsonly,

Alex B

[Deleted User]

hudsontech wrote:

Stock car racing is definitely NOT stock today. In the 40's, 50's and 60's cars were pretty much stock - in that we didn't have the equipment, ie, radios, body templates, etc, they have today. Engine swaps, like putting the 53 small block hemi engines in late 30's Mopar coupes as we did, were common. And a lot of the Ford flat heads wouldn't have been familiar to old Henry. But the Ford modifications came from the midnite tripping that was the fore-runner of stock car racing.

Teams today spend more on lug nuts than we did in the 50's - including buying a car at Uncle Henry's Junkyard (yeah, back then they were called junkyards - not "recycling yards" or some such). It was possible to build a car for under $100 - and have something that would be competitive.

About the only "safety" device we had were seat belts - as someone said some used a rope, most didn't use anything - being in the Navy at the time (which is why I ran under a different name - the Navy frowned on such dangerous behavior by their people such as stock car racing, duh!!!) - we had access to the safety harnesses out of aircraft that were on their way to the boneyard.

Thing of it was, you couldn't get much over 70, maybe 75, but rare, on a lot of those old 1/3rd mile dirt (or red clay down south) tracks. Most tracks ran a bunch of 3 to 5 lap heats and the winners of those ran the 25 lap features. Tho, some tracks did run more, but 75 laps was about it. By the time you got to 50 everybody was in pretty poor shape.

There was, of course, aftermarket speed equipment available, but most didn't have the money for it. Some tracks, if you could nail the promoter to the ground long enough, paid maybe $10, $15 on a good night, for winning a heat lap and $50 for winning the feature was good money. So you could walk away with $60, $65 for the night. And it was a hell of a lot more fun than watching the races today.

Most tracks didn't have lights so no night racing - but some did. A lot of local tracks did start the races around 6pm - by the time the feature race was over it was getting pretty dark, so most races ended by 8:30, perhaps 9. Saturday nite with a bunch of red necks drinking shine - like the man said in the book "Safest place to be was in the middle of the track on your roof!!!!!"

Tossing beer bottles at the leader, if he wasn't local, was a favorite sport back then. We took two pieces of 1/8 inch plexiglass with chicken wire between the two and used that for a windshield. Rocks - yeah they tossed them too - and bottles would pretty much bounce off the plexiglass. We ran 8 or 10 ply truck tires - broken bottles on the track wouldn't cut them flat. And we ran a soulution of about 90%/10% antifreeze/water with a special 21 pound pressure cap to keep the engines from overheating. It wasn't that we were out there long enough to really overheat the engines, but if they had a watering truck to wet the track down to cut down on the dust within a couple laps the grille and radiator would be plugged with that red clay. And that stuff was a bear to run on - dry you were driving in a dust storm; wet is was like roller skating on an ice rink.

Those were the days for sure.



Hudsonly,

Alex B

Alex, great story. Damn! Throwing beer bottles from the stands, drinking moonshine and no law suits- those were the days. Too bad I missed them! Niels

rambos_ride

nhp1127 wrote:

Alex, great story. Damn! Throwing beer bottles from the stands, drinking moonshine and no law suits- those were the days. Too bad I missed them! Niels

Hollywood needs to take notice and do a true-life movie on those early days of Hudson Stock Car racing complete with the chicken wire, rock and beer bottle throwing! HooYahh!

[Deleted User]

What I really like about that photo is the high tech racing suits they are wearing. I think Teague is wearing the fireproof floral pattern that was so popular in the fifties.



I have a DVD of the early races and in one scene Teague is high in the corner of a banked turn and just gunning it. A guy in a Pontiac tries to pull in the top of the bank like Teague, he zooms up behind him then flips over the bank. He couldn't hold it on the bank of the turn. Number one thing that failed in these events was the rims. Teague worked with the Hudson engineers and they built him a set of rims that could flex a little more without failing.

[Deleted User]

In modern NASCAR, only the deck lid and the roof sheetmetal are from an actual production car. That's it.



Jack Petty's reproduction of Tim Flock's blue and white #91 Hornet coupe is a faithful copy of the race car. It has a full interior, glass, trim, everything. What a cool ride!

[Deleted User]

And anymore they stretch the rule on roof sheetmetal, think the sheetmetal for a two door Taurus (which Ford never made) would be the same as a four door sedan, I don't think so. There is no STOCK car racing anymore, Monte Carlos are fwd, as were the Chrysler cars until the new Charger (which I think is now rwd) Engines are all aftermarket blocks and parts. One day it will just be called NASCAR racing, One body with different engine designs so that nascar can dictate the outcome of the race! Kinda sounds like the way pro wrestling is run doesn't it?

BJ--TN