Couple of nice pictures here of a '38 and a '39 Hudson

PaulButler

http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/hudson-car.htm

The 112 is what I want mine to look like one day :-)

The words suggest that RHD American cars were "unusual" so whoever wrote then wasn't aware of the factories down in London that built them.

The "trade plate" that is referred to on the second picture is what is used over here by dealers etc. when they are transporting cars that aren't registered , taxed etc.

Or on many other times when you just wanted to get a car somewhere they were the simple option :-)

PAULARGETYPE

JUST SOME PHOTOS OF 38 AND 39 WAS LOOKING I CAN'T FIND A PHOTO OF THE 39 112 CP I HAD FOR 30 YEARS

hudsontech

Love that last picture - dig that wild hat and the lepoard skin jacket. LOL

Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN

oldhudsons

a big Hudson, like the '38, probably a Custom 8, was considered an expensive car in England. Railtons were even more expensive with their custom made alum. bodies BUT what made them expensive beyond just their initial price was the 8 cyl. engine as, and I understand it's the same
today, the registration fee is based on engine displacement (which is why some big English cars, even Rolls-Royces, would come with small 6 cyl. engines) so were expensive to keep in that sense as well as more "thirsty" as the gas pump. Railton even built what are called "baby" Railtons with the little 6 engine.
I understand a 254 cu.in. engine in the '30s in England considered a BIG engine.

PaulButler

One of the ideas behind the HP tax that was around in the 20's & 30's was to try and stop the import of large engined low priced American automobiles to "protect" the home market.

However with many manufacturers having bases over here the cars were coming in one way or another :-)

The Model A was a good example of compromise there ; the cars produced here had 14.9HP engines as opposed to the 24HP engines in the equivalent US models

The British RAC horsepower rating was calculated from total piston surface area (i.e. "bore" only). The tax was replaced in 1947 with a tax on cubic capacity and then in 1948 with a falt rate tax.

As oldhusdsons says the tax on engine size is back today with smaller cars attracting a lower rate of taxation than "larger" cars. My 2 litre Toyota Picnic costs a lot more to tax than my 1 litre Toyota Yaris