1934 Hudson 8

marv

Hi-Back in the early 1950's I met a old time Hudson mechanic/owner. He claimed that he and his brothers bought a 1934 Hudson 8 sedan that had been the Oakland Fire Chiefs car. The car was supposed to have a factory equipped 2 carburetor engine and a high compression head. Was this just a good story or did Hudson actually make high performance parts then?
     I do know he could assemble 8 cylinder engines from junk that would really perform well and were competitive in circle track racing. He also had lots of good stories about Hudsons.
                                                            Marv.

Park_W

Hudson had optional hi-compression heads pretty early on, but certainly not dual carburetion in that era.  Even a single 2-throat carb didn't show up 'til 1937.

StillOutThere

There were "sandwich" high compression cylinder heads available for the '34-35 six and eight cylinder heads.   Either head had top and bottom halves with a gasket in the center (besides the standard gasket from bottom of head to block)   Higher octane fuel was required due to the higher compression and a brass tag riveted to the head made owner aware of this.   Top of the head was cast steel. Yes it is an oddity that the steel top bears the words "ALUMINUM....". Bottom of the head was cast aluminum by Bohnalite Corp..    6 cyl head is illustrated.   

I am not aware of multiple carburetion from the factory this early for either 6 or 8.

Lee ODell

I've heard of those but first time setting eyes on a Hudson head like that. Thanks for sharing photos.

Lee O'Dell