Hudson - Kaiser - Continental

50C8DAN

As much as I love the Hudson stepdowns, I have always thought the Kaiser made some of the nicest looking cars of the early 50s.  It was clear they were ahead of the industry in exterior and interior design.  According to some sources: 700 sq. in more glass, lowest beltline through '56, thin A pillars, padded dash for safety, pop out front windshield, etc.  However it is clear that the anemic Continental flathead six was a dog and Kaiser had not a fix.  Even supercharging did little to make it perform.  Like Hudson they did not have a V8 and this was costly in the long run.  Apparently they did have a V8 in the design phase, but could not financially pull it off (I guess old Henry just did not want to cough up the money?)  That design supposedly became the AMC V8 in 1957.  However what I think this points to is even if Hudson had pulled off a signficant revamp of the stepdown design in say '51 or '52 this would not have mattered.  The lack of V8 power was a nail in the coffin and the money they had was wasted on the Jet.  What would have made a lot of sense was for Kaiser early on to join forces with Hudson or others or even Continental to design and build a base V8 for sales to various independents, even Nash.  What could have been with a little foresight????

KustomKreeps

^^ just brought a 52 Kaiser overrider i plan to use on the rear of my 49 hudson.
looking at putting beehive lights in the tips of the bullets for reverse lights ( had thought exhaust originally)

Should look pretty cool sitting on the Hudson rear bumper and framing the number plate.

So ya im sweet on Kaisers my self.

Kaiser would of had to join up with Hudson by 53 if you ask me. Or at least some type of V8 Should of been out by 53.

RichardD

Here are my back up lights, 50 watts each, almost hidden. Yes, that is 100 watts!

Also if you look close you will see a back-up camera mounted above the first '3'.

kiwijeff

Haiser.....
Kudser.....
Kudson....
Hudser.....

Vooper Vee....

50C8DAN

http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/cgi-bin/pub9990262549620.cgi?itemid=9990289766499

"When Packard informed Nash that it was going to "pull the plug" on the supply of their V8, by the end of 1956, AMC was caught without a viable alternative. Acquiring Hudson did not help as their aging 308 in-line six was reasonably powerful but heavy and at the end of its potential. Worse, there really wasn't anyone on the powertrain engineering team with any OHV V8 knowledge, What to do? 

Enter David Potter of the recently defunct Kaiser-Frazer Company. Potter was a powertrain engineer for Kaiser and had headed the team that had played with an experimental V8 of their own design; a 288 cu. in. unit primarily created Potter himself. At some point K-F decided it did not have the money to build this engine. At somewhere close to the same point in time, David Potter left Kaiser for a job at AMC, which neatly coincided with George Romey's decision to build a new V-8. When interviewed about the K-F V8 in the 1970s, Potter was vague about whether he brought the design with him or just did something similar from scratch, but surviving pictures of the K-F 288 show an engine that appears identical to the first-generation AMC V8. 

The speed of the new AMC V8's development of less than 18 months from decision to production at a time where only testing could bear out paper design suggests that the Kaiser work was accepted as what would normally have been AMC's preproduction process. It also suggests that AMC jumped on David Potter's V8 quite literally as soon as they became aware of its existence. "