Hudson Sales

super651

I grew up in Aiken S.C. in the 1950s a small town 80 miles south of Darlington Race Way and saw some Hudson Wins at the track. There was a Hudson dealer in Aiken S.C. and IN Augusta Ga just 15 miles south of Aiken.

Even as Hudson was winning in Darlington they just did not sell well in Aiken some of the locals said that it was a Bathtub or Football and when driven on the Carolina dirt backroads the low center of gravity would cause the car to hang up on the center (drag on the lowest part)

There were a few Shine-Runners that would run between Aiken and Augusta and the local lawmen could not chatch then once they made it to the Blacktop. The Police Chief in Augusta had a 52 Hornet just so he could catch them as they crossed over into Ga.

I bought a 52 wasp in 1955 and never been without one as of that time.

Raced on many drag strips in the 60s 70s and 80s with lots of wins mostly in front of the V-8 powered cars.

Why not in the Showrooms but did on the tracks ????

Hudsonly to all.

[Deleted User]

Sadly, most of us see what the public didn't back in the day. The sad fact is that the Hudson was more bang for the buck than anyone could imagine,or appreciate. There was once an old Aesop fable about a ventriloquist who could imitate the sound of a rooster crowing so well that people came just to hear his great immitation. One day the ventriloquist deceided to conseal the real thing off stage. People booed and hissed when they heard the crowing. none thought it was very good. At that point the ventriolquist revealed what he had done and had the last laugh----until the mob ran him out of town. Most people want immitations. Few appreciate the real thing. For the few on this forum who do, it's kind of enjoyable to see what others could not . Let's keep this to ourselves. The more for us!

hudsontech

I raced against a few Hudsons back in the mid- to late-50's running 37, 38 and 39 Dodge & Plymouth coupes. Even running the small block 241 small block hemi engine out of '53 Dodges we couldn't keep up with the Hudsons. They won more often than not. Many tracks, in the 60's and even into the 70's tried, and succeeded, in leveling the playing field by outlawing unit construction cars - ie, specifically step-down Hudsons.

So 46 and 47 coupes started showing up with 308's under the hood. So the track's outlawed anything over 300 cid's. The Hudson boys simply took the 262's, bored and stroked 'em out to about 299 cid and kept on racing.

I think it all ended when everybody ran out of Hudson bodies.



Hudsonly,

Alex B

super651

Alex,

could you give more info on the 262 ?

What crank did you use?

What bore size did you go to.

The Drag Strips did the same thing to us,so I took a 54 jet 2-door put a HOT 318 hornet engine under the hood with part of it under the Dash and install a 232 head that I changed the # to 202 got away with it for awhile, then got caught. Had lots of fun and spent very little Green-Cabbage-leafes. Thanks so much.

Unknown

awsome info pops.... love to hear the love stories of the few guys that got what the hudson was and was capable of. supersix.... fastest thing out there..... fast by todays standard even...



Keep your foot in it, and ride it till the wheels fall off.