Election Meet & a Pleasant Sunday Drive
Sunday was the California Inland Chapter Election Meet & BBQ. I missed the last two or three Election Meets due to conflicts with the Chino Airshow, but this year the dates missed each other and presented a perfect opportunity to stretch the legs of the long in preparation '26 Hudson Coupe. The Coupe had been out before, but never further away than I was willing to walk with the exception of the AllCal Meet a few years ago, a trailer job.
Jeff & Heidi Gould (28 Roadster Project) followed behind Sunday A.M. to watch for signs of trouble. The day was clear and warmer than I like, but looked to be a good chance to see how cool the new radiator would keep the motor. We started our journey just after 10:00 and motored easily Eastward. This car eases along at about 30 mph and does 35 mph with a bit more thrashing. It easily starts off in second gear. It is geared LOW, too low for comfort.
The trip went off without a hitch, the car didn't smoke and made no threatening noises. Nothing important fell off. It ran along a bit warm, but some trial & error with the spark lever found a spot that the motor seemed to run a bit sweeter than other places and the temps dropped to the point that it was just warm enough not to need to close the shutters. On arrival, the water pump packing needed a turn or two to stem the minor dripping that had developed during the drive.
The Election Meet was a lot of fun with lots of old cars and old friends to chat with. Dany Spring cooked hamburgers, hot dogs, hot links, Bratwurst & polish sausage. Everybody brought a dish for the pot luck & my only regret is that I didn't have enough room to try everything. Val Smith auctioned off some donated items and all too soon it was time to go home. Don Driscol of this list was there and had some photos of his 1929 Hudson Standard Sedan, a truly handsome car. He has spared nothing to make this car right and it was only sidelined on the day by a cracked exhaust manifold. Send some scans of your car Don, & I'll put up a few pics to show how nice a '29 can look.
On the trip home, the Coupe ran along once again without trouble and this time, throwing caution to the wind, a sustained run of a mile or more was made at 38 to 40 mpg with an all out speed dash up to 42 mph! The poor motor sounded like a threshing machine, but nothing bad happened. When we got home, inspection showed no trouble at all, even the water pump stayed dry.
The journey totaled 20 to 30 miles, I forgot to mark down the mileage at the start to record an exact figure. Even though the kingpins are the loosest I have ever seen on any car, no shimmy set in at all anywhere on the trip, even over railroad tracks. The steering on these old cars is very fast and this steering gearbox is notchy making 35 mph seem very exciting. The brakes which were horrible (chattering, grabbing & fading) when I first got the car, seem to have worn in and now work quite nicely for average use.
One time when a stoplight caught me right before the decision point, an emergency brake application was needed and while the car did stop without locking a wheel or overrunning the limit line of the intersection, I'm sure neither Jeff nor Heidi had any suspicion that the stop was a maximum effort. The brakes are pretty good now, but can certainly be improved.
Some pics of the meet and the cars & folks that attended can be viwed on the CIC website. To view the pics, go to:
http://www.cichet.us/photos/election_meet_04/index.html
Paul O'Neil
SoCal
1926 Hudson Anderson Coupe
1929 Hudson Town Sedan
1939 Cadillac Coupe (How'd that get in here?)
www.cichet.us
www.aeromark.net
Jeff & Heidi Gould (28 Roadster Project) followed behind Sunday A.M. to watch for signs of trouble. The day was clear and warmer than I like, but looked to be a good chance to see how cool the new radiator would keep the motor. We started our journey just after 10:00 and motored easily Eastward. This car eases along at about 30 mph and does 35 mph with a bit more thrashing. It easily starts off in second gear. It is geared LOW, too low for comfort.
The trip went off without a hitch, the car didn't smoke and made no threatening noises. Nothing important fell off. It ran along a bit warm, but some trial & error with the spark lever found a spot that the motor seemed to run a bit sweeter than other places and the temps dropped to the point that it was just warm enough not to need to close the shutters. On arrival, the water pump packing needed a turn or two to stem the minor dripping that had developed during the drive.
The Election Meet was a lot of fun with lots of old cars and old friends to chat with. Dany Spring cooked hamburgers, hot dogs, hot links, Bratwurst & polish sausage. Everybody brought a dish for the pot luck & my only regret is that I didn't have enough room to try everything. Val Smith auctioned off some donated items and all too soon it was time to go home. Don Driscol of this list was there and had some photos of his 1929 Hudson Standard Sedan, a truly handsome car. He has spared nothing to make this car right and it was only sidelined on the day by a cracked exhaust manifold. Send some scans of your car Don, & I'll put up a few pics to show how nice a '29 can look.
On the trip home, the Coupe ran along once again without trouble and this time, throwing caution to the wind, a sustained run of a mile or more was made at 38 to 40 mpg with an all out speed dash up to 42 mph! The poor motor sounded like a threshing machine, but nothing bad happened. When we got home, inspection showed no trouble at all, even the water pump stayed dry.
The journey totaled 20 to 30 miles, I forgot to mark down the mileage at the start to record an exact figure. Even though the kingpins are the loosest I have ever seen on any car, no shimmy set in at all anywhere on the trip, even over railroad tracks. The steering on these old cars is very fast and this steering gearbox is notchy making 35 mph seem very exciting. The brakes which were horrible (chattering, grabbing & fading) when I first got the car, seem to have worn in and now work quite nicely for average use.
One time when a stoplight caught me right before the decision point, an emergency brake application was needed and while the car did stop without locking a wheel or overrunning the limit line of the intersection, I'm sure neither Jeff nor Heidi had any suspicion that the stop was a maximum effort. The brakes are pretty good now, but can certainly be improved.
Some pics of the meet and the cars & folks that attended can be viwed on the CIC website. To view the pics, go to:
http://www.cichet.us/photos/election_meet_04/index.html
Paul O'Neil
SoCal
1926 Hudson Anderson Coupe
1929 Hudson Town Sedan
1939 Cadillac Coupe (How'd that get in here?)
www.cichet.us
www.aeromark.net
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