A 1933 Essex

Here is the badge that fits on either side of the 1934 Terraplane hood ornament bird. It may not say Essex but that is the Essex hexagon. The '34 Terraplane rear bumper overriders ("guards") have a hexagon stamped in them. The tail light lens fluting pattern inside the glass forms a hexagon as well. All that still in 1934.

But my real point is this; The engineering of the 1932 and earlier Essex cars is old fashioned buried as contrasted to the new-for-32 1/2 Terraplane cars (yeah, granted, the marketing department got their way and they are Essex-Terraplanes).

Whether we delve into body construction (no more wood structure), or frame design (totally new for the Terraplane with a state-of-the-art belled lightening hole X-member) or the drive train units from engine to transmission to rear axle all simply vastly lightened and improved in the '32 and later Terraplane cars. It is a gross misrepresentation of history and a slap in the face of the Hudson engineering team to associate a '33 Terraplane with its earlier Essex family of cars.

This is the IMPORTANT stuff that gets brushed aside and leaves the door open to hot rodders to find an early Terraplane, see nothing more than the pretty sweeping lines of a coupe, coach or sedan and say "How cool a hot rod is that thing gonna make".

I'm VERY proud of what Hudson Motors accomplished with the new Terraplane line starting in 1932 and then copied to the Hudson models in 1934. I promote these cars every chance I get writing text for web pages, stories for web masters, posting pictures for the rest of the hobby, answering blog questions, and even working with a fellow who has been developing a book on automotive frame construction who had virtually no understanding of the Terraplane and Hudson belled X frames, unit-body construction of 1932, and eventually also worked through the Monobilt stepdowns. I believe in every collector car owner acquiring knowledge to be able to promote his marque(s).