Another First For Hudson

harry54
harry54 Senior Contributor
edited November -1 in HUDSON
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/?p=2972

Comments

  • faustmb
    faustmb Senior Contributor
    Interesting article. I have worked for machine builders for the last ten years, small companies with low sales volume. It amazes me how with a group of 4 engineers, you will end up with four completely different parts to do the exact same job. It really makes me a appreciate standardized parts and the work that goes into mass production.
  • harry54
    harry54 Senior Contributor
    Great Point... It's Amazing All The Things That People Take For Granted. The Thing That Blows Me Away Is That Every Where You Turn In The Automotive World Hudson Has Another First....

    1. Triple Safe Brakes

    2. Balanced Engines

    3. Sliding Seats...

    4. Center Pt Steering

    5. Unibody Construction

    6. Stepdown Design

    Ect Ect Ect....
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    hudson invented all these features on cars then that we enjoy now on the big three, and imports. they do good, lots of production, sales and such. and hudson goes south. ironic, was it the v-8 that killed them. amc built a great 327 v-8 in the early 60,s i think, imagine if they dropped that between the rails in 1951-1953 . before chevys o.h.v. v-8 in 55, ford had the flatty in 1932. dillingers i think, favorite car. or was it clyde barrow. how is that saying, everything old is new again. i tell people i have a house full of orphans, two dogs that were abandoned a cockatoo bird that was abused, and a 70 year old lady that lost here family in 1957. my dear terraplane. dermott.:)
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Clyde Barrow. Killed in a '34 Ford V8. Dillinger was killed in a '33 Terraplane.



    I know Hudson was one of the first, if not the first, to use a trip odometer, and Marvel's carburetor heat system. I have also heard that Hudson was the first to use a dash-mounted temperature gauge, but I haven't verified that. You can also probably credit Hudson for the first sliding-gear automatic transmission.
  • hudsontech
    hudsontech Senior Contributor
    jamcoats wrote:
    Clyde Barrow. Killed in a '34 Ford V8. Dillinger was killed in a '33 Terraplane.



    I know Hudson was one of the first, if not the first, to use a trip odometer, and Marvel's carburetor heat system. I have also heard that Hudson was the first to use a dash-mounted temperature gauge, but I haven't verified that. You can also probably credit Hudson for the first sliding-gear automatic transmission.



    Actually, Dillinger was shot in an alley outside the Biograph Theater in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago (therefore you could say he was shot in a Lincoln, ouch), fingered by the infamous "lady in red", a brothel madam named Ana Cumpanas who was trying avoid deportation.

    She was promised no deportation - but was deported in 1936 back to her native Romania, where she died 11 years later.

    So goes the legend - she wasn't wearing a red dress, however. The dress was orange and white.



    Hudsonly,

    Alex Burr
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    hello, valentines day coming up soon. my wife likes flowers and a card, dinner ect... i want to watch the st. valentines day masacare, watching the cars and background. did you know one of ma barkers boys was from canada [montreal],i believe his name was alvin karpis. dermott.:D
  • Sarah Young
    Sarah Young Senior Contributor
    It's interesting to see what history shows when you look at the auto makers outside of the Big 3. Even more interesting to see what was made by the "underdogs" and shunned at first and later made out as an amazing new feature by the larger companies, like Tucker and the seatbelts and safety glass he wanted to put in the Tucker Torpedo.
  • faustmb
    faustmb Senior Contributor
    I think that truely most of the innovation comes from the smaller companies. They need to try new things and take risks to get an edge over the big players, in any industry. Sometimes it take the large companies to work out the kinks, as their budgets can afford the R&D more easily.



    Have you seen the new Lexus commercial that shows the "Parrallel Park" pushbutton? I think we can all see that it is a marketing gimmick. It probably works great 20% of the time if you are in a perfect situation. IMHO, they put it out there just to demonstrate that they are pioneers in future technology. There really hasn't been much innovation with automoblies in quite some time.



    Matt
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Lexus trys to lay claim to headlights that turn when you do. They just copied Pilot Ray's driving lights and Tuckers cyclops style center headlight.
  • PAULARGETYPE
    PAULARGETYPE Senior Contributor
    I Didn't See Any Say Anything About All Steel Bodys In 1922 In The Essex Line
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Seems like a lot of gimmickry that we thought was good at the time (and to me, still seems like a good idea now) has died on the vine. Take push-button automatic transmissions, for example. Seems like MoPar had the most success with theirs (Packard and Edsel aside), and I haven't really heard much in the way of complaints about it, but I do have to wonder how you get the car moving in the event the buttons don't work. Although, my mom and dad never had any troubles with their '56 DeSoto Firedome which had it. They took it from Wisconsin out to California, Seattle and all over southwestern Canada on their honeymoon in '62 and to Canada again in '65, as well as used it for everyday travel, eventually racking up an additional 100K+ miles after they got it from my granddad. The Torque-Flite eventually did fail (a band went out or something), but it wasn't due to the buttons. You would think in today's electronic age that it would be fairly simple to build and reintroduce. I think it would sell well.



    Torsion-Level Suspension on the '55-'56 Packards seems like another good idea that I've read about that never went anywhere afterward. Maybe 'cause it wasn't GM's baby...:rolleyes:
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    As far as pusbutton transmission controls are concerned, there around (in a slightly different form) and in today's language they're called steering wheel paddles.



    I've owned Lincolns and Cadillacs (70's to 90's era) with self leveling suspensions that worked just fine. However, that on the Lincolns was by far the best.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    I am working off pieces of information here, and I haven't researched this entirely, but I have heard and read that the federal government mandated some sort of standardization in automatic shift patters in 1964. The GM Hydramatics with Reverse at the bottom of the shift pattern and MoPar push-buttons henceforth went the way of the dodo bird.



    As far as self-leveling suspensions go, I had one 92 or so Lincoln Continental bottom out with me on the Interstate once, and a 94 Eldorado Touring Coupe frazzle its brain. Other than isolated incidents such as those it seems to work fine. Just ask the high-end hot rod guys with self-leveling airbags.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Or ask bus and trucking company mechanics about air springs that have been in use for years.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    those air ride bags [bellows] on city buses take a beating. a 40 foot+ city bus has a potential of many small air leaks from the wipers to the gradustst in rear compartment. air drops, level valve drops, air ride bags drop. this happens day after day and the bags {bellows] chafe and fail, and/or the salt up here rots the base and leak at the rubber to aluminum base plates. i changed lots of these over the years. dermot.:)
  • Sarah Young
    Sarah Young Senior Contributor
    Martin200 wrote:
    Seems like a lot of gimmickry that we thought was good at the time (and to me, still seems like a good idea now) has died on the vine. Take push-button automatic transmissions, for example...



    A couple of years ago Boyd Coddington put a Push Button Shifter in a 1929 Ford Phaeton he called the Alumatub. I think the push button shifter would be fun to have in a bubble top car. I would totally feel like a "Jetson."
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    hey I've got a v8 super red ram engine with a push button tranny that I took out of a 56 custom royal. I have always thought it would be interesting to put in a hot rod.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Sarah Young wrote:
    A couple of years ago Boyd Coddington put a Push Button Shifter in a 1929 Ford Phaeton he called the Alumatub. I think the push button shifter would be fun to have in a bubble top car. I would totally feel like a "Jetson."



    I think his shop tries to use those "air shifters" on automatics as much as possible. I'm probably wrong but I though those shifters were made by Moon.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    dermott wrote:
    those air ride bags [bellows] on city buses take a beating. a 40 foot+ city bus has a potential of many small air leaks from the wipers to the gradustst in rear compartment. air drops, level valve drops, air ride bags drop. this happens day after day and the bags {bellows] chafe and fail, and/or the salt up here rots the base and leak at the rubber to aluminum base plates. i changed lots of these over the years. dermot.:)



    Wow, that's amazing considering that I've had cars go over 140k miles on air springs. Must be magic.
  • Sarah Young
    Sarah Young Senior Contributor
    Dave53-7C wrote:
    I think his shop tries to use those "air shifters" on automatics as much as possible. I'm probably wrong but I though those shifters were made by Moon.



    I found what Mooneyes calls a Smart Shift. Here's a link...



    http://www.mooneyes.com/support2/smartshift.html
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Sarah Young wrote:
    I found what Mooneyes calls a Smart Shift. Here's a link...



    http://www.mooneyes.com/support2/smartshift.html



    That looks like the little devil.
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