History of the Hudson Motor Car Company

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In 1919 Hudson introduced the Essex brand line of automobiles. The line originally was Hudson's line for middle class auto buyers, designed to compete with Ford and Chevrolet, as opposed to the more up-scale Hudson line.

One of Hudson's most famous cars was the Terraplane produced between 1932 and 1938, first as the Essex Terraplane in 1932-1933, and then as Terraplane until 1938.

The company had a number of 'firsts' for the auto industry. These included the automobile self starter, dual brakes, and the first balanced crankshaft, which allowed the Hudson straight-6 engine to work at a higher rotational speed while remaining smooth, developing more power than lower-revving engines. Most Hudsons had straight-6 engines. The dual brake system used a secondary reservoir which was activated when the pedal traveled beyond the normal reach of the primary system, so was automatically called into play; a mechanical emergency brake was also used.

At its peak in 1929, 300,000 cars were produced in one year - Hudson and Essex combined - including contributions from Hudson's other factories in Belgium, England and Canada.

In 1936, Hudson revamped its cars thoroughly, introducing a new "radial safety control" / "rhythmic ride" suspension which suspended the live front axle from two steel bars, as well as from leaf springs. Doing this let them use longer, softer leaf springs ("rhythmic ride"), and prevented bumps and braking from moving the car off course. The 1936 Hudsons were also considerably larger inside than competitive cars - Hudson claimed a 145 cubic foot interior, comparing it to 121 feet in the "largest of other popular cars." (According to EPA measurements, the cavernous Chrysler LHS only reached 126 cubic feet.) With the optional bulging trunk lid, the Hudsons could store 21 cubic feet of luggage (the LHS, 19), though that might have been an optimistic measurement. The 1936 engines were powerful for the time, from 93 to 124 horsepower.

Hudson ceased auto production from 1942 until 1945 in order to manufacture war materials during World War II, including aircraft parts and naval engines. After the war, Hudson initially did quite well, and their late-1940s low and rounded "step-down" styling, which lasted through the 1954 model year, was ahead of its time when introduced, and quite aerodynamic for the era. This, the Hudson's light weight, and its well-built engine made the sportiest model, the Hudson Hornet, a successful auto racing contender, dominating NASCAR in 1951, 1952 and 1953. Later, these cars met with some success in drag racing, where their high power-to-weight ratio worked to their advantage.

Like many other smaller North American auto manufacturers, Hudson found it increasingly difficult to compete with the Big Three (Ford, GM and Chrysler) during the 1950s. Those large companies could afford constant development and styling changes, so that their cars looked fresh every year (even if less changed beneath the surface), whereas the smaller manufacturers could only afford gradual change. The "step-down" Hudson's unit body construction, while sturdy and innovative, also made restyling complex and expensive. They could not keep up with the churning of automotive fashion, and sales slipped. Merger was seen as the only way to survive at all, even if much of the individual makers' character would be lost.

On January 14, 1954, Hudson merged with Nash Motors to become American Motors. The Hudson factory was closed, and the remaining years of Hudson production consisted essentially of Nash cars with Hudson badging, dubbed "Hashes" by some. The brand name was discontinued at the end of the 1957 production year.