THE HUDSON TRIANGLE

Exclusively for members of the Hudson Historical Society. A 501(c)(3) Charitable Organization Volume 16 Issue 1

THE HETHS HUDSON LIBRARY IS OPEN!!

Winter 2014 http://heths.info/ Page 1 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward Departments The Starting Line 2 Behind the Wheel 3 ______The Starting Line History In the last issue I mentioned the Laughlin John A. Conde 5 Economy run, patterned after the MobilGas Economy Runs of the ‘50’s. Members of five area Hudson Dealerships 6 chapters participated. It turned out nice; great Hudson On The Road 7 weather, good turnout, nice variety of Hudson Training Program V - Italia 11 products, etc. Pictures on pages 12 & 48 of the Hudson at Indy 13 Jan/Feb WTN. We drove our ‘54 Hornet . On the way Historical Society Projects home we noticed a new sound from the engine. Hudson Library 4 After inspection, we learned that Hudson intake manifolds have durability problems. With the help Project 9 of Jason Fisher of Vintage Coach and our local Museum Report 9 “old mechanic”, we are back on the road 2014 HET Calendar 16 again, better than ever. In fact, since we have had above normal (and dry) weather this winter, I Historical Society, Inc. have been able to clean and detail the Hornet. All set for the show season which lasts for about 11 Board of Directors 15 months out here. Membership Last year we were able to provide some interesting articles. I want thank all those that Click, On Line 8 contributed to the Triangle. Their efforts make New Members 5 this magazine a valuable asset for the HET Correspondence 10 Historical Society. Membership Application 14 There has been a lot of progress toward the goals How to Reach Us 15 of the HETHS during the last few months. Read ______about it in the following articles.

Bob

Dedicated to Preserving the History of

© 2014

Page 2 http://heths.info/ Winter 2014 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward Behind the Doc Hudson currently resides in the San Diego area and has some very good friends Wheel there. Buzz Stahl, of Escondido, CA, has With Mike done so much for Doc’s health and he As you read this we continues to work to make Doc ready to are already well into begin his trip to French Lick, IN. Buzz has the New Year. Soon been ably assisted by HETHS director we will be attending Richard Esparza. If you see either of these our regional meets and not long after that Hudson fanatics, please thank them for their many of us will converge on French Lick for help with Doc. They deserve our thanks and the HET Club and HETHS International more. Meet. So much fun to be had! Before too long, Doc will begin his trip east. The Society continues to make progress. If you can help move Doc towards Indiana, Thanks to the help of many and the guidance let Dick Teeter know. Doc is the Society’s of Dick Teeter, HETHS director, librarian and and Club’s most visible marketing instrument. Doc’s keeper, the HETHS library is open for The Society is proud of Doc and happy that inquiries and requests at the Antique he has been received with such acclaim. Automobile Club of America, in Hershey, PA. Again, so many people made this project go In this issue there is information in the event from a vision to reality. you want to take advantage of the wealth of The HET Club and Aaron Cooper, HET Hudson Motor Car materials. Thank you, Club president continue to support the Dick and all who were instrumental in making Society’s efforts and we thank them for their this happen. Without the help of many people support. this could not have been possible. So progress is being made on some Now our library truly is accessible to HETHS impressive fronts. There is one thing that contributors, HET Club members and the could accelerate all of the dreams and goals general public. In a short time we will have a we have and that is membership. Surely system set up that will allow all current and you know of a HET Club member who does lifetime members of the HETHS some free not belong to the Society. Some don’t belong research, courtesy of the Society. just because they have not been asked. Ask The HETHS is still negotiating an agreement one of your Hudson friends to join us – WE with the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage NEED MORE MEMBERS. Together we can Museum that will provide us with a real increase our membership. Let’s do it! Hudson Motor Car Company museum, which Finally, if you attend the international HET will be located in the Miller Motors building. Club meet, plan on attending the HETHS That dealership has existed for well over 80 business meeting. The meeting does not years and is near , home of the last long and much information is shared. Hudson Motor Car Company. Until we meet again, drive those Hudson Thank you to Jack Miller, Ed Souers and made automobiles and take care. the YAHM directors for moving this to fruition. It should not be too long until this Mike interim museum is up and running – hopefully by July, 2014. After the HMCC museum is in place, a HETHS Facebook committee will begin to investigate an approach for a permanent museum location.

Winter 2014 http://heths.info/ Page 3 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward HETHS Reaches Another Important memory." Goal! Note: Looking for info seems awkward. Key- As you may know, the HET Historical Society word does not always find what you has set several goals for the preserving the want. Marquee opens for Hudson or Essex or memory of the Hudson Motor Car Company Terraplane but there are loads of listings that and many people have been working very must be looked at individually. hard to accomplish them. Categories are Misc., Book. Sales Literature, One important goal is to establish a safe and Racing, Parts Lists, Owners manuals, Dealer secure library of Hudson material for use by Albums, Dealer info, periodicals and pho- present and future generations. tos. Also, when you find something you want, HETHS President Mike Cherry is pleased to it is not possible to click on subject to see it announce that it is one step closer. The because nothing has been scanned into the HETHS historical material has been transport- system yet. ed to the AACA Library & Research Center However, the material can be obtained using in Hershey, PA. It has been sorted, cataloged the AACA Research Request Form which can and listed on the internet. be found at: http:// The next step is to scan the material for easy www.aacalibrary.org/contact/request.aspx access on the web. Directed research is also The Library Steps to the index are: available.  Web address: aacalibrarycatalog.org Dick Teeter, HETHS librarian, recently visited  Click on: Search the AACA catalog the library to check on progress. His report: “I visited AACA Library yesterday. I was im-  Click on: Automotive Literature pressed by their facility and the care they have given our materials. The storage area is heat and humidity controlled and not accessible to the public. A few pieces that have been sent to me were added and will be included.

Bottom line, material is secure. Finding what a person wants can best be done using their research request form.……. Thanks Dave, Larry & Sue for your work with the literature, and to anyone else who helped. Dick” Mike stated "The fact that Hudson Motor Car Company historical information, including own- ers manuals, photos, advertising and news stories and the like is now available to all, is a giant step forward for the Hudson Essex Terraplane Historical Society. These mate- rials are now available not only to Society members but to HET Club members and the public as well. This is a milestone as now the Hudson Motor Car Company historical infor- mation is readily available, for the first time in

Page 4 http://heths.info/ Winter 2014 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward John A. Conde 1918 - 2008 chives. Excess material not needed would be by Jack Miller provided to Hudson and Nash Clubs and col- lectors. Prior to the formation of America Mo- Automotive enthusiast’s new to the hobby tors, Nash- under John Conde’s di- probably will not recognize this name. John rection starting in 1951 published annual ‘ Conde never published any information on re- Family Albums’ which after the merger be- pairing a collector car, but he did provide liter- came the ‘American Motors Family Album’. Ton’s’ ally ’ of information on the history of Nine were published through Nash, Hudson, , Jef- 1976. The albums provide the frey and of course American graphic story with original fac- Motors. tory photos of American Mo- During 1946 as a member of tors and its predecessor com- the Nash-Kelvinator Corpora- panies which could be pur- tion public relations staff, John chased by collectors from Conde had a big part in the American Motors. Golden Jubilee of the Auto- John Conde upon the 25th an- mobile which took place in niversary of American Motors Detroit. Among his duties, he th and the 20 anniversary of the was the personal escort for Hudson Essex Terraplane Charles Brady King. who built Club national meet which was and drove the first car on the held at the Henry Ford Muse- streets of Detroit. This al- um had American Motors re- lowed John Conde to meet print the original 1910 Hudson many of the automotive pio- sales brochure as a souvenir neers who would take part in this giant cele- for Hudson club members attending the anni- bration. The original King car named for its versary meet. builder is displayed in the Detroit Historical Mu- seum. Upon retirement from American Motors, John Conde continued to provide help to collectors During the merger talks by Hudson and Nash- and he was appointed to the job of Curator of Kelvinator in the formation of American Motors, Transportation at the Henry Ford Museum dur- John Conde was in charge of the team that ing which time he wrote new identity labels for provided all of the data needed to form the the entire transportation collection. new fourth largest automotive company. This would result in authoring several books includ- ing ‘The that Hudson Built’ and ‘Famous Personalities and their Cars’. Welcome to Our Newest Members John Conde was a founding member and di- Active: Ruth Hay, George de Urioste , John rector of the Society of Automotive Historians and also served many years as a member of and Caroline Solari the Board of Trustees of the National Automo- Keep spreading the word about the goals and tive History Collection at the Detroit Public Li- achievements of the HETHS and making the brary. His carefully researched articles ap- invitation to join our quest. peared in many publications and he spoke to many car clubs and organizations with a color slide show presentation. After the merger, John Conde made many Seven wheelchair athletes have been banned trips to the closed Hudson headquarters re- from the Paralympics after they tested posi- trieving Hudson historical data, photos and tive for WD40. publications for the new American Motors ar-

Winter 2014 http://heths.info/ Page 5 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward Dealerships of the Hudson Motor Car Company

Page 6 http://heths.info/ Winter 2014 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward Hudson On the Road In 1916, Ralph Mulford and Hudson decided to challenge the transconti- nental record established by a Mar- mon speedster. For this the car was a seven-passenger touring. Mulford was joined by a two-man crew in San Francisco and together they barreled off to the East. Some five days and three-odd hours later they were in New York, having shattered the previous record by fifteen hours. The car, they found, was still in su- perb condition, and feeling that one good record deserves another, they took off again, back to San Francis- co. Though heavy rains in the Sier- ra Nevada mountains slowed them some, they nevertheless broke the Marmon record again and established the first twice-across-America record in history. (Ref. Automobile Qtrly Vol. 9 No. 4). In 1921, four Essex's car- ried the first automotive “fast mail”. Two cars left San Francisco for New York while two

more left New York for San Francis- co, each carrying U. S. mail. In spite of bad roads, rain, mud and the usu- al conditions prevalent those days on most of the roads, the average speed for all four cars was four days, twenty-one hours, thirty-two minutes. One of them broke all the transconti- nental speed records, and each driv- er was sworn in as a “special mail carrier. (Ref. Hudson - the Postwar Years)

Winter 2014 http://heths.info/ Page 7 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward …online Do You Know? CLICK  “Like” our Facebook Page https:// Who invented the highway center line? You www.facebook.com/HudsonEssexTerraplane know, that solid/dashed/double/single line  “Visit” the HET Club http://hetclub.org down the middle of the road, sometimes  “Access” our Webpage http://heths.info/ straight; sometimes not, and sometimes  “Travel” with Doc Hudson www.hudsonhornet.org even painted over road kill. The question is four part;  “Read” past Triangles http://heths.resk.info/heths/ sidebar/triangle/triangles.htm 1. What state did this “invention” occur in?  “Enjoy” Classics http://classiccarimages.com/ 2. Who thought of this idea? gallery.php?gid=62  “Check the Movies” http://imcdb.org/vehicles_make- 3. What gave him/her the idea? Hudson.html 4. And finally, what year did this occur? The answer later…….. Mario Andretti on Racing a Hudson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- Ge_xhG2ABA&feature=youtu.be

Remember to renew your annual donation to HETHS and help the advancement of our goals

Page 8 http://heths.info/ Winter 2014 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward The Doc Hudson Project thorough checking over and some minor re- pairs Doc went to the San Diego Automo- Doc has enjoyed wintering in San Diego with bile Museum in Balboa Park and has been all of the other snow birds! Members of the Southwestern Borders Chapter of HET picked him up at the end of October from the Cali- fornia Automobile Museum, where he had been since the HET International Meet in San Mateo. They made great use of him in Sac- ramento and would have kept him if we had let them.

San Diego Automobile Museum

delighting children and visitors there all win- ter. Doc will be featured at the Big 3 Auto Swap Meet at Qualcomm Stadium at the end of February at the Hudson Club space and Doc may be featured at the La Jolla Concurs de Carly Starr of the California Auto Museum Elegance and even leading the tour in April. From there, Doc will work its way on to French Lick. Buzz Stahl, with help from director Richard The mechanical inspection turned up a num- Esparza, hauled Doc from Sacramento to ber of areas that need attention. Remember San Diego with his truck and trailer. After a that the initial plan was for a car for kids to climb in and enjoy. Driving a 60+ year old car back and forth cross-country was not part of the original idea. However the tremendous response that Doc Hudson has received has changed the maintenance requirements of the vehicle. If you can help with parts or dollars or trans- portation, please contact Dick Teeter, 570- 470-4385 or [email protected]. Thanks for your past and future support of the Doc Hud- son project.

The Hudson Museum Report Work is the planning stage now. More Buzz and Doc details later.

Winter 2014 http://heths.info/ Page 9 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward This is the only picture I have of the ’46. It was black over yellow; wish I have used color film!. Thanks for letting me reminiscence a bit,

Red Engle

Your Views, Rants and Raves 426 N. Oak Avenue Bob – Your request for info on Hudsons in the Pitman, NJ 08071 most recent Hemming's Classic Car magazine caught my eye. I’m 81 and want to get some of these thoughts off my chest even though 1) Most of the time I knew him (Tom Lapin), what I have to say is not really what you re- starting probably around 1949, he ran a one lift gas station on the Black Horse Pike in Run- quested. nemede, NJ. It was located next to the en- One of the first cars I ever drove, probably in trance to NJ Turnpike Exit No. 3. I don’t re- 1949, was my buddies 1938 Terraplane with a member what kind of gas he sold because he little preselector gear box set-up. really didn’t want to be interrupted when work- Then a year later I took my New Jersey drivers ing on his beloved Hudsons. If I or one of his test in a 1940 Hudson 4 door sedan. After 2 other friends were hanging around he would years in the Korean War as a paratrooper I tell us to run out and take care of the custom- bought a 1946 Mercury club coupe upon being er. He was very trusting, with gas at 17.9. discharged. Later he moved east about five miles on the I kept that a couple of years and then bought a Black Horse Pike to a little town called Hilltop, 1948 Coupe, 8 cylin- NJ, where he has 2 bay garage behind his der. Great car, but burned oil almost as fast home. I guess I lost touch with him around as gas. 1957. I had a friend named Tom Lapin1 who run a small gas station but made his living working almost exclusively on Hudsons. He put a good 6 cylinder engine in my car for, if I recall cor- rectly, about $85.00, including a new wet cork faced clutch. What a great car! I have to think it was the best engineered car available during the 40’s and early 50’s. I traded it in 1956 for an al- most new 1955 Chevy 2 door V-8 (hard to re- sist those ‘55s when you were in your 20’s).

HETHS Webpage

Alcohol does not solve any problems, but then neither does milk.

Page 10 http://heths.info/ Winter 2014 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward A Training Program - Part V by Dennis Flint The following is part 5 of the training material developed for docent training at the California Automobile Museum.

Winter 2014 http://heths.info/ Page 11 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward The

Page 12 http://heths.info/ Winter 2014 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward Hudsons at Indy Hudson Motor cars have a relationship with the Indianapolis 500 Race tradi- tion. It was called the Indianapolis 500-Mile Liberty Sweepstakes. In 1919, Ira Vail drove a Hudson Super- Six Special racer #27 from a starting position of #10 and finished in 8th place to earn $1600. Vail’s time was 6 hours, 12 minutes and 42 seconds. He qualified at 94.1 mph. His racer was one that he had raced in 1917 and bought from the HMCC after they dropped out of sponsored racing. In that same race, Denny Hickey drove a Hudson Super-Six engined racer #21 to earn $1500. He started in 27th place and finished in 9th place. His qualifying run was 92.5 mph. Ora Haibe also drove A. H. Patterson’s old Hudson Super-Six Special to 14th place. In 1931 a Marr Special with a Hudson Straight-8 engine would finish 10th at the Indianapolis 500. The car qualified with a top speed of 106 mph. The driver was Chet Miller and he also competed in the 1932 race with an average speed of 89.50 mph. The racer used a very mildly modified 255-CID Hudson Straight-8. It was built in a De- troit garage by Buddy Marr for less than $1500 and a lot of Hudson supplied parts to be over 95% Hudson. In 1938, Stuart G. Baits (Hudson VP, later to be a Hudson Director and an AMC VP) drove a dressed-up ivory Hudson 112 Deluxe Coupe as the pace car. The purpose was to introduce the new model. Other 112 models were provided for “Indy Week” as the official cars for the Speedway.

On Line The Hudson Triangle is available in full color online at http://heths.info/. You may make as many copies as you need (one for the car, the coffee table, the den and for your neighbor). You can also take it with you on your tablet and smart phone wherever you go (you can read it while waiting for your spouse). And it is a handy way to show the Hudson Triangle to potential members .

Winter 2014 http://heths.info/ Page 13 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward The Center Line Question Who did invent the highway center line??? His name is Edward N. Hines. He got the idea af- ter watching a leaky milk wagon leave a trail down the street. His idea was first used in 1911 in Trenton, Michigan. By 1922, all of the major roads in Wayne County (Trenton, Michigan) had center $______LIFE Member $1,000 or more lines. This simple idea has since been recog- $______CONTRIBUTING Member $100 nized as one of the most important single traf- fic safety devices in the history of highway $______ACTIVE Membership $40 transportation.

$______GIFT in Honor or in Memory of You can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_N._Hines ______

$______General Donation ______

$ ______TOTAL funds enclosed. Are You Getting Your e-Cards Name: In keeping with the HETHS educational goals,

a series of e-Cards on a variety of HMCC

Address: products are being sent to interested parties. If you are not receiving yours, just e-Mail your request to [email protected]. Phone:

Email:

Please make payment by cash, check, or money order payable to HET Historical Society, Inc., in US Dollars, and mail to: Carmen LaFlamme, 111 Besaw Road Richmond, VT 05477

Thanks for your Support!

Page 14 http://heths.info/ Winter 2014 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward How to Reach Us HET Historical Society

Winter 2014 http://heths.info/ Page 15 HET Historical Society - Moving Forward Carmen LaFlamme 111 Besaw Road Richmond, Vermont 05477

First Class Return Address Correction Requested

The Finish Line

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