The North Texas Chapter of the Hudson-Essex-Terraplane Club, Inc. The Hudson Monthly Volume 43, Issue 7 Dedicated to the Preservation of the great cars built by Hudson July 2014 Chapter Officers President - Calvin Buchanan 1382 CR 4191 Decatur, TX 76234 940-627-5229 Vice-President - Mike Harrel 241 Richerson Denison, TX 75021 903-327-8209 Secretary – Clinton Webb 194 County Rd. 197 Gainesville, TX 76240 940-669-1084 Treasurer/Editor – Lew Bird 1513 Treehouse Ln. S. Roanoke, TX 76262 817-379-0458 Historian - Mark Huffman 1637 Quail Hill Rd. Whitesboro, TX 76273 817-781-7141 Sunshine Person - Helen Huebert 2309 Robin Hood Dr. Grand Prairie, TX 75050 972-602-9751 www.ntxhd.org South Texas Chapter Members - June Joint Chapter Meet Yolanda Cates, Karen and Joe Clark, Ken Cates and Cates’ Grandson. Inside this issue: More on the Joint Meet on page 2. Joint Meet - ‘32 Hudson 2 Notes from the Editor History of the HMCC 3 August Meet Information 4 Upcoming Meets and Events Hudson Museum 5 July 21-26 National Meet in French Lick, Indiana Tech Discussions 6 August 16 - Meet at Calvin and Virginia Buchanan’s Hudson Ranch Gear Oil September 20 - Crusin’ for a Cure Car Show. This is an AAIAA Meet Tech Discussions 7 Gear Oil October - Open for a Chapter Meet Application Sheet 8 October 18- Westlake Car Show, Westlake, TX NTC - HET PAGE 2 THEHUDSONMONTHLY VOLUME 43, ISSUE 7 Joint Meeting of the South and North Hudson Club Chapters The second annual joint meet in Waco was well attended by over 25 members of the Hudson fami- ly. Members started to arrive early at the restaurant before noon and we soon had eight Hudsons and one very nice AMC American in the east parking lot. The weather was perfect for late June, no wind and no rain in the forecast. There was a short meeting concerning the 2016 Big Country Meet. The South Texas Chapter has volunteered to host that meet in 2016. Most of the discus- sion during the meeting was about a possible meet location. We need to thank Ken and Yolanda for being the coordinators of the meet. On a sad note, received an email from Ken about a Clinton checking out the A/C week after the meet, the restaurant had on Calvin’s ‘54 Hollywood. closed down that week. When was the last time you had a 1932 Hudson Eight parked in your driveway? To our surprise one morning Vicki looked out the kitchen window as the ‘32 drove into the drive- way. Del Fast was out cruising the neighborhood and stopped by to show us how well the old car was running. He gave us a ride around the neigh- borhood and the engine could not have sound bet- ter. It was truly a nice way to start off the day. Note: The ‘32 made the front cover of the March/ April issue of the WTN in 2012. Notes from the Editor In the June issue of the Hudson monthly, I made an error con- cerning Will Moon’s Essex. I printed that the Essex was a 1930 model, actually it’s a 1931 model. Will has had the car for over 50 years, and has cumulated over 300,000 miles on the Essex. Will and Brandon made the trip from the Wichita area to the Big Country Meet as always just motor- ing down the highway. We still have a few members that have not paid their chapter dues. This may be their last newslet- ter. Currently we have 62 paid-up members in the chapter. VOLUME 43, ISSUE 7 THEHUDSONMONTHLY PAGE 3 History of the Hudson Motor Car Company Copied from the July 1953 issue of the Hudson Service Merchandiser The Hudson Motor Car Company was founded in 1909 by eight men whose vision and business acumen had brought them to positions of some prominence in Detroit, several of whom were later to be known throughout the nation. These men, who agreed to go into partnership in an attempt to build a car for less than $1000, were: J.L.. Hudson, R.B. Jackson, Hugh Chalmers, H.E. Coffin, F.O. Bezner, Roy D. Chapin, J.J. Brady and Lee Counselman. On February 24, 1909, designs for the Hudson Model “Twenty” were found to suit their purposes and the partners agreed to incorporate the firm under the laws of Michigan. The First Hudson Plans for the Hudson “Twenty” were years ahead of the times. It was to be the first low-cost auto- mobile equipped with a selective sliding gear transmission, and it was to be within reach of the average buyer, selling at $900 f.o.b. Detroit. With this at-that-time revolutionary car on the drawing boards, the firm partners secured a small two-story plant with 80,000 square feet of floor space, and on July 3, 1909 with 500 men at work and a to- tal capital of $20,000 the first Hudson car rolled out of the factory. The Hudson “Twenty” was an instantaneous success. Over 4,000 were sold that first year– the big- gest first year’s business in the history of the industry up to that time. The first 16 months net sales amount- ed to $3,980.999. A Hudson advertisement in the Saturday Evening Post of June 19, 1909, showed a roadster-type car with bucket seats and a gasoline tank mounted up behind. It described the “Model Twenty” as follows: “Here’s a car that is good looking. It is big and racy. Note the graceful and harmonious lines. Observe the sweep of the fenders and the frame.” “The Hudson Twenty has a sliding gear transmission, selective type, three speeds forward and re- verse. The Motor is vertical, four-cylinders, four cycle, water cooled, known as the Renault type.” PAGE 4 THEHUDSONMONTHLY VOLUME 43, ISSUE 7 North Texas Hudson Dealers August Joint Meet with the AAIAA August Meet Date: August 16, 2014 Time: 12:00 Noon Location: Buchanan Ranch/Decatur, TX 1382 CR 4191, Decatur, TX Cell Numbers Calvin 817-996-0932 or Virginia 940-389-3867, Home 940-627-5229 Lunch will be after 12:00, the hosts will provide the main dish BBQ. Please bring a dish to pass. Directions: Take US-287 north to Decatur, exit to TX-1 14 west to Boyd. At Boyd turn north onto FM-730, travel north about 6.2 miles to CR-4280. There is a cemetery at the north east corner of FM-730 and CR• 4280, turn left onto CR-4280 travel west 1.2 miles to CR-4191. Turn right onto CR-4191, first house on the left about .3 miles. Look for the four tall and large blue grain silos. The four silos are excellent land marks; you can see them for miles. VOLUME 43, ISSUE 7 THEHUDSONMONTHLY PAGE 5 The National Hudson Motor Car Company Museum The museum, the result of a partnership between The Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum and the Hudson Essex Ter- raplane Historical Society, will open in September occupying the former Miller Motors dealership, and will be organized in such a way as to relate as much of the Hudson brand’s story as possible. In addition to the Hudson models that once formed the backbone of Jack Miller’s collection, other historic Hudson models will be exhibited on loan from collectors. Per museum manager Ed Souers, that list will include everything from a 1910 Hudson Model 20 two-seat roadster to the final 1957 Hudson model built, a Hudson Hornet Hollywood that rolled off the assembly line in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on June 25, 1957. It will also include a vehicle to be added to the National Historic Vehicle Reg•ister, the number 92 “Fabulous Hudson Hornet” of NASCAR racer Herb Thomas. It was Jack Miller who tracked down Thomas’s badly-neglected racer, ar- ranged its purchase (after a decade of negotiation) and restored the car to its as-raced state; last November, Miller sold the car to Souers, who will proudly display it in the museum he manages. Ypsilanti, Michigan’s Miller Motors continued to represent the Hudson brand long after the company closed its doors, earn- ing it the title of “the world’s last Hudson dealership.” Now, 58 years after the American automotive brand’s de•mise, Mil- ler Motors will fittingly serve as the home to the National Hudson Motor Car Museum, the nation’s first in•stitution devoted entirely to the Hudson brand. The building at 100 East Cross Street in Ypsilanti has an automotive dealership history that dates back to 1916, when Dodge automobiles were sold at the location. By the end of the 1920s, the shop had phased out Dodge in favor of Hudson-Terraplane and Willys-Overland, although this latter fran•chise lasted only from 1928-1929. Until the Wall Street crash, 1929 turned out to be a record year for Hudson sales in Ypsilanti, with the dealer- ship moving 212 new cars through its doors. In 1932, Carl Miller bought into the dealership with partner Alex Longnecker. The pair had experience in car sales and considered several higher-traffic locations for their Ypsilanti Hudson dealership before settling on the store’s existing loca- tion. Though located blocks off the city’s main street, the East Cross Street location had the advantage of cheap rent, and in the frugal post-Great Depression years, a penny saved was truly a penny earned. Roughly a decade later, Miller was able to buy out his partner, and his Hudson Sales and Service business managed to sell between 30 and 60 cars annually, a rea- sonable volume in the postwar years.