{"id":2660,"date":"2005-11-02T03:05:00","date_gmt":"2005-11-02T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2005\/11\/step-in-right-direction\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:02:05","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:02:05","slug":"step-in-right-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2005\/11\/step-in-right-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"Step in the Right Direction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1948<\/a><\/p>\n

My neighbor Dale Treadway snapped this
\nHudson<\/a> while vacationing at Cape Cod<\/a> last summer. It’s a 1948 or
\n’49 Commodore<\/a> – only the interiors differed between those two years. He
\nspotted it<\/a> in the parking lot at Rock Harbor<\/a> in Orleans<\/a>, and noted that it carries a
\nregular passenger registration<\/a>, a number issued in November of 2001. That implies that it’s in everyday use, not a collector car.<\/p>\n

It could be what I call a “summer car.” When I was young I spent many summers at The Cape, and it was common to see older cars, often touring cars<\/a> or
\nwoodie wagons<\/a>, on the road. Massachusetts allowed six-month renewals for registration and insurance, so many folk kept a car at their summer cottage for use from July until Labor Day. Friends of ours on Nantucket<\/a> had a
\n1930 Lincoln<\/a> “summer car” in the 1950s and it may still be on the island. In eastern Massachusetts the woodies were called
\n“beach wagons”<\/a> for obvious reasons.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, it could be in regular use by somebody who simply prefers old cars. For six years we drove a 1963 Ford Falcon<\/a> as our family car, and it was replaced by a
\n1970 Chevy Impala<\/a> that was so roomy and useful we found we didn’t need a minivan. These cars were 16 to 21 years old when we had them, nowhere near automotive senility. In fact, a 56-year-old Hudson is entirely satisfactory for everday use.<\/p>\n

In 1948, Hudson introduced its new “Step-down” design, so named because the floor was level with the bottom of the outer frame rail. Thus one stepped down to get into it. Overbuilt by today’s standards, the Step-down had a
\nsteel cage<\/a> that completely surrounded the passenger compartment. A high belt line gave the “greenhouse”
\nsmall windows<\/a>, unusual at the time but now coming into vogue with the
\nChrysler C300<\/a>. Hudson also had a
\nnew six-cylinder engine<\/a> for 1948, with full pressure lubrication for the first time in any Hudson.<\/p>\n

In 1951, Hudson introduced the
\nHornet<\/a>, a new top-of-the-line model with an enlarged six. It not only had plenty of
\nluggage space<\/a>, with the new optional
\n“Twin H-Power”<\/a> dual carburetion it had plenty of power.
\nMarshall Teague<\/a>, Herb Thomas and
\nTim Flock<\/a> were among the Hudson drivers to knock
\nOldsmobile<\/a> out of the NASCAR championship in 1951 and retain the title through 1954. With the new 308 cubic inch Hornet engine setting records, the old eight, a
\npre-war design<\/a> with
\nsplash oiling<\/a>, was redundant and was dropped after 1952.<\/p>\n

Hudson’s 1954 marriage with Nash to form
\nAmerican Motors<\/a> resulted in
\n1955 models<\/a> that were more Nash<\/a> than Hudson. In fact, the best-selling Hudson in ’55 was a rebadged
\nRambler Cross Country<\/a> wagon. The
\n1954 cars<\/a> were the last Step-downs and, to many, the last real Hudsons. The final automobile to wear a Hudson badge was the
\n1957 Hornet<\/a>, a car
\nfamiliar<\/a> to all CarPort regulars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My neighbor Dale Treadway snapped this Hudson while vacationing at Cape Cod last summer. It’s a 1948 or ’49 Commodore – only the interiors differed between those two years. He spotted it in the parking lot at Rock Harbor in Orleans, and noted that it carries a regular passenger registration, a number issued in November….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2660"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3414,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2660\/revisions\/3414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}