The Story of the Hudson Hornet

The NASCAR Cup Series during the 1950s was drastically different, there was no Daytona 500. and the dominance of Ford and Chevrolet were still a decade away. But one small motor company took the sport by storm and achieved something that may never happen again.
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[@aldouscoroza]

The Fabulous Hornet, the winner of 3 Piston Cups from '51 - '53

[@WildDiamond07]

Yep. And a doctor and a judge.

[@aldouscoroza]

@@WildDiamond07 Yup all in Radiator Springs

[@WildDiamond07]

Correct.

[@THEDonnyB]

He did what in his cup?

[@aldouscoroza]

@@THEDonnyB Says Mater

[@TIJoe-te9qu]

Sad how the innovative independents did not survive. Imagine if we still had Truckers, Hudsons, Studies, and so many more still around today. Even Olds and Pontiac under GM didn't last. This story is too common. I grew up on Hodaka trail bikes. They were basically the origin of the species, and so popular that the Japanese big 4 ran with the idea and had the capital to make underdogs unable to compete.

[@OscarOSullivan]

AMC was like BMC a disaster

[@willgeary6086]

@@OscarOSullivan Honestly comparing the two, while both not in great situations, I would give AMC way more credit than BMC.

[@OscarOSullivan]

@@willgeary6086 BMC’s formation is an interesting story

[@Harry-rj6kh]

I remember in the late 50's, early 60's in the Seattle area there was an old Hudson named the Green Hornet and it kicked ass for years in its class in the drags.

[@royhaught9516]

Back in the day I had a 51 Hudson Hornet coupe and of course it had Twin - H - Power. I had a lot of fun in that car!

[@buckberthod5007]

AMC wasn't so much "shut down", as it was they got folded into Renault-Chrysler, dropping the entire line up except for Jeep, which is why Jeep is manufactured by Chrysler.

[@kobefavara1865]

Awesome vid NBR! I was wondering if you have ever thought about doing a William Byron vs Road Courses (In the Cup Series) video. I believe it would be a very interesting explorative dive into the career of one of the Cup Series premier young talents.

[@alexsweet8585]

Can't mention the Hornet racing without mentioning Smokey Yunick.

[@zlinedavid]

Possibly the smartest guy to ever turn a wrench. Knew how to bend any rule out there to within an inch of its life. Also holds 9 US patents….not bad for a guy that dropped out of school at 16.

[@The_Honcho]

Love to see content like this, these guys and their cars were purebred American muscle. They were Kings of the era and we owe all we have in terms of modern racing to these men and cars like this.

[@tnwhiskey68]

Such a beautiful car!

[@SophieGravatt]

No wonder it’s an amazing car. It has an amazing history too.

[@WildDiamond07]

That was an awesome little video! Keep it up, NBR!

[@atzer3739]

I came here from donut media video about cars(movie) And Nolan's top pick was Hudson Anyway amazing video keep up

[@azhurelpigeon]

I watched this to learn more about the ‘54 Hornet & it was the only year that was completely skipped 🙃

[@somethinglikeawelder4250]

We have a cadillac cts dirt track car we race with the fabulous hudson hornet livery.

[@jamessmyth5949]

It's said that Hudson couldn't afford to update the styling due to the step down design making it prohibitively expensive which led to them losing out on sales to the big 3 which made more frequent updates. But if all they needed to do was modify the exterior sheet metal and not the subframe or mechanicals I can't see how it would have been prohibitively expensive.

[@Aliye4]

I don't know anything about car racing, but I liked it in the movie Cars

[@srisfarmhouse965]

When my son is old he wants to revive the Hudson he said that’s second generation doesn’t look like a Hudson to me he said so he’s making his new second generation

[@True_Rarity]

Imagine if the Tucker Torpedo reached production. It could've changed Nascar for decades to come

[@anonymoussonsoftherepublic9543]

Be in kinda sweet if the Hudson Hornet had a Hellcat motor under the hood

[@gregshamieh6339]

Not that I don't dig horsepower, but all that extra thrust might mess everything up. Sometimes -- and you see it in both cars and bikes -- it's more about balance -- having the right geometry, just the right amount of torque in the right rev range -- and it makes it easy to maintain corner speed. Lots of 'slower' motorcycles and cars have won consistently because they were easier to pilot at race pace for extended distances. If you look at some of the new high output motors that are being developed, folks are finally beginning to realize that companies like Jaguar and Mercedes and BMW that built their winners around overhead cam straight sixes really were onto something. ;-) The Hornet might have been Fabulous because of Twin-H Power, not in spite of it.

[@balconi89]

The Hudson Jet killed Hudson. They spent millions on developing it and it was a failure. Forced them to merge to form AMC.

[@jesse75]

What happened to Hudson ? Who bought them out ?

[@FlyinBlaney]

Let’s goooooo

[@Seriouslyprobably]

By Disney Plus Pixar cars

[@kevinmcguire3715]

You don't do your research accurateley.The step down design came out for 1948 with a engine with new full pressure oiling 6 displacing 262 c.i..It was not until 1951 that the step down evolved to 308 c.i. as a Hornet .What is this about: you making a few bucks or is it the real history for the folks to observe and learn? Do your research accurately Ok?

[@jesse75]

What happened to Hudson ? Who bought them out ?

[@zlinedavid]

They merged with Nash-Kelvinator to form AMC in 1954. They quit using the Hudson brand a few years later.