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Volvo: Safety Beyond the Star RatingsCool Car Find: 1947 Hudson Super Six Pickup
Its run was a short one, but the Hudson Super Six Pickup blazed a trail for car-like pickups that didn’t skimp on performance or utility.
Forging a Path
Hudson Motor Car Company – digital.library.wayne.edu | Shop Hudson Super Six Pickup on Carsforsale.com
For a short stent from 1909 to 1954 a now defunct car company by the name of Hudson Motor Car was trying to make a name for itself among the Detroit big dogs. Not only did Hudson make some great cars, but it also built some solid pickups too. In fact, Hudson was one of three independent auto manufacturers that produced them (the other two were Nash and Studebaker) at that time.
Today’s Cool Car Find is a 1947 Hudson Super Six Pickup, an ultra-rare example from the automaker’s final year of truck production. This ’47 Hudson is a salute to this model’s meld of a tank-like exterior with a cutting-edge interior.
It All Began with a Sedan
Hudson Motor Company was founded in 1909 around the inception of the assembly line, but it didn’t produce a truck line until 1929. Hudson’s focus was on cars and in 1916 the Detroit company introduced the Super Six. It earned its place as a performance car and featured a revolutionary counterbalanced crankshaft, which enabled higher revs and broke records at Daytona and Pikes Peak. The Twenties brought a lower priced option, The Essex, which made closed cars more of the norm. Essex sales soared and the Super Six was also in high demand, taking Hudson to number three in sales three times in the late Twenties.
A Leap of Faith
Despite strong car sales Hudson’s cash flow was hurting, but that didn’t stop the automaker from entering the truck market. In 1929, under the Dover name, Hudson introduced a truck based on the Essex chassis. The name changed to Essex in 1930, then to Terraplane, and eventually got the Hudson nameplate in 1939. And when you think about trucks built on a sedan’s frame, we’re not talking Rancheros or El Caminos. These sedans were huge, solid cars that were built like trucks.
Like many automakers Hudson struggled during the Great Depression and couldn’t devote much capital to its truck line, some years only producing them in the hundreds. Hudson gave their cars new styling in 1941 and carried it over to their pickups as well sharing their chassis and sheet metal. Design-wise not much changed after the war and it wasn’t until 1946-47 that Hudson cars got a facelift with a new concave grille that carried over to the trucks as well.
Daring to be Different
The 1941-42 trucks came in two versions: ½ ton and ¾ ton “Big Boy”, but after the war only the ¾ ton (no “Big Boy” name this time) remained. The Hudson truck featured an independent front suspension, with a 116- or 128-inch wheelbase. It was powered by a larger 212-cubic-inch, 102-horsepower L-head six engine. While most makes at that time had implemented fully pressurized lubrication, Hudson kept a splash system. A cork-faced clutch was also unusual for that time, but Hudson’s engine and clutch were known for their dependability, despite these oddities.
The 1942-47 pickups got their styling from Hudson’s Super Six sedan bodies, which meant it got some of the car’s finer features like a Weather-Master heater, Zenith radio, 30-hour clock, and deluxe steering wheel. These features were unheard of in trucks of that day which were bare-boned work horses devoid of frills or luxuries.
After the war Hudson stepped up its car production, followed by pickups. It sold 3,104 pickups in 1946 and 2,917 in 1947. This was far better than a meager 879 in 1941 and 1942 combined. Hudson’s innovative “step-down” unibody cars were introduced in 1948, and although a prototype pickup was built that year, 1947 would be the last year that Hudson produced and sold a truck.
Our Cool Car Find Example
1947 Hudson Terraplane – carsforsale.com | Shop Hudson Super Six Pickup on Carsforsale.com
About 30,000 pickups and commercial vehicles were made during the 45-year history of the Hudson make. With so few produced, especially in its final years, Hudsons are highly sought after by restomod enthusiasts for their next project car. This makes our Cool Car Find example a great find, indeed with its unique interior that includes custom gauges and a custom stereo with navigation, wood trim work, and blue and white upholstery that goes perfectly with the bright blue exterior paint. This ’47 Super Six pickup has made the most of its short history doing just what a Hudson did best—all business on the outside and advanced sophistication on the inside.
