Hudsons & Diesels & Sales, Oh My

Ed Souers has a keen interest in cars that were built by Hudson Motors, a company that produced cars in Detroit for the better part of the first half of the 20^th century, a company that, in 1954, joined up with Nash, which led to American Motors.

Souers says that his dad bought a Hudson in 1940 and that was pretty much the brand the family was in for years and years.

For those who may not be familiar with Hudsons, know that in the movie Cars, the character voiced by Paul Newman, Doc, is “Doc Hudson.” Yes, the car character is based on the Hudson Hornet. Doc, the story has it, started racing in the Piston Cup back in 1951. And it so happens that back then, the Hudson Hornet—the real car—was the dominant car racing in the Grand National Series, which was to become what we now know as NASCAR.

Source: Historic Vehicle Association—support organizations that maintain our automotive history

And Ed Souers happens to have the last remaining Hudson Hornet, which he brings to the studio for this edition of “Autoline After Hours.”

Anyone who is interested in automotive history will find Souers’ discussion with John McElroy and me rather illuminating. Souers also happens to be part of the Automotive Heritage Museum in Ypsilanti, Michigan (100 E. Cross St.; 734/482-5200), which, of course, includes Hudsons, but given that Preston Tucker once lived literally down the street from where the museum is located, there’s Tucker memorabilia on display, as well.

For the second half of the show John and I are joined by analyst Michelle Krebs of Cox Automotive and Mike Austin, editor of Autoblog, for a wide-ranging discussion, from FCA’s reported troubles related to vehicle sales reporting to whether diesels will have a future in passenger cars.

And you can see it all here: