The Hudson Hornet

The Hudson Hornet was an automobile produced by the Hudson Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan between 1951 and 1954. The Hornet was also built by American Motors Corporation in Kenosha, Wisconsin and marketed under the Hudson brand between 1955 and 1957.

The Hornet was introduced for the 1951 model year and was based upon Hudson's "Stepdown" design, which was introduced for the 1948 model year with the Commodore. These cars were available in two and four-door sedan, convertible coupe and hardtop coupe. The Stepdown was a design which merged body and frame into one structure. The Stepdown's floor pan was recessed in between the car's frame rails instead of the entire chassis being perched on top of the frame. Thus, a person stepped down into a Hudson.

The Hornet was powered by Hudson's H-145 high compression 308ci in-line L-head (flathead) six engine with a two-barrel carburetor producing 145 hp (108 kW) at 3800 rpm. In 1952, the "Twin-H" version of the engine was introduced with dual one-barrel carburetors which produced 170 hp (127 kW). The engine could be tuned to produce 210 hp (157 kW) if equipped with the factory 7-X modifications, introduced later. During 1952 and 1953, the Hornet received minor cosmetic enhancements, and still closely resembled the Commodore of 1948.

For the 1954 model year, the Hornet received a major redesign, which was quite the undertaking because the Stepdown's design, which had the frame wrapped around the entire passenger compartment, dictated the car's shape, and thus a major retooling was required. The 1954 Hornet also received an updated interior. Although the redesign put the Hornet on par with its contemporaries in terms of looks and style, the update came too late to boost sales.

Hornet model year production saw 43,656 units in 1951, 35,921 units in 1952 and 27,208 units in 1953. In its final year before the Hudson merger with Nash-Kelvinator, 24,833 Hornets were produced.

October 29. 1954 - On this day, the last step-down Hudson was produced. Although the Hudson name would live on for another two years, the cars no longer possessed the innovative elegance and handling of models like the Hornet of the early 1950s