Car of the Week: 1951 Hudson Hornet

Story By Al Rogers & Larry Kennedy

In the summer of 2010, I was on the hunt to photograph factory-correct 1951-’54 Hudson Hornets. Fortunately, I live within 30 minutes of the Ypsilanti Heritage Museum in Ypsilanti, Mich. Over the years, I had visited the museum several times and would be greeted by museum curator Jack “Mr. Hudson” Miller. This visit was no different than the others.

When I told Miller about my goal to photograph Hornets, he knew just the person to contact.

“I know a Hudson Hornet collector who can help you with this,” Miller said. “His name is Larry Kennedy; he has just about every Hudson automobile in every body style produced, and he’s not far from here in Indianapolis, Indiana.” 

Jack walked back to his desk, retrieved a roster of Hudson automobile owners, and showed it to me. I wrote down the model year and body style of each of Kennedy’s 1951-’54 Hudson Hornets while Miller provided me with Kennedy’s contact information.

When I returned home, I called Kennedy. We discussed his collection, came up with a list of Hornets and a plan for me to photograph each of them in the coming weeks.

One of Kennedy’s Hornets stood apart from the pack: a Cornish Cream 1951 convertible with a red leather interior. The color, overall stance and fit and finish were exceptional, and it’s the Hornet featured here.

A History with Hudsons

Larry Kennedy bought his first Hudson automobile, a 1951 Pacemaker Club Coupe, in 1966 at the age of 12. He had saved up $ 50 from his paper route earnings to buy the car. Initially, his intent for the paper route money was to buy a mini-bike or go-kart, but his mother, Marie Hardin Kennedy, was not having it. As an emergency room nurse, she had seen too many hospital patients get seriously injured from losing control and then crashing their mini-bikes and go-karts, so she told her son to stay away from them. With respect to his mother, the 12-year-old looked for another form of transportation that was safer, more practical and something she would approve of.

While on his paper route, Kennedy noticed a 1951 Hudson Pacemaker offered for sale at $ 50. He and his late father, Bennie W. Kennedy, used to play the “identify that car” game, and the Hudson automobile was one he fondly recalled from the many times he and his father played their game while on the road.

After talking to a friend who was a little older and into cars, Kennedy learned that Hudsons were known for being fast and had won the National Stock Car Championship in the early ’50s, so he decided to make the purchase.

Kennedy’s mother supported his ’51 Hudson Pacemaker purchase by providing him with Clifford repair manuals and other reference materials to teach him how to repair and keep the car on the road.

For Kennedy, the Pacemaker turned out to be the first drop in a river of Hudsons. By the time he was 18 in the summer of 1972, Kennedy had acquired 42 Hudson automobiles, which he stashed all over his area. Over the years, he has owned 345 Hudson automobiles, 38 of which remain in his collection.

Hudson Creates a Buzz

The Pacemaker model name had previously been used by Hudson in 1939 and was resurrected on entry-level Hudson models produced for the 1950-’52 model years. It was the most affordable model in the Hudson lineup in each of the three model years it was produced after World War II. The Pacemaker utilized a 119-inch wheelbase, a span 5 inches shorter than that used for other contemporary Hudson models. Pacemakers were powered by a flathead 232-cid six-cylinder engine. The Wasp debuted in 1952 with a larger 262-cid six, but when the Pacemaker was discontinued, the 1953-’54 Wasp base engine became the 232-cid six from the Pacemaker. The 262-cid-equipped Wasp models were then designated as “Super Wasp” models.

The Hudson Motor Car Co. produced Hudson automobiles from 1909 until 1954. In 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator to form American Motors Corp. (AMC). The Hudson name was continued through the 1957 model year, after which it was discontinued by AMC.

In 1948, Hudson launched its “step-down” bodies, which lasted through the 1954 model year and were used on all models from the Pacemaker series all of the way up to the Hornet. The term “step-down” referred to Hudson’s placement of the passenger compartment down inside the perimeter of the frame; riders stepped down into a floor that was surrounded by the car’s frame. The result was not only a safer car with greater passenger comfort, but through a lower center of gravity, it was also a good-handling car. In time, almost all U.S. automakers would embrace Hudson’s “step-down” feature as the standard when building bodies.

For the 1951 model year, Hudson’s six-cylinder engine received a new block with thicker walls and other improvements to boost horsepower by almost 18 percent and torque by 28.5 percent, making the Hudson a hot performer. A GM-supplied four-speed Hydra-Matic automatic transmission was now optional in Hudson Hornets and Commodore Custom Sixes and Eights.

Hudson’s strong, light-weight bodies, combined with its high-torque inline six-cylinder engine technology, made the company’s 1951–’54 Hornet an auto racing champion, dominating NASCAR in 1951, 1952, 1953 and 1954.

Herb Thomas won the 1951 and 1954 Southern 500 races in Hudsons, and Dick Rathmann won with a Hudson in 1952. Some NASCAR records set by Hudson in the 1950s (e.g., consecutive wins in one racing season) still stand today. Hudson cars also did very well in races sanctioned by the AAA Contest Board from 1952 until 1954, with Marshall Teague winning the 1952 AAA Stock Car Championship and Frank Mundy doing so in 1953. Fabulous Hudson Hornets often finished in most of the top positions in races. Later, these cars had some success in drag racing, where their high power-to-weight ratio worked to their advantage. Hudsons additionally saw some success at local dirt track events.

Catching a Hornet

In 1995, Kennedy landed the beautifully restored 1951 Hudson Hornet convertible featured here. He’d known about the car for more than a decade, but it didn’t look as good as it does today.

“I first heard about this car at the 1984 Hudson Essex Terraplane Club National Meet in Natural Bridge, Virginia,” he said. “I met Billy Pitts there and he stated that he had the car at White Post Restorations and was planning to do the final detailing and assembly himself. Since I had already restored a 1950 Hudson Commodore Eight convertible, Billy asked if he could contact me for the details of completing this car. I never heard from him again.”

“For many years, I would go to Fall Carlisle with my buddies, and then go to my friend’s place in West Virginia for a few days, and then to Hershey. My buddies would go home and leave me there with some money and a license plate. I would always buy something interesting to drive home. While staying at my friend Paul O’Malley’s (house) in 1995, his brother called and asked to speak with me. The brother’s wife is Billy Pitt’s sister. As it turns out, Billy had White Post do the first 10 grand or so work on the Hornet, and then decided not to have them continue as they said the final total might be $ 50,000 in 1984 money. The car and a myriad of parts were then taken to Billy’s mother’s place in Alexandria, Virginia, where it had been for 10 years. The mother had passed, and the quite expensive house could not be sold with the Hudson and parts stored there. A deal was struck to buy the convertible and parts, which included a nice running and driving 1951 Hudson Hornet sedan.”

“We made the trip down to D.C., made partial payment, and drove away in the Hornet sedan. The Hornet sedan was stored in the U.S. House of Representatives’ parking garage, as Billy was the Republican parliamentarian. I returned about a month later with a rented Ford F-150 to collect the car and parts. We had the car and all the parts it would hold taken to Capon Bridge, West Virginia, for the mechanicals to be completed by Paul O’Malley there. We filled two pickup trucks to the max with the remaining parts!”

“Paul did the all the mechanical work on the ’51 Hornet convertible — rebuilt the 308-cid matching-numbers engine, did a DOT-5 brake job, and assembled the car so it could roll and stop when pushed by hand during transporting.”

“The Hudson Hornet was transported to my place near Indianapolis, Indiana, the next spring. I was also restoring a low-mileage 1950 Hudson Commodore Six convertible and used it as a pattern, as the Hornet came completely disassembled. I just made two of everything. The ’50 Commodore was completed first and debuted in the spring of 2000. John Pontius completed the body and paint on this car, and delivered it back to me in the spring of 2001.”

“Our Southern Indiana Chapter of the Hudson Essex Terraplane Club was planning the Central Region Meet for 2001 in Auburn, Indiana. The plan was for this Hornet convertible to be done and be the featured car at this meet. The car was done just in time and was driven to Auburn, Indiana, in June 2001. The banquet dinner was held at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum, and the car was driven into the banquet room.”

“The car was then invited to the Cincinnati Ault Park Concours in 2004 and won a Best in Class and appeared on the ‘My Classic Car’ program with Dennis Gage. It was then invited to the 2005 Indy Concours; the event was held on Monument Circle in downtown Indy. It was beaten out there by the 1950 Hudson Commodore convertible restored just before it. This car was pictured on the cover of the October 2011 issue of Collectible Automobile to accompany their Hudson Hornet article, and on the cover of the June 2015 issue of Hemmings Classic Car to accompany their ‘Engineering Marvels’ article. The car was nicely stored for several years. The car was then invited to be part of the ‘Independent Thinking’ class at the 2022 Concours at Copshaholm in South Bend, Indiana. I was quite surprised when they came and put a “Premier Award” ribbon on the car. A representative of Lavine Restorations had earlier come over and asked me about my history with Hudson automobiles. It turns out that I had won their ‘Spirit of the Hobby’ award, which is a lifetime achievement award.”

Although its restoration is more than 20 years old, Kennedy’s 1951 Hudson Hornet convertible remains in top condition and would be a centerpiece to any collection, especially one containing rare Hudsons. 

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