A Fabulous Hudson Hornet restored to perfection
It doesn’t look much like a racing car but as Simon de Burton reveals this ’50s Hudson Hornet has ties with track and silver screen
If you were setting out to design a race car during the early 1950s it probably wouldn’t have looked like this – but the six-seat Hudson Hornet proved to have a serious sting in its tail when it took to the track, winning the NASCAR championship in 1951, ’52 and ’53.
The secret of the Hornet’s unlikely success lay in its ‘step down’ dropped floor pan that hung several inches below the chassis, making it possible to combine a commodious interior with sleek, aerodynamic bodywork that offered an exceptionally low centre of gravity.
The result was a car with vastly superior handling to anything else of comparable size, while its 5-litre straight six engine gave the car an almost unrivalled top speed of 100mph.
Sun visors are signed by Paul Newman, left, and Cars director John Lasseter
Celebrated racer Marshall Teague was the first to realise the car’s potential after turning up unannounced at Michigan’s Hudson factory with the promise of taking the marque to glory on the track. First time out in 1951, the ‘King of the Beach’ drove the new Hornet to victory at the Daytona Beach and Road Course, subsequently emblazoning the factory-backed car with the legend ‘Fabulous Hudson Hornet’.
The name was later applied to all the team cars, and Teague and chief mechanic Smokey Yunick went on to win numerous other races, with Herb Thomas and Tim Flock also racking up wins in Fabulous Hudson Hornets.
Teague’s original Hornet can now be seen in Michigan’s Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum on the site of what was the world’s last operating Hudson dealership. But while the car on offer with Gooding & Company doesn’t have race history, it is one of the most coveted Hornets as a result of being restored to perfection by Hudson guru Dave Bonbright – the historic car consultant to Pixar during the making of the 2006 animation movie Cars.
As the film was being completed, Bonbright was rebuilding the rare two-door coupé at his home in Sonoma, California, having discovered it in a sorry state 400 miles away in Ventura.
When fully restored it emerged in the image of Doc Hudson, the automotive character in Cars voiced by Paul Newman.
More than 15 years later it remains in superb condition, complete with red wheels (just like Doc’s), Piston Cup decals and sun visors signed by Newman and Cars director John Lasseter.
1951 Hudson Hornet
On sale with Gooding & Company, Pebble Beach, August 19
Estimate: £77,000-£100,000