The Hudson Super Six, introduced in 1916, had the industry’s first counterbalanced crankshaft that allowed higher revving and established Hudson as a performance car that set many speed records, including runs at Pikes Peak and Daytona Beach. In the Twenties, Essex, Hudson’s lower-price companion make, accelerated the acceptance of closed cars. Before the Essex coach a sedan typically cost 40 to 50 percent more than an open car. The coach cost as little as $100 more than the Essex touring car. Thanks to booming Essex sales and strong Super Six demand, the company reached the number-three spot in sales three times in the late Twenties.
1947 Hudson Series 178 Pickup
With healthy car sales, there was little incentive to enter the truck market, and Hudson was short on cash even in boom times. Yet Hudson introduced a line of trucks under the Dover name for 1929. Dovers were based on