This isn’t just the last generation of the Hudson Hornet, this 1957 Hudson Hornet Custom is from Hudson’s last year in existence as a car company. It sounds like it has been a southwest car and it’s now located in Kansas City, Kansas. The seller has it posted here on Craigslist with an asking price of $3,000. Thanks to Fred H. for sending in the tip for this good-looking Hudson Hornet project!
1957 would be Hudson’s last year and the Hudson Hornet had been around since 1951. The first-generation step-down cars made during Hudson Motor Car Company’s watch had great success in racing. After the Hudson and Nash merger in 1954, the Hudson Hornet was basically a rebadged Nash for the final three years and by mid-1957 Hudson was gone.
This car looks good to me, even if they were a bit overwrought in design with all sorts of chrome bits and layers of fins and chrome strips-a-plenty. Compared to a 1957 Chevrolet, I can’t believe that AMC sold any of these cars, but I really like them. The grille is big and bold and unusual, just like me other than the big and bold part. The seller says that this car has “Some rust consistent with being 60 years old. brakes work, needs brake booster. Extra parts available. Have the real hubcaps.”
This is it for interior photos and it’s hard to really tell much other than the steering wheel will need to be restored as will the dash top. This car has AC which Hagerty says adds another 15% to the value. They list a #4 fair condition Hudson Super (although this is a Custom) with AC as being worth $7,015. This car isn’t in that sort of condition but maybe with a few thousand worth of work it could be. They list a #3 good condition car as being worth $11,000 and a person could do a lot of work on this car for $8,000 if they did a lot of it herself/himself.
The engine is AMC’s 327 which was new that year and it had 255 hp. Just around 4,000 examples were built in the last year for this model and this looks like a good project, but I’d want to see many, many more photos or better yet, see it in person. Are there any fans of Hudson’s last gasp with the ’57 Hornet?
Now that I’m old and doddery, I’d probably spring for a ’57 Hash like this one if I didn’t already have a full garage, just because it’s the last of the line…
A very sad end to a once respectable marque.
These are not everybody’s cup of tea, but I find the quirky styling appealing.
This isn’t the Hornet I’m looking for. However, I can appreciate the significance. I hope someone restores it to its former glory.
At the time these came out, there is no doubt most buyers said UGH when comparing them to the competition. Now, they are more appreciated and stand out in a good way.
Hudson’s must have looked like dinosaurs on showroom floors in 57 compared to the offerings from the big three.
Paint it black and it’ll look like something a Soviet politician would ride around in.
Very cool dashboard
I was thinking it looked kinda Eastern Block as well. Ditto on painting it black. Remove all the Hudson emblems and 3D print your own Cyrillic script name plate. Take it to a car show and watch all car guys heads explode.
I think the commissars rode around in the ZIL which was their version of a mid 1950’s Packard.
The only thing holding back the price on this lovely old car…..
Is the fact that it is butt ugly….😎
I knew a guy who ran his own junk yard until zoning caught up with him. He had a yellow and black 1956 Hudson Hollywood ? with a factory continental kit. It was complete and he was going to store it elsewhere. When the tow truck picked it up from the rear, it broke.
Love it – every car should have double fins attached to the front fenders!
That is one massive AC compressor, can’t tell if it has a belt installed. Chances that it works are slim to none. I see a manual shutoff valve in one of the heater hoses, SOP on old cars when the factory heat control no longer works.
Great post! Never saw one before!
I wouldn’t mind having one of the last ones with the 308 Hudson flathead six in it
Too bad they didn’t take Hudsons and rebadge them as Nash’s.
Agreed, the 1954 Hudson was a good-looking car.
my friend had a green, black and yellow one of these that we restored a few years back. We called it Godzilla. He got big bucks for it when he sold it.
Where are the posters who always whine and cry about being priced out of the market? When one does come around that’s about as low as it gets, do you think they try to get it? Naw…..they just like to complain. This car is one of the few that one can get and do so much of the work themselves, and end up with something that would really turn their heads and they could drive it most anywhere……go for it.
A classic example of desperate attempts to refresh an aging body with tacky ornaments to keep a brand alive. Packards of this same vintage are another. Sad but fascinating
My father bought a brand new 1957 Nash Ambassador with continental tire kit on the back from the factory…the 327V8 blew the doors off the 57 Chevy’s that were around (probably none were fuel injected ones he raced and never raced any Vettes)…only race he lost was to a Chrysler 300 sporting their big engine of the time with dual quad carbs, a 392 Hemi…anyway the Nash, in my opinion, had a much nicer dash and exterior trim than the Hudson, although they used the same body shell….anyone else notice the 1965-66 Chevrolet Impala SS hubcaps on this one?