The Hudson Hornet is best remembered by many for its superiority in NASCAR racing in the early 1950s. Then came the merger between Hudson and Nash in 1954, and the Hornet largely settled in as a family car until the brand was discontinued by American Motors in 1957. This beautiful 4-door sedan is from the marque’s last year and is said to be the Hollywood model with reclining front seats. Located in a garage in Federal Way, Washington, this trip down Memory Lane is available here on Facebook Marketplace for $15,000. Thumbs up to T.J. for this great AMC tip!
The 1956-57 Hornets were noted for their “V-Line” styling, separating the top half of the car from the bottom. They sprouted fins (or “finettes”) in 1957, which looked to be a simple grafting job to keep up with the competition. Some of the Hornet’s performance roots continued in the form of a new 327 cubic inch V8, which put out 255 horses with a 4-barrel carburetor and dual exhaust. About 4,100 Hornets were built in 1957, with 80% of them being 4-door sedans.
Most of the details the seller provides about this Hudson are production statistics. We assume it runs and has been sitting in a garage for a while. But why not pull the car outside for photos rather than from inside the cramped surroundings? The odometer reads 76,000 miles, and the engine is paired with a Hydra-Matic automatic transmission. The car has a 12-volt electrical system – did AMC offer that in 1957?
The seller says this is a Hollywood model, but I thought that designation only applied to Hornet 2-door hardtops. The body looks great, the blue paint is quite tidy, and the matching interior looks like it’s hardly been used (perhaps the car was restored at some point). The lack of specifics from the seller gives the impression that this car is part of an estate sale.
Weird. This looks like a proper “Hash” from the final days of Hudson, but the engine photo shows the Hudson L-head “six” (with Twin H-Power, no less), not the Nash “327” V-8. I don’t know if that was even an option in ’57 (it was standard in ’56, anyway).
The seller’s ask is optimistic, to put it mildly. The next owner would certainly have to trek out to Washington for a careful look-over before buying, and should probably put in a significantly lower bid.
The seller did a cut-and-paste job in the vehicle description. I believe that this is a 1956 Hudson Hornet Custom Six. And I think the Hollywood option didn’t appear until 1957 and it would have been a two-door hardtop model. The 327 was also standard in 1957 for the few models that Hudson offered that last year of production.
It’s clearly a 1956. Side trim and fins match 1956. This leads to a problem as the seller is clearly unfamiliar with the car (how did he get it?). All he knows is he has an immaculate car that’s nearly 70 years old. All that’s missing in the ad is “no lowballers, I know what I have” Speaking of that, what does Hagerty have on this?
This is crazy! I just checked out this listing not 2 minutes ago before coming here. Thought I was having a deja vu moment.
Very nice but totally out of step in 1957. It’s amazing that any were sold!
I think the $15,000 price is reasonable for this very nice 56 or 57 Hudson. The ad is not bad for Facebook I think and they DO include a video with the engine running and sounding good. So, what if they don’t know what they have and it may be an estate sale? See if they will take less then.
I’ve seen situations where Grandpa (or whoever) passes away and the family can’t find any paperwork and they don’t know anything about his car. They want to list it online to drum up some interest while they search for a title, and when trying to figure out the model year, little Johnny says, “I think he said it was a ’57.” Hence, we end up with an incorrect year on the listing. Regardless, this car looks pretty nice and I wouldn’t mind owning it.
I think those Hudsons were Americana at its best, of course not to forget the post war Studebakers.
Richard Arbib was the designer of these. He went on to design some of the more interesting-looking Hamilton electric watches of the late 1950s including the Ventura.
Very interesting, thank you. I know which watch you refer to but I did not know the name, very futuristic looking. Harrison and I were texting last night about how Nash and AMC did a much better job with the appearance of the late Hudson than Studebaker did with the late Packard and its “catfish” mouth.
Well that’s a low bar. Nothing like what was once one of the finest cars in the US sharing sheetmetal with the Studebaker Effing Scotsman.
What a weird ad – only way to see the entire car is to watch the video. Photos could have been taken if it had just been pulled ALL the way out of the garage.
There were no sixes in 57 so this has to be 56. Hollywood was only used on the 2 door hardtop from 55 thru 57. Seats have been redone. Lot of mistakes in this ad.