Looking to one-up Chevrolet’s Corvette, Hudson teamed up with Italian design house Carrozzeria Touring to produce 26 Hudson Italia coupes. This bare-metal 1954 Hudson Italia in Monterey, California came stateside from Sweden 25 years ago, according to the seller. Thanks to Wikipedia for some details, and to reader T.J. for spotting this California classic.
Note the intentionally non-reflective red dash and presumably original high-end interior. Bolstered seats promised comfort and stability for a sports car that Hudson envisioned entering the well-known Carrera Panamericana, an epic rally race on open roads in the spirit of Europe’s Mille Miglia. Timing is everything, and Hudson’s vision for the Italia got tangled up in the merger with Nash to create American Motors Corporation. The Italia’s high cost curbed enthusiasm at dealers, and the world never got to see this Corvette-beater reach its full potential.
Far beyond a simple concept car, the Italia, even the first prototype, was built to be produced and sold in bulk, retaining much of its show-car styling and features. Production versions utilized the Hudson Jet unibody as opposed to the Carrozzeria Touring prototype’s superleggera (super lightweight) construction.
Credit Hudson for keeping the triple chrome tubes housing the tail lights, turn signals, and back-up lamps. Bean counters often axe complex creative details between show car and production. The bare metal suggests this claimed Paris show car (#007) received some rough treatment between the ’50s and today. The modern world virtually discards or “totals” cars when damage can’t be repaired by bolting on replacement panels, and specialty metal repair on a 1-of-26 hand-built production car won’t come cheap.
Despite the abbreviated Facebook Marketplace listing’s lack of an engine picture, our feature car runs and “is drivable.” Here’s another specimen’s Hudson Italia Engine, the 114 HP 202 cid (3.3L) inline six-cylinder. Recall the early Corvette featured an inline six until the V8 became optional in model year 1955. The $160,000 asking price virtually precludes finding it on YouTube next year after an LS swap, but never say never. The first production Italia sold in 2023 for nearly $500,000, so you deep-pocket types can get busy calculating the potential ROI. Jay Leno’s probably calling his people already and clearing a space for the Italia beside his Hudson Hornets. What do you think of Hudson’s answer to the Corvette?
Wow, they could have at least used the engine that won Hudson those NASCAR titles! An OHV Blue Flame Chevy should walk away from this. Very cool looking, though, and to me more of a competitor to the Facel Vega or similar.
not really Andy the Hudson I believe came with a 3 speed manual shift where first Corvette only came with a 2 speed power glide automatic I put my money on the Hudson in a drag race the old powerglides where slow
It’s a shame we never got to see the split window configuration of this design
Like the bug catcher headlights.
This is the stuff of ledgends! I usually browse through Barnfinds and BaT but this one stopped me cold. What a great car and it really is intriguing to wonder what else is out there waiting in someone’s barn or garage. Hope to see it when finished.
Thats a LOT of money for a fancy Hudson Jet. .
“Show car”?, Show this beast the door!
Hudson was in financial trouble for a while , they really should have invested their money into something for the masses. The Hornet , while an amazing design at first, didnt lend itself well to updates , they had no v8 engine, and they wasted too much money on the expensive Jet, a compact car that answered a question nobody asked. If this car was designed to compete with the compact and slightly spartan Corvette, they totally missed the mark , on top of that, how many Corvettes were sold in 53 and 54 ? even if these sold as well as the Corvette, the sales wouldn’t be enough to keep Hudson going .
And funny they thought Studebaker was the only one…..
It was a halo car to drive traffic to the Hudson showroom not save the company.
The Jet was supposed to be for the “masses”, but the market wasn’t there yet. Rambler would benefit from the adoption of smaller cars when it happened later in the decade.
I have always wondered why they used the 202 in the Italia when they had the 308 or even the older 262. I think it must have been a problem with weight distribution kind of like the MGC. The Jet was a small car.
Probably right. A car like this could have benefitted with a little more oomph.
Strange that bumpers, trim, and grille have disappeared but ornamental trim and wheels remain. Surely, some big-league pitcher who is awarded millions to lose games could peel off enough green to bring this incredible rarity back to life. This was Hudson’s last gasp for greatness, and a true testament to Italian creativity and timelessness. It must be saved. I’ll just keep on enjoying my Commodore.
Very cool and beautiful car. I have seen a couple restored ones in person and they are neat!
Somehow, I find the charm here would be in keeping it in “as found” condition, but making sure it is drivable and safe. Not for me though, as the brass era motorcars are my “thing”. But, if it were in my garage, it would not be leaving!
“What do you think of Hudson’s answer to the Corvette?”
I think Hudson answered a question nobody asked.
By 1953, Hudson was in deep trouble
financially. The firm was being left behind by their competitors who had
much more to offer. A weak dealer
Network, the Jet, and the same stale
stying that my Grandpa loved was about to do them in. A.E. Barrett had
some tough decisions to make and the Jet had to go. The Jets creator,
Frank Spring, broke down in a hot mess and cried for 3 days straight.
So to make things all better, Barrett
put Spring in charge of designing this
car. And if the 26 cars they built, there was at least 1 4-door sedan. I
know this because I saw it over 50
years ago in Car Classics Magazine
which came out on bi-momthly basis.
They did a spread on the Italia where
the author of the story did both see and photograph a 4-door variant at a
car show in California. Even this project eluded Frank Spring, who retired not long after the merger of
Hudson and Nash in ’54. Ford and
Chevy were duking it out for first place for that model year. And in so doing, nearly killed the independents
by literally giving cars away by selling
them below cost. Kaiser-Willys,
Studebaker, Packard, Nash, and Hudson were hit hard. By 1958, only
AMC and Studebaker were the last
2 Independents still standing. AMC
would be the last man standing in
1966 when Studebaker packed it in.
Makes me wonder how many of these are left. They’re more rare than
a Tucker 48. At least we get to see one even though we can’t afford it.
Did the magazine make any mention of this car being a potential rival of the Corvette? Thanks for you informative post.
There’s a picture of it far down on the Hudson Italia Wiki page: Prototype X-161
Oh!Please! This is ugly!
Nowhere is the missing chrome mentioned. If the seller doesn’t have it then what is this car worth? With only 26 built what is the chance of finding it?
Slim to none. Beautiful car but the money needed to restore it will be astronomical. The 160k he’s asking is probably just a drop in the bucket. I hope someone does buy it and restore it.
I would be tempted if I had that kind of money. As far as the missing parts go, almost any part can be made/duplicated. At what cost, I couldn`t say. There is so much there that is original. The interior could be left as is. Such a rare car should be restored to at least a reasonable level.
No Frank, afraid not. But I still recall
the article as though it were yesterday. I do recall that the article
featured the 4-door car in the photo
spread that came with it. I’m surprised that customizers like George Barris, Gene Winfield, or Dean
Jefferies didn’t try to duplicate this car so that everyone could enjoy it. Just imagine what might’ve been if
Hudson would’ve had the resources
to do it right. They might’ve even
best Virgil Exner’s Forward Look if
calmer, more conservative heads hadn’t prevailed. And as Roy Chapin
said in a late ’70s interview, “We poured all our resources into the
Rambler because we didn’t have the
dough to update the big Hudson’s and
Nashes.”
Thanks again for the information. In my extremely Corvette-centric corner of the world, I am skeptical that Hudson was targeting Corvette with this car. Ford didn’t really give it much of an effort with all their resources and gave up in 1958 with the debut of the four-door. Having said that, the Italia would have been a star in Monte Carlo from the looks of it. Happy Motoring!
Back in the early-mid 1950s, all of the independents tried to follow suit of Chevy (Corvette) & Ford (Thunderbird). Hudson made the Italia, Nash the Healey, Kaiser the Darrin, Packard the Hawk and Studebaker who was the only make successful in the long term with various models of the Hawk lasting 9 model years. Unfortunately, the Independents didn’t have the profitability to compete and with the exceptions of the Hawks, they were under-powered as sports cars. Chryslers entry of sorts was the 300 which was more of a performance/luxury vehicle with a fair modicum of success, but not really a sports car. The Italia was probably the least successful of any of these models and surely, their styling didn’t help.
Weren’t those headlights referred to as “uncircumcised”?