Making Hash

Once Hudson Motor Car Company and Nash Motors went to the altar on May 1, 1954, emerging as Mr. and Mrs. American Motors, they decided to live in Ms. Nash's Kenosha, Wisconsin, home and raise their children there. Mr. Hudson's home in Detroit was deemed too costly and inefficient. So was the idea of building two entirely different lines of cars. And so it was that the basic Nash unibody skeleton was adapted to Hudson. The result is called, somewhat derisively by Hudson people, “Hash.” (If Nash people call it "Nudson," they've kept it very quiet.)

This was not an unnatural evolution. Although Nash and Hudson came from different quarters, with a bathtub-shaped unibody and hallmark “Step-down” semi-unitary design, respectively, by 1954 both Nash and Hudson had migrated to slab-sided, more modern-looking bodies.

For 1955, the two cars were given individual faces, Nash's adopting the inboard headlamps of the Nash-Healey, Hudson taking a new egg-crate grille design. Hudson cars continued to use the Hornet L-head six (still available with Twin-H Power), and Nash their ohv sixes. By then, though, any self-respecting American automaker needed a V8. AMC had none, so they bought one, the 320 cubic-inch ohv engine that Packard was using in the Clipper. By mid-1956, AMC's own 250 cubic inch V8 was ready, and debuted in “Special” models of the face-lifted ‘56 Ambassador and Hornet. Unfortunately, Hudson stylist Frank Spring was infatuated with a V motif, which didn’t blend well with the Nash body. For 1957 this was smoothed out a bit, while the Nash boldly fitted quad headlights still illegal in some states. The AMC V8 was now enlarged to 327 cubic inches, making the Packard engine superfluous. You’ve noticed that the CarPort proudly banners a ‘57 Hash on the masthead. Discovered in a junkyard, it once enjoyed headier times.

AMC founder George Mason died unexpectedly in October 1954, and his successor, George Romney, decided to kill off the “senior” cars, putting all his effort into Nash’s compact Rambler. For 1958, there were many sizes of Ramblers, but no Nashes nor Hudsons.

Did Hudson traditionalists take to the new Hash recipe? Well, yes and no. The Hashed Hudsons were not in great demand, but a rebadged version of the Rambler Cross Country station wagon was very popular, selling nearly twice the volume of any other 1955 Hudson. Romney’s little Ramblers proved to be just the ticket for the Eisenhower Recession of 1958, and actually elbowed Plymouth out of third place in sales for 1960 and 1961.