My friend Harley has been looking for a car of his father's for a few years now. Any info would be much appreciated. Below is his story..... "Here are the pics of my father's aluminum car.... Hope they are good enough to make out. Three photo's are from the day my father picked it up 1965. It had a Hudson mil, Hudson running gear and frame at the time these photo's was taken. My father later swapped out the mil to a Chevy 283 which is the lower left picture taken later. Also he replaced the wheels with slotted aluminum mags.. I recently found out this car had been in the Hartford Autorama in 1958. I had picked up the 1958 Autorama program years ago and was recently looking threw it when I came across the picture of this car. As many times as I had looked threw the program before I never saw the picture. I tell you man this car haunts me.. Like I told you today, I've tried numerous times to track this car down, the latest being three years ago. I tracked it to an barn who's owner had died in upstate NY somewhere near Poughkeepsie. This is the man my father sold the car to. As we where rummaging threw the garage which was filled with thousands of used tires, a friend of the deceased owner showed up and told me he had acquired the car a few years earlier from him and sold it. I asked if he had any idea of the whereabouts of it and he had no information where it was or the buyer... This car has eluded me every time I have been close to finding it... I would love to find this car for my father, it is the one car he wishes he had never sold!"
anything else about it besides hudson mil?? looks like it had a solid axle parallel leaf front end in it, so it's not a 50's ch***is. Lots of sports cars were made out of crosleys at that time (the right front end) but it would have been lengthened for that. as many details as you can come up with would help. I've read about quite a few new england based home built sports cars because I have a crosley racer fetish.....
It might have had a Hudson engine, trans and rear, but that's no Hudson front end. The wheelbase is also way to short for anything but a Hudson Jet, and all Hudson products were unibody design from '48 to '54.
If you haven't already, you might try asking over on Tam's site: http://www.tamsoldracecarsite.net/MysteryCars3.html
The frame would have to be prewar. Harley seemed to think it might have been from a 46 or 47 Hudson. Im still not sure if that was feasible
Never finished. From what I gather the car was built as a custom rather than a race car. Next time I see harley or his old man Im gonna pick his brain.
Ok, If the car was built in Connecticut who was the metal man? That wasn't beaten out over a tree stump, looks like professional shop work to me.
I agree that it's a pro built body and not for a custom. that looks like a race body to me. I would definately be looking at records for thompson speedway and limerock park for a hudson powered sports car. wouldn't surprise me that someone would put a big hudson in a sports car. the 300+ cube motors were supposed to be pretty hot.
Here again, Hudson from that period had A-Arm front suspensions. That's not to say all of that couldn't have been replaced with the suspension in the photo.
I was thumbing through the All American Hot Rod Book by Michael Dregni when I spotted the car in a pic from Hartford Autorama in 58. Maybe some fresh eyes will help locate the car
100%Matt, I tracked it to an barn who's owner had died in upstate NY somewhere near Poughkeepsie. This is the man my father sold the car to. As we where rummaging threw the garage which was filled with thousands of used tires, a friend of the deceased owner showed up and told me he had acquired the car a few years earlier from him and sold it. I grew up in Poughkeepsie during the 50 and 60's. If possible, please PM me the name of the last owner, etc and I'll ask my "car" friends who are still there and in Wappingers Falls, NY.
The Curtis brothers out of Seymour, (or nearby) built a nice Hudson powered sportscar in the fifties, saw a shot of the ch***is, but never one of it completed, could this be it? Those guys had a pretty extensive racing history, built Whitey Brainerd's Buick cutdown, and several GMC powered stock cars as well, and were well known back in the fifties.
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