This has to be the toughest 78 y/o female I have ever met..Today ,I visited a friends shop and discovered this amazing woman/car /story..Seem in 2014 she embarked on a round the world drive in '29 Hudson..original babbitt brg straight -8 , mechanical brakes..the real deal.. She is German ,speaks her mind freely and often in a heavy German accent !! Enlarge the pics of the doors and you can see the route/routes she has taken ..Started in Germany , thru Russia , ****olia .etc..shipped car to Australia ..the to US..started around US and engine gave up in Wilmington NC..My friend here (SC) is in the Hudson Club and it was known he had a shop , along with a '29 engine!! So last week he went to Wilmington NC and hauled the car back to his shop...Took the head off and found blown gaskets and dinged up piston ...as it stands ,he's now waiting on pistons, re-doing the mechanical brakes and doing a thorough checkover.. When the car is ready , she will continue to circle the US ,back to Ca ,the down thru Mexico , South America, cross the Andes, etc....She wants to finish the trip in 2016 !!! She showed up today in my friends shop and immediately set to work on the car !!! Heck , I get antsy driving across town !! This lady is going around the world !!! Seems she's trying to duplicate a trip that was done also by a German woman in the '20s What a day
I've been following her trip. Missed out on meeting her when she was down here in New Zealand. My buddy rung me while I was ink deep in a customer, to say she was in town for another hour. I couldn't do anything, but maybe just as well. She might not have appreciated a black n flamed 29 Hudson hot rod, which is what I would have turned up in. Here's a link to her US travels so far. http://forum.hetclub.org/discussion/167485/heidi-hetzer-and-her-1930-hudson-now-arrived-la-usa And a link to her web page. http://heidi-around-the-world.com
Kiwijeff: Thanks for the link to the HET Club forum..I just posted a heads-up there concerning the engine trouble.. She and the car are in Clover SC ..The engine has some piston damage and parts are being sourced.. Heidi is all business and very outspoken...Still amazed at her grit & determination..
Oh my. Thanks for sharing. Would love to talk to her. I bet she is a character. That's good old German blood for you. Wow.
I've been following her on Instagram. About a month or so ago she got her hand caught in the moving belt of that engine and got torn up pretty badly. She didn't miss a beat though! Tough little lady!
Last I saw she was in Palm Beach and had loaded the car to head to Peru. All her updates are in German ( and I don't speak Deutsch!) though she sometimes has a translator.
I just read last night she was headed to Peru. I wonder where the Hudson and Hedi will be for Christmas.
Amazing. That lady has bigger huevos than probably everybody on this forum. It shows how much self confidence she has.
Hedi will be an inspiration to women all over the world. Her trip is either following, or similar to a trip that was done in the twenties. She brought the Hudson from some people who had restored it, and added alternated, racing front seats, roll cage, and one or two other items, but it is mostly a stock 1930 Hudson.
She lived through WWII Germany and the Nazis..........then Russian and American influence....a trip around the world ought to be easy for her!
I missed this thread as well - sounds like an EPIC journey. I hope she completes her quest swiftly and safely. She's an inspiration to women and men alike .
Still following her on IG. I think she was still in south America the last I saw? Anyone speak German???
Yeah looked like she had the motor tore completely apart last I looked at her Instagram. Awesome trip to be watching unfold
Not sure, havnt beennon instagram lately but last i checked she was still bouncing around the planet! Instagram has a translate feature now so I've been able to read her captions. I think she just had the motor apart and back together again, think it was a rod or piston issue this time. This she's had it apart at least three times. And she's rolling on the wood spoke wheels and just had another issue with them. Looks like she's splitting the spokes so she's been putting band clamps around them. Apparently this last one was bad enough to mess up some wheel studs and shear some hardware off. Limped it to the next tiny town and a guy cut a piece of plate steel into a circle and welded it to the back side of the wheel making it more or less a full steel disc wheel with decorative wood spokes on the outside. It's wild seeing her have stuff fix in third world countries in tiny little towns and next thing you know she's cruising in New York City ! Saw she was riding with the car on a cargo ship across the ocean a few months back after she lost a finger I believe. Tough lady!
Yeah after a long *** trip she appears to have made it home for a while. Havnt noticed much activity on her social media recently
Yeah after a long *** trip she appears to have made it home for a while. Havnt noticed much activity on her social media recently
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