Here's a 2006 pic of the Robinison/Carini Italia: photo by George Ruhe (for The New York Times). Click its steering wheel: to read the NY Times article about Carini's Italia.
Thanks to Matt and Todd for the details of the Ray Robinson Italia. I knew Ray and his wife back in those days, and remember the cars extra low milage. That didn't keep him from bringing it to HET Meets so we could enjoy it as he did. There was another one which I think was from West Virginia. Can't remember the owners name, (damn old age) but I can vividly remember how happy he was when he finally was able to purchase it. Hudson folks of a certain generation were very loyal to the mark, and to own an Italia was like finding the Holy Grail.
There is a sizable page of reading on the Hudson Italia with photos at Fred Roth's American Sports Car web page http://www.americansportscars.com/italia.html and Fred has owned one of these cars for several decades.
A friend owns a production model that is currently under going restoration not counted in the 21. He remembers the car from his childhood and was able to aquire it. As was mentioned about the bumpers the oddity is that so much of the cars were built in patch work. Body panels done in one piece on side of the car may be multiple sections on the other side for no reason other than conserving material. The real shame is how the aluminum skin was just crimped over the steel frame work instead being a complete aluminum body making it even more amazing how many of so few are still around.
pimpin paint, I've tried to explain your comments about Italian coachbuilders construction methods to so-called experts for years. I used to work on a lot of these kinds of cars back when they were considered old oddities (and not collectable and therefore valuable). One of my colleagues here restores early Ferraris for international clients and many years ago I did a story on the business for NZ Cl***ic Car magazine - he and I had a laugh at how things fitted or otherwise on Italian exotics from the '50s. At the time he was restoring an early 212, and was given a new window frame to install in the car's right-hand door. Funny thing is, it didn't fit! People just don't realise that parts were hand fitted, and so what might work on one car would not on another. I'll save my comments on build quality for another thread.
The Italia is an awesome car regardless of it's current value and rarity I simply find it a shame that it was built in such a fashion from s****s. While it highlights the abilty of the craftsmen building them I wish the car's overal construction matched that of the appearance of the body. Consider the generally similar methods used and size of something such as a Greyhound of this era, for the market and cost new of the Italia, I expected more. Funny though 21 known to exsist and everyone seems to have had thier hands on one.
This style of construction went onto into the late 60's and early 70's. A friend is having a Daytona restored and once the paint and thick, deep factory applied bondo came off it looked like it had been made from s**** material. Remember - they didn't use the English Wheel. Tree trunks and sandbags were the Italian tools of choice. I agree about some of the crude methods of construction. In the 70's Ferrari loved to bond fibregl*** floors direct to ch***is members and sills. Take a look also at how they ran the various water drains around the body - a favourite was to drain water into the foam padding in the upholstery (usually on the rear window shelf). Guarenteed rust and mildew in one easy step. If you get a chance go and look around stripped down Ferraris at a restorers - some of the construction and engineering is crude beyond belief and would shame a 15 year old So Cal hot rod builder back in the 1950's!!
I think you're being too kind..! Yet, even having to work on them years ago, I love these old hand-built cars. There's a charm about them that no m***-produced vehicle could ever replicate.
I have never seen one in person but those are interesting. Hudson did not make enough of them. I like the rear end on those cars they looks rad. Thats a one of a kind car.
Comment on the seats: Hudson did go to more trouble here than probably most manufacturers had ever done by this date. There are three different densities of foam used in the construction of the seats attempting to get proper support for the person in the seat. The lumbar area is most dense and shoulder area least dense and bottom cushion somewhere in between. And these cars had standard seat belts in 1953 when they were introduced. The dash was not yet padded though.
First time to see this too !!! Todd, I would have thought Varni would have one to go with the Pickup.
Whyle it's true that the Italia sold for some serious coin when new, the bodies were made for literally pennies on the dollar! One of the reasons that prototype work was jobbed out to Italian coachbuilders, aside from design work, was that the panelbeaters worked so cheeply. A good number of the skilled metalworkers in Italy were killed or injuried in the war. This left a new generation to learn the craft from those few masters that survived. This new generation of metalworkers was made up of guys in there teens and twenties who would compete against one another to produce panels that would fit the design buck and please the shop master metalworker. Only when the panel was beaten to shape and fit to perfection was it welded to another panel, usually by a much higher skiller worker. None of the low volume coachbuilders were using any press formed panels up until the sixties and as a result all panels were hand formed. Steel and aluminum were still in short supply in post war europe and thus no material was wasted, hence some panels were made up from small pieces. Other times a panel would be made from smaller pieces to ease its' construction. The end result was what mattered and some coachbuilders leaned on filler early on ,to finish off their work. If ya think that the Italia/ Carrozzeria Touring metalwork was rough in the raw, take a look at some of Carrozzeria Vignale's work, can you say " Elephant Man-like" " Embrace the vulgarity "
I remember that car. It's only one of 2 I've ever seen in person. I was just a kid then, but it light the Hudson fire in me all those years ago...
Here are some pics of an Hudson Italia that I took in the fall of 2009. It is in a collection in North East Ohio.
It probably ran pretty good. I had a friend in high school who had a Hudson Jet. We quit laughing at it when he showed us that little flat head six would bury the speedometer and run in excess of 110 mph.
Here's a great comparison of the Italia prototype, also referred to as the Hornet Italia, and Italia #22. Also, the open door of the prototype. These two were also at the 2009 National in Detroit and I can't find a better picture of the three together at the moment, but you can see them in the background of the Convertible Jet picture and again from the aerial view in the upper left corner. Lastly, a Hudson Jet compared to an Italia.
Here are a few pics I took in Rättvik / Sweden -97, of Rolands Italia that RPW talks about. Not too often you see an unrestored Italia driving around...
Old thread that I stumbled across but I thought I'd upload a new image of the Italia in Sweden, Owned by Roland Pettersson. Image taken Aug 3, 2023. Cool Car!
The Jalopy Journal
