I was taking a break from wrenching on the 55mordor and went to the season finale fig 8 race just south of KS border. I was in disbelief when I saw the sad fate of this hudson. I don't know if it was really rusty or rough it wasn't in too bad of shape from where I could see. made me think of the pixar movie cars. I guess it will go out with a bang instead of straight to the crusher.
Some people are idiots. Who in their right mind, would take a Hudson and participate in a demo derby with it these days. There are millions of friggin' Crown Vics, Grand Marquis, and '80s-'90s Impalas to destroy. Sad indeed. But, it IS his car, he chose stupidly, and he did choose. Did he win???
Well if it was a demo derby shame on him, but looks like a dirt track race to me, and a Hudson doing what Hudsons do best.
no the GM metric bodies were more agile. At least it will be there for another season as it wasn't banged up. I had to cheer for it. That is the kind of stuff that gives rednecks their bad rep for sure(they will prize 1985F150 short bed instead). I don't know if it was jayhawker or okie owned.
I look for Hudsons all the time on CL...if that had been for sale in the last couple of years or so in MO, KS, or OK, I'd have seen it.
Sounds like a restoration forum. You can do a TON worse than Hudson dirt track racer. You want the owner to hoard it and stash it away? The "It's your car do what you want" does not apply to racing your hot rod I guess.
There was a ***** in the town I grew up in who's grandma gave him an incredible, I mean museum quality, unrestored, perfect, original mid-'40's Nash. Huge car! Looked like it just rolled off the showroom floor, never driven in winter, garage kept, you get the idea here. He drove it for about three months and then drove it to a demolition derby. No ****. Some people are beyond stupid, and you just can't fix stupid...
I have always said if I ever have more money than I know what to do with I want to take a pristine mopar muscle car and derby it. I would love to see the crazy mopar muscle guys freak out.
Just maybe its a old race car that was pulled out of storage and put back into use. I have seen this done quite a bit. Just a few years ago a 55 chevy was pulled out of a shop running gear was installed and back to Duck River Raceway..
Yeah, I would do it all day long with chevells and ***aros. But defiantly not with a worthwhile cl***ic car such as a Hudson. .
Lets hope so. I had bought a 53 Packard, ran and drove for $450 bucks about 4-5 years ago. Some dolt suggested that the car would do great in a demo. If I had tons of dough I'd buy a brand new Chevy Duramax just to enter it in the demo. Probably buy a new Camaro too. I'd love to see and hear people's reactions. I sold someone a car, an OT but somewhat rare car, find out he was going to demo it. I gave him back his money. It was then that I decided I really didn't like demo derbies.
Their is a big difference between a Demo Derby and a figure 8 race.. The derby you try to wreck.. In a figure 8 you try not to wreck.. I know because I have driven in both of these events many times.. And Yes I tore up some good cars. At the time they were just old cars that no one really wanted so we did the derby with them. Years ago you could make money doing these auto sports..
Back in the day there was a guy in my town that raced in the jalopy derby in L.A. we used to see his cars on TV. He used mostly 32,33.and 34,s. We rodders didn,t like him. Much later I moved right next door to him, he was really a nice guy, and he used to tell me about his racing days and all the cherry 3 windows, B400's coupes an sedans, even little ol ladies one owner cars. It was hard listening to him but he was supplying the beer. My wife didnt like me to go over there cuz I usually drank too much. Had to.
I've had a Hudson like that for sale, cheap, with Chevy motor mounts in it, for about three years. I bought it from the junkyard on the day it would have been crushed - while I was hooking up to flat tow it home, they crushed a '50 4-door that was rougher than this one. NO ONE is interested in it. About the only good thing is s****'s come up to where I can probably break even on it if I wanted to junk it. So I'm not that surprised to see one turned race car - maybe that's the only cl*** it's legal in. A guy at a local track here still runs a '57 Chevy hardtop - it's the oldest body that's legal to run, and he's moderately compe***ive - it's fun to watch him go.
I'll hazzard a thought or two... Post WWII and Korea, lots of cool cars got crushed, s****ped and raced. They were cheap, plentiful and everyone wanted a new car after years of rationing and sacrifice anyway. The cars of the 50's fared no better and as they were faster they got raced too (to help sell them of course!) but as they got older (or wrecked in accidents) these newer cars - and their drive trains - also became fodder for racers of all varieties. If the car in question here was a survivor vintage racer, so be it. LOTS of those cars are raced today and I certainly enjoy watching vintage races of all kinds. The neat thing about an old race car, seemingly collectible or not, is that as they still ARE race cars, fixing any damage is part of the game and cars that are repaired do not loose any value because of their battle scars. Gary
I took some old s**** metal to the local s****yard this week. I saw a 65 Falcon, I think 65, setting with another car stacked on it. Cowl back, no FE. This was a recent bring in. The sides looked resonably straight. I thought how good that would look on a late model frame for stock car racing, drag racing anything but the shredder. At least this guy is doing something with that Hudson...just saying..better than laying out in a field or going to the shredder.
Go***, you're right, we Mopar guys would freak out. Of course, there is no chevy of high enough value to me to NOT derby. I'd like to derby a Yenko Camaro, or a pristine tri five. Mopar; maker of the only cars banned from derby's (the Imperial).
The Jalopy Journal
