1937 Hudson Terraplane Pickup Freshly Restored Top Show Quality Award Winner

The Terraplane was a car brand and model built by the Hudson Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, between 1932 and 1938. In its maiden year, the car was branded as the Essex-Terraplane; in 1934 the car became simply the Terraplane. They were inexpensive, yet powerful vehicles that were used in both town and country. The Terraplane name was used for both cars and trucks.

Hudson had manufactured the inexpensive Essex from 1919 as a lower-priced vehicle line; the company merged Essex into itself in 1922. The Essex is generally credited with helping to make the fully enclosed automobile an affordable model for inexpensive automobiles. The low-priced closed model Essex coach "had promoted the sensational recovery of Hudson" as an automaker in 1922.Declining sales of the Essex, combined with the growing economic pressure and suffering from the effects of the Great Depression forced Hudson to replace the Essex with a re-designed automobile with a lower manufacturing cost and selling price.

The new Essex-Terraplane was launched on July 21, 1932, "with sensational vigor" that "accounts of the affair appeared in newspapers throughout the United States." The special event included over 2,000 dealers who came from 40 states to Detroit. Hudson also had famous aviator Amelia Earhart helping to introduce the first Essex-Terraplane. It was a small, but very powerful, car with a steel frame, built to exacting standards, which is probably why Orville Wright purchased one of the first Essex-Terraplanes for himself. The 1932 model bore a slight resemblance to its Essex predecessors. The 1932 model had just the name "Essex" on the radiator ornament, but the 1933 models had the name "Essex-Terraplane" on the radiator ornament.
Sales of the Terraplane outpaced Hudson vehicles in the late mid-1930s. One unique feature was "Duo-Automatic" brakes. Terraplanes had two brake systems—hydraulic and mechanical. Should the hydraulic brakes fail (i.e. the brake line had a leak in it), the mechanical brakes would be used to stop the car. A wide variety of body variants were produced including a Utility Coupe with a slide out parcel box hiding in the trunk and a light duty Pickup which debuted in 1935. Very few of these were made and few survive.

This stunning example is one of less than 20 known. Fresh out of a multi year professional restoration, the Pick up made its debut at the Cincinnati Concours d'Elegance earlier this year where it was an Award winner. Correct in every detail and finished to a very high standard this is arguably one of the finest-if not the finest-example in existence. The truck is well equipped with the optional under dash heater and twin taillights. It came with the optional Power Dome head that boosted the compression ration from 6.25:1 to 7.0:1 and required premium fuel back in the late 30's. In excellent running and driving condition this attractive seldom seen Hudson Pickup is ready for Show or Tour.

These Hudson Pickups have always been very desirable due to their stylish low slung design and ground breaking concept-this is probably the first car based pickup/utility made in America. Not to mention their rarity with roughly only 7900 built originally, and less than 20 survivors. Don't miss this opportunity to acquire a freshly restored example that be shown with confidence immediately.