The Hudson Motor Car Company began in 1909 when Joseph Hudson , of Hudsons Department Stores supplied money and the right to his name , to a group of Detroit business men to start an automobile company .
The Hudson Motor Company wanted to build low priced automobiles . Their first car the Hudson Twenty was low priced and 4,000 were sold the first year . During the next few years Hudson introduced the first Dual Braking System as well as warning lights for engine oil Pressure and charging system . In 1916 the Hudson super six was the first automotive engine to be balanced . Balancing allows an engine to run smoothly and last longer while running at higher RPMs and develop more power
. The Essex automobile line was brought on to the market in 1919 to be sold as a lower priced automobile and the Hudson was then offered to the mid-priced market . This combination worked well for Hudson and by 1925 Hudson was third over all in automotive sales and in 1929 sold 300,000 vehicles . In 1932 Hudson introduced the Essex Terraplane to replace the Essex line . In 1934 Essex was deleted and the line became just Terraplane . In 1938 Terraplane was renamed the Hudson 112 . In 1938 Hudson gave a contract to Canada Top and Body of Tilbury Ontario the build their cars in Canada . In 1942 Hudson offered Drive Master which was an automatic electric gear shift and clutch system ,to shift their manual transmissions . During WWII Hudson was involved in producing military needs .
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In the early 50s Hudson Hornets dominated NASCAR , winning championships in 1951-52-53 and 1954 .
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In 1954 Hudson joined with Nash-Kelvinator to form the American Motors Corporation which is now part of the Chrysler Corporation . All the American Motors line have since been discontinued .
