01
Origins
Hudson's 1916 Super Six was built around a patented insight: a fully balanced crankshaft that let its side-valve six run faster and harder than rivals dared. The company proved it in public, sending Super Sixes after stock-car speed records and twice across America in publicity runs that made the name. It established Hudson as an engineering company rather than an assembler, and the Super Six badge would return on Hudsons into the 1950s. The car itself was a solidly built mid-priced machine, but the engine was the point — powerful for its size, durable, and the foundation of two decades of Hudson sixes. When the Hornet dominated NASCAR in the early 1950s, it did so with a descendant of the same idea: a big, unstressed, deceptively potent six.
1950 Hudson Super 6 Four-Door Sedan · GTHO · CC BY-SA 3.0
