Hudson V8

54Hollywood

I was rereading, again, the interview with Bernie Siegfried in the Hudson issue of "Automobile Quarterly" where he's talking about a possible V-8 for Hudson. He says, "...Management was interested only in procuring an overhead valve V-8. Hudson was not in a position financially or plantwise to manufacture a V-8 and had to look to the independent small manufacturers. They found such an engine, modified it to their liking, tested it and liked it very much. Unfortunately the engine makers were unstable financially themselves, could not tool up for volume production and shortly thereafter went into receivership. In 1953 Hudson might have had a 320 cid V-8 that produced 200 and 215 bhp, which was about 35 hp above any other engine on the market at that time."

So my question is, who was the engine maker? Do we have any specs or other info about this engine? Did they build more than the one that Hudson tested and if so, do we have any info about who bought them or how they were used? I don't recall reading any other information about this engine. Thanks for any input.

Tim in WI.

ArkieJazz

The engine company was the Le Roi Company. They could have supplied engines, but not in the quantity which Hudson needed

ski4life65

Doesn't Le Roi still make air compressors?

ArkieJazz

Yes, they do.

Kdancy

Too bad they didn't make a limited edition model with that V8 and call it the "Super Hornet".

lostmind

I read an article years ago that showed the stepdown engines were copies of a Buda engine. Very convinceing article
Roy

Marconi

LeRoi also produced a V-8 medium duty truck engine in the early 50s. I think it was 540 CID & 200 HP. Physically it was pretty wide, they made it a little narrower by nputting the exhaust manifolds inside the "V" in line with the intake manifold.

ArkieJazz

According to Bernie, the Hudson engineers were actually supplied with several of the Le Roi engines so that they could tweak and design and change to suit what they wanted. The Hudson engineers actually put a lot of work into the redesign, only to find out that LeRoi's production capacity was miniscule compared to what they needed. Probably an oversight on someone's part that they didn't know LeRoi's production capability ahead of time.

junkcarfann

The only LeRoi V8 I am aware of is a huge beast. It was used in the US Army 10 ton trucks, and was superceded by a Cummins diesel V8. The LeRoi is 540 cubic inches, and far too big and heavy for a car.

Perhaps they made a smaller V8 of which you speak.

ArkieJazz

Don't know about what you're aware of regarding LeRoi....but Bernie Siegfried was an engineer in Hudson's engine department. He was very specific about the company they were looking at. I suppose it's possible that it could have been an engine which never made it out of R&D

junkcarfann

Something is missing here. FYI,I personally have seen numerous LeRoi V8 engines while in the Army, and also personally drove several 10 ton Army trucks with the V8 Cummins Diesel Engine that replaced the LeRoi. The trucks, (and their engines), are huge! 24 inch tires, the Army's biggest conventional truck at that time.

Also, I was the operator of an Army 5 ton wrecker for a year in Thailand during the Vietnam War, where we did wrecker service for the Army, the Air Force, and the Thai State Police. I picked up lots of trucks and buses, but the wrecker could not lift the front of the 10 ton truck by its front...the weight was so much that the 5 ton wrecker pulled a wheelie.

And back at the motor pool, the shop changed engines in all the Army vehicles, and often had a backlog of dozens of trucks to replace the engines (mostly 5 ton trucks with dieselized gasoline Continentals...they blew up all the time).

Once, they had to change the Cummins V8 in a 10 ton truck. My wrecker boom could barely lift the engine out of the truck, and we had to tie the front of the wrecker to another truck to keep the front wheels of the wrecker on the ground. This is the same wrecker that could lift a jeep completely off the ground with ease, and swing it around and load it in the back of a deuce and a half truck, which we often did. So the V8 Cummins that replaced the LeRoi V8 weighed considerably more than a complete jeep!

Conclusion: This Hudson/LeRoi engine must have been an experimental engine, or there is some other explanation. The existing V8 is simply too big and heavy for a car.

One clue is that the article says, Leroi "could not tool up for volume production" of the engine.

The LeRoi V8 in the trucks was made in some volume because it is was used by Autocar trucks for several years, and by the Army for the 10 ton trucks, by Walter trucks, and perhaps by others. If you Google LeRoi V8 all you get is the big 540, and none other, although I did not search through every single page.

BTW, I am surprised that Hudson or Bernie would get involved as deep as is reported here without doing at least some basic due diligence to see if LeRoi could actually produce enough engines.

[Deleted User]

Dont know about the v8 engine but, you people have certainly heard about the model that was to come outin 1957 until the merger scotch the car. I heard the story 40 years ago at a national meet by the person who was involved in the project. It might have been Bernie but memory has faded. The x161 was the body and a new inline 6 overhead cam that they tested in the x161 that was destroyed after the merger had a top speed of 140MPH. They built two engines and two 161s They gave the 161 with the hornet engine to Frank Spring and burned the 161 with the new motor up at the Hudson factory . They then crushed the spare motor. Barit was heard saying "they have stolen everything else and they (nash) arent going to get this." The merger was not freiendly. Wish I could remember more details.

Nevada Hudson

Really was a purchase by Nash. Hudson was broke and had no choice.

junkcarfann

According to all I can find about LeRoi, that company was about in the same shape as Hudson was at that same time...A weak player, on the financial skids, and about to be purchased (or already purchased) by another company. Info is hard to come by about LeRoi, but all I have read recently points in that direction. Which makes this story hard to comprehend of LeRoi gearing up for a new car V8 when all they have produced in the past is industrial/truck engines. Not saying the story is not true, but it JDLR.