Wish I could find...

Beforemytime

where I was reading about the upper management at Hudson who were stuck on several archaic ideas and refused to change with the times. Also would welcome additional reading about Bernie and his departure for Ford. Did Hudson have an OHV engine in the works before the merger? It's a shame for as fine the Hudson's were in their time they collapsed into financial ruin and today we have all these import cars taking the places of our home brew autos. 

Pure case of "Woulda coulda shoulda", yet I wish.

Lance

Bernie Siegfried the chief engine designer at Hudson did indeed have an OHV engine in the works. He showed the prints to management at the time but they told him to keep the prints we've just merged with Nash so there is no more need for future engine design. Siegfried took those prints home with him. Soon thereafter he went to work for Ford. He told them of his idea of an OHV 6 cyl engine. They very much wanted to see what Siegfried had so he unrolled his drawings of what he had done at Hudson and they said 'we'll build it. It was one of the most successful Ford engines ever built- the Ford 300. And as Paul Harvey used to say 'Now you know the rest of the story.' Next time someone is bragging about the Ford 300 in his truck ,remind them it's a Hudson engine.

50C8DAN

Lance I believe that Bernie actually had the engine built and running before Hudson shut down. Others on here would know more about that. It ended up in his Ford pickup if I remember right.

Lance

Yeah Dan I think you're right. Seems he also had some prototype Hudson V8's as well. Didn't hear much about them though.

50C8DAN

The V8 I believe was from ROI, but they could not produce volume.

50C8DAN

Sorry I meant Leroi company.

ski4life65

Doesn't Leroi make air compressors? Expensive ones

50C8DAN

They made their own engines for generators: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YUO_I4UUew

tombia

Leroi was an old engine builder of industrial engines like Buda, Waukasha, and many others.

Kdancy

There should have been a merger in the late 40's between Packard, Studebaker, Hudson and Nash. I would even throw Internationale truck into that merger. Even with that, they would not have survived due to having to compete with much larger companies but it would have streamlined and made them more competitive.