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The Hudson Italia's history closely parallel's that of the Hudson Jet's. To
fully understand the Italia's history, you must first examine the Jets
background.
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Hudson's Italia started as a idea in the imagination of Frank
Spring (Hudson's styling director from 1931 to 1955). Frank was
a sports car enthusiast and always wanted Hudson to produce a
sporty model. When Hudson decided to go ahead with the Jet,
Spring's initial styling sketches had more of the Italia's
flavor than the Jet's high-topped, boxy, Ford-looking lines. If
Hudson had followed Spring's design, the Jet would have been a
lower. sleeker, and quite a different looking automobile. |
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Hudson's president, A. E. Barit. liked head room and chair-like seats in
the Hudson. Barit and Spring had many "discussions" about the lowness of
the 1948-54 Step-Down Hudson. Barit thought they were too low. Spring
wanted them even lower than they were, although at their introduction
the Step-Downs were the lowest production cars on the road. |
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During the Jet's initial planning stages in the early 1950s, the
wife of one of Hudson's top executive's happened to be driving one
of the larger Fiats (a tall, squairish car). The scuttlebutt is she
commented to her husband that the Jet should have those same tall
seats and high doors....and guess what....the Jet has tall seats and
high doors. (Note: During early testing Hudson disguised the Jet
prototypes as Fiats!). |
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Spring's initial styling drawings for the Jet included many of
the Italia's touches such as fender-mounted air scoops. sloping hood
and deck, more rounded lines, and doors cut into the roof. None of
these reached the Jet production because of a large Hudson dealer in
Chicago had seen pre-production drawings for the Jet and urged
Norman K. VanDerzee, Hudson's sales V. P., to make the let more like
the 1952 Ford. This dealer had apparently seen some pre-production
drawings of the 1952 Ford as well. VanDerzee convinced Barit, Barit
convinced other management people, and they called in Spring. They
had Spring completely revise his Italia-like Jet to make it look
like a shrunken version of the 1952 Ford. |
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If you look at a Jet today, you will see a horizontal crease in
the hood about 2/3 of the way down its nose. This crease was Frank
Spring's original hood line, and another around back in the deck
lid. It denotes Spring's original deck lid height. |
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Barit also liked the shape of Olds 88's tail lights and those were
incorporated into the Jet design. Management also raised the roof of
Spring's original concept by at least three inches (figures vary)
and this gave the Jet its squeezed look and slab sided body. Spring
would never claim any responsibility for the Jet, and Bernie
Siegfried, who worked at Hudson, remembers that after the Jet's
bastardization...." I went up to Styling and saw Mr. Spring standing
there with tears in his eyes and I found out that he was
brokenhearted because he had to give up on a car that he had his
heart set on." |
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The Italia was thus born from four interrelated reasons: 1) Other
auto manufacturers were coming up with sport and show models to gain
publicity, so it made sense for Hudson to do the same. 2) Hudson was
long overdue for a complete restyling of its full-sized line, and
management wanted to test the public's reaction to the Italia's general
design and ideas. 3) Carrozzeria Touring was actively wooing Hudson,
asking them to let the Milan coach builder construct some show & sport
models on a one-off or short-run basis. And 4), Hudson management might
have felt a twinge of guilt at the way they'd put down Frank Spring on
the Jet. They were ready to hand him a victory after his defeat with the
Jet. |
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Representatives from Touring had come to the U. S. in the early
1950s with sketches, photos, and prices in hand. Their prices looked
particularly good....much lower than anyone could offer in the U.S.
Touring was able to quote such low rates because their overhead and
the Italian labor was cheap. Carrozzeria Touring had been building
custom bodies for Ferrari, Aston, Lagonda, etc., and enjoyed a fine
reputation (they went belly-up in 1967). |
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The decision to go ahead with the Italia was corporate, but this
time the design was mostly Spring's. Spring worked directly with the
Touring people. Between Spring's staff and Touring's, they ironed
out production details, and Spring made several trips to the Milan
plant between 1952 and 1954. |
Hudson shipped complete Super Jets to Carrozzena Superleggera
Touring in Milan, Italy. Carrozzena torched off and discarded most
of the Jets unit body, leaving only the chassis platform. cowl. and
some of the rear bracing. Suspension. engine, and running gear
remained pure Super Jet. Carrozzena then added the aluminum 2-seater
coupe body. (They also built one Italia-like 4-door sedan on a
Hornet base)
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The first Italia coupe was ready in mid-1953, and Spring went over with his
wife, Clara, to see it being finished. This coupe differed in several details
from "production" Italias as it had overdrive, a die-cast grille, and an
entirely different dashboard. This car is now owned by Victor Racz of Allen
Park, Michigan, one of Spring's best friends and old motorcycling buddy.
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Spring's second trip to pick up a car was with A. E. Barit's son, Robert, who
was Hudson's purchasing V.P. at the time. Spring was taking delivery of the
Hornet-based X-161 4-door that he would own until his death in 1959. Robert
Barit recalls the trip: "It was January 1954. I remember the Touring plant
vaguely as a hole-in-the-wall operation, down a narrow side street with a sort
of production line snaking through a series of old dilapidated buildings which
perhaps had been built for the purpose. I remember they had high ceilings, and
the plant wasn't far from the autostrada. I also remember being taken for very
fast rides both in our prototype and in something else very sleek, low, and
sporty...a Lancia, I believe." |
This sedan, dubbed the X-161, was last known to be owned by a Hudson
collector in New York. There is no documentation that Carrozzeria Touring ever
build any more Itialia-like sedans. Scuttlebutt claims up to 4 more were
produced. Documentation has it at one.
There's some disagreement, too, over the exact number of Italia coupes built on
the Jet chassis. Most sources, including American Motors, say there were 25
ordered and 25 built. A few Hudsonuts maintain there were 25 ordered but only 19
built. Touring documentation states 25.
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After the first Italia coupe was finished and shown, Hudson sent a letter
(dated Sept. 23, 1953) to all its dealers inviting them to place orders for
Italia's at $4,800 f. o. b. Detroit. Apparently it was this letter that netted
only 19 returns. Some Italia's were sold in Europe and were never sent to this
country.
The first run for the Italia's consisted of 10 units. Some changes were made to the first
few cars, but by serial # IT 10003 the cars remained consistent and carried the name
of Hudson Italia. |
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Compared to GM Motorama show cars and limited-production
sportsters like the Nash-Healey, Kaiser-Danin, and even some of the
fiberglass jobs of the time, Italia's received amazingly little
publicity. They were shown at all the major European salons, plus
the big U.S. auto shows. Public reaction was mixed. Most people
liked the Italia's general lines, but at the same time they felt the
rear-fender organ pipes were rather dumb looking. Whether Hudson would
have used the Italia's styling on its post-1955 lines remains
unanswerable. |
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Clara Spring, now living in Los Angeles, reminisces: "As you know, the Italia
was Frank Spring's swan song. I cannot help but smile as I remember Frank
returning home one night saying, 'Well, today I showed Mr. Barit my new design
for the Italia's instrument panel.' Mr. Barit's remark was, 'It needs more
flash, more sex appeal!' Frank always wanted to make his designs clean and
simple, without extraneous ornamentation, for practical visibility, etc. We both
had the relief of a good, quiet laugh." |
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1953 photo taken in front of the Italia factory of a new
Italia fresh off
the assembly line, unwashed and with dirty whitewall tires.
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From a cost standpoint, Hudson seems to have broken even on the Italia.
Research and development came to only $28,000, one factory source told us.
Stuart Baits, Hudson's first vice president and assistant general manager, views
the Italia's overall economics this way: "If you're going to make two, you might
as well go ahead and make 25. If you tool up for it once, the first one will
cost you maybe $150,000. The second might be $20,000, and the third $5,000 and
so on. As I remember, we about broke even on them...I think it about paid for
itself on the whole deal."
The Italia project ended abruptly when Hudson and Nash merged on May 1, 1954 to
form American Motors Corp. In the shuffle, Hudson's became Nash's, and it was
Nash management who now called the shots. Any further dealings would have to be
made by Touring with the newly formed American Motors Corporation. Letters were
sent out by AMC to all the Hudson dealers informing them that AMC would take pre-paid orders
with a deadline date for the remaining overseas Italia's. Unfortunately nobody was
interested in the Italian Sports car. It seems when an auto company goes
belly-up the cars left in inventory depreciate very quickly and since the Italia was
more or less a 1953 Hudson Super Jet mechanically and costs more than a Cadillac,
that by the deadline orders were almost nonexistent. With that, AMC committed to
build only 15 more Italia's and most of those were sold in Southern California.
Of the 25 Italia's built, almost all are accounted for.
Photo of an Italia convertible concept car model. Whereabouts of this Model is unknown. |
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Photo of six Italia's awaiting shipment to the U.S. |
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THE MAN BEHIND THE ITALIA
Frank Spring |
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One hot summer day in August, Roy Chapin called Frank Spring and wanted to talk about bringing out a hopped-up, sporty version of the Metropolitan. So Frank and Clara Spring headed for Detroit in their little Metropolitan for this meeting. On the way a woman fell asleep at the wheel of her Ford Station wagon, drifted across the highway median and crashed head-on into Frank and Clara in their little Metropolitan. The accident ended Frank Spring's long and varied automotive career. He died on August 8, 1959, in a Claremore Oklahoma hospital. Clara Spring survived the crash.
Frank Spring was born in 1893, the only son (with four sisters) of a French mother and an extremely wealthy father. The Springs were an original California land-grant family, and it's said that at one time they owned most of the acreage between San Francisco and San Jose. The old Spring mansion and gardens still stand in San Francisco.
Frank's mother tended to spoil him, and he had trouble staying in American schools, so at age 12 he was sent to Paris. Here he had a private tutor, the young son of a Scottish
lord, who took Frank on bicycling trips throughout Europe. When Frank became old enough, both he and his tutor bought motorcycles and toured the British Isles on them.
Frank graduated from the Paris Polytechnic just before World War I, studying mechanical engineering and design.
During that war, he became an aeronautical engineer in the U.S. Signal Corps, assigned to aircraft production in Detroit. It was here that he learned to fly. After the war, he took a job with Paige-Detroit, designing and building engines. Then, after a short stint as chief engineer of the Courier Motor Car Co., Sandusky, Ohio (1922-23), Spring became general manager of Walter M. Murphy, Coachbuilder, in Pasadena, a post he held until 1931.
At Murphy, he supervised the design and construction of some of America's finest classics...Duisenberg's, the one-off Peerless V-16, Lincolns, Packard's, Pierces, Minerva's, Rollse's, etc. He was also in on the ill-fated Douglas Dolphin, a competition-built airplane that eventually bankrupted Murphy.
In 1931, Spring moved to Hudson as director of styling. Here he had charge of all Hudson exteriors and interiors from 1933 until the company merged with Nash in 1954. During and after WW-II, Spring's department developed several radical idea cars, most of which came to nothing.
Spring was a small, slight man with a European education and highly cultivated social manner. He generally got on well at Hudson and enjoyed his work. Whenever visiting dignitaries arrived from Europe or the Far East, Spring was called upon to entertain them.
Frank Spring was a known health nut, a food
fanatic, a man who slept on the floor, and a student of yoga and oriental philosophies. He also loved machines. Among his favorites were motorcycles. He owned a succession of Ariel Square 4s, big Vincents, and Triumphs. More often than not, he'd ride to work on a bike, even in the dead of winter.
Frank was an aviation buff and owned and flew a Beechcraft Bonanza. He was also a great sports car enthusiast. At the time of his death, he was restoring a 1936 BMW roadster, driving a gullwing Mercedes, and owned the Hornet-based Italia X-161 sedan prototype. (Clara Spring drove this car through 1980.)
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