A Stinging Automobile

            By 1952 the once venerable Hudson Motor Car Company was seeing the writing on the wall. The Big Three in Detroit were creeping deeper and deeper into every car market, stripping customers away from the likes of Hudson.

            Though Hudson had been having success with its Hornet, both with sales and on the race track, dominating NASCAE from 1951 through 1954, their smaller Pacemaker model was beginning to show its age and feel the squeeze from the competition. A combination of falling sales and the lack of funding to do a proper new car introduction led Hudson to face a dilemma. In order to compete in this size market they needed new blood but didn’t have the cash to start from scratch.

            The solution: the Wasp.

            Introduced in 1952, the Wasp was an upgrade of the Pacemaker and technically replaced the Super Custom models that were last seen in 1951. Available in both two door and four door sedan and convertibles, Hudson was hoping that The Wasp would be able to gain some footing off of The Hornet’s reputation.

            Rather than start from scratch, which for a company the size of Hudson would be very difficult, the engineers utilized existing Hudson parts such as the unitized, “mono-bilt” step down chassis. Hudson also used was their 232 cubic inch L-Head straight six engine which came right out of the Pacemaker. In a model called the Super Wasp they had a 262 cubic inch L-Head six that was fed by two carburetors and punched out 127 horses.

            Unfortunately for Hudson, sales of the Wasp, while decent, were not enough to fend off the impending doom. About the only way to compete with Chrysler, Ford and General Motors was to become bigger and the best way to do that was to merge. In 1954 Hudson and the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation joined forces to form American Motors Corporation.

            In order to cut costs but maintain identity, the new American Motors turned certain lines over to one manufacturer or the other while keeping both names separate. Starting with the 1955 models The Wasp became essentially a Nash Ambassador. Stripped of much of its heritage, The Wasp may have carried the Hudson logo but, as was proven time and again on the track, it no longer had that sting.

            The last year for the Wasp was 1956 and the last year a car bearing the Hudson marque rolled off the line was in 1957 as AMC executives turned their attention to more economical cars such as the Rambler.  AMC fought the good fight until 1987 when they were purchased by Chrysler from then owner Renault.

            Pictured here is a 1952 two door version of the Wasp. Light and powerful these cars were aptly named as they could definitely fly down the road.