By Linda Taaffe
 Walter and Margaret Mordenti’s 1953 Hudson Hornet will be on display at the Classic Car show at the Celebrate Los Altos Fall Festival. |
A case of mistaken identity led Lee Cherry to his 1934 Hudson. And although the car was nothing to boast about when he towed it home, Cherry admits it was one of the best mistakes he ever made.
Cherry’s car is among the eight Hudsons highlighted in the Classic Car show at the Celebrate Los Altos Fall Festival this weekend. This year’s event pays tribute to the Hudson, a car known worldwide for its speed and innovative engine designs.
The car enthusiast had his heart set on restoring a pre-World War II Packard when his son-in-law spotted the dilapidated Hudson sitting in front of a Livermore house during his route as a FedEx driver.
“I found you a Packard,” he told Cherry.
The car’s sleek, long hood resembled a Packard, but the car was actually a Hudson “Straight 8,” named for its eight cylinders lined up in a row, which created the need for a long hood.
Cherry towed the car home, becoming its third owner.
Cherry spent six years hunting down parts to meticulously restore his Hudson. Today, the forest-green car with black fenders and yellow wheels gets positive attention wherever it goes, Cherry said. He estimates that there are only about 50 Hudsons from 1934 left worldwide.
“People are always asking me questions about it,” he said. Cherry isn’t shy about driving it places either. He recently returned to the Bay Area from a trip to San Simeon with his car club. He has driven the car as far as Kansas.
Cherry plans to take his Hudson to downtown Los Altos Saturday for the annual Classic Car show at the Celebrate Los Altos Fall Festival. He is one of about 70 car owners scheduled to participate.
Car enthusiast Bob Bennett, whose 1954 Hudson Hornet will be on display, said the Hudson was the American Jaguar.
“They were a strong combination of luxury and performance with working-class roots,” he said. “Nothing drives like a Hudson.”
The quest to develop an affordable automobile launched the Hudson Motor Car Company, named for department store magnet J.L. Hudson, who banded together with seven other businessmen in 1909 to produce an automobile that would sell for less than $1,000.
The company broke all speed records in 1936 with its Hudson Eight, which traveled 2,104 miles within 24 hours at an average speed of 87.68 mph. From 1932 to 1940, the Hudson won a record 120 official American stock car awards for performance, endurance and economy.
The Hudson’s Essex Terraplane was the car that 1930s gangster John Dillinger boasted about, saying he could outrun any policeman or federal agent.
The Hudson “Twenty” was one of the first low-priced cars on the American market, selling for $900. Hudson sold more than 4,000 cars in the first year - the most for any first-year company in the history of the industry.
The company began making the bodies of its six-cylinder cars out of steel rather than wood, used by most other American car manufacturers, and equipped them with a four-speed, overdrive transmission. The “Six-Forty” had the advantage of greater speed and lower gas consumption.
Hudson introduced the first fully balanced crankshaft turned by an engine. The 1937 Hudson was the first American car to have the battery under the hood rather than under the front seat. In the 1940s, Hudson revolutionized body design by introducing the first car “you step down into.” The car, compared to an upside down bathtub, had a low silhouette that hugged the road. Previous to this design, motorists had to step up to get into their cars.
A boy’s first car
“I was walking down the street and saw the car in a lot and fell in love with it,” he said. “I was a sports-car person. I took it for a drive and was amazed by the handling.”
Bennett is restoring his sixth Hudson, a Hornet made in 1954, the last year they were manufactured. He tracked it down on eBay. Bennett’s model was the only model to feature a one-piece windshield.
A heap of nuts and bolts
The Mordentis flew from their Florida home to California to look at the neglected vehicle.
“There wasn’t a spot of rust on it,” Mordenti said.
Mordenti, a lifelong Hudson owner who grew up riding in his parents’ Essex Terreplane and owned a 1942 Hudson before serving in the military, added the Hornet to his list of Hudsons.
Restoring the Hornet became a family affair. Mordenti moved to California and over the next five years, he and Joyce worked side by side cleaning and fixing parts. Everything’s original - the motor, transmission, front and rear ends, Mordenti said.
This Hudson is no longer left sitting idle in a garage. Mordenti has already driven the meadow-green with green metallic “jewel” to Connecticut seven times. The car gets about 18 to 21 mpg, he said.
A dog named Speed
The car has been featured on the cover of “Vanity Fair.”
It won the cup and first in its class at the Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance in 2000 and first in its class at the Palo Alto Concours d’Elegance in 1999.
“It was a dream come true,” de Urioste said when he inherited the car in 1986. The car represents a lifetime of memories.
As a boy, de Urioste rode alongside his grandfather listening to family stories - most of which included the Hudson.
The de Uriostes became known in San Francisco as the family who drove with a dog perched on the running board. Speed liked to take his place outside the driver’s door on the running board when Adolfo drove to his office on Van Ness Avenue, de Urioste said.
The locals would shout out “Speed, Speed,” when Adolfo drove past them. The dog replied with a bark.
Aldolfo worked as a Hudson salesman in San Francisco. As a result, the company customized the car with a few not-so-common features, including a personalized MotoMeter over the radiator that gauged the car’s temperature and a special spare-tire cover imprinted with Aldolfo’s name on the right running board.
The family used it as a utility vehicle to haul supplies from San Francisco to Tahoe, where they built a cabin in the 1930s, de Urioste said. Most cars were low to the ground and would get stuck in the dirt roads on the way to Tahoe. The Hudson had better clearance and a reputation for endurance.
Aldolfo would cut a tree before descending Echo Summit, a steep grade along Highway 50, and tie the trunk to the back of the car to slow it down so he wouldn’t burn out the brakes, de Urioste said. Cars only had rear brakes back then.
Aldolfo and his wife, Mary, used the Hudson as the getaway car for their honeymoon in Lake Tahoe in 1925. The car had its first restoration 50 years later when Adolfo secretly fixed it as a surprise for Mary. De Urioste said his grandmother was convinced that Aldolfo’s long hours away from home were being spent with another woman.
The couple drove through San Francisco with a “Just married 50 years ago today” sign on the back of the fully restored car. The following day, this item appeared in legendary Herb Caen’s newspaper column: “Aldolfo de Urioste celebrated his 50th anniversary in the same car he used in his honeymoon: 1923 Hudson; Same model car, same model wife!”
