Hidden gems at Moncton auto show | The Chronicle Herald

MONCTON, N.B. ? Every year, thousands of people flock to Moncton during the second week of July to witness one of the largest auto shows in Canada ? the Atlantic Nationals Automotive Extravaganza.

As the amount of spectators continues to grow for this annual show, so does the pool of muscle cars, modern classics, and one-off customs.

More than 2,000 vehicles ? and some that resemble anything but ? line up and down Main Street to show off their mettle and wow passers-by.

There is no shortage of Mustangs, Camaros, and Chargers for everyone to gawk at, but if you look a little harder, and do some exploring through the side streets, you might come across an unfamiliar set of wheels that doesn?t have a bowtie or blue oval on it.

These are the forgotten brands that did not survive the onslaught of fuel shortages, economic turmoil, and some bad business decisions in the highly-competitive post-war North American auto industry.

So what are these mystery brands that have gone the way of the Dodo?

Hudson: ?...hot-diggity-dog, that?s Terraplaning!?

Going waaay back to the dawn of the automobile boom in the 1900s, when eight guys from Detroit; a wealthy department store entrepreneur, conveniently named Joseph L. Hudson; and an aggressive young executive, Roy D. Chapin, decided to thrust themselves into the highly-lucrative, highly-competitive automotive industry.

Hudson gave the party his blessing to use his name as the face of the company as well as provide the initial financial backing, while Chapin was more or less the leader of the pack who would direct the company.

Hudson had very good success, very early on, with their Model 20 in 1910; their very first car by the way. Unfortunately, with all kinds of auto companies beginning to spring up and with the introduction of the Ford Model T, as well as the stresses of the Great Depression, Hudson sales began to dip sharply in the 1920s and early ?30s. The car that saved them was the Hudson Terraplane.

Jeff Steeves from Lutes Mountain ? about 14 kilometres north of Moncton, bought a 1937 Hudson Terraplane Coupe about four-years ago from a long-time neighbourhood friend.

?An older gentlemen in the neighbourhood that I grew up in... he was a wealthier man he always had Rolls-Royces and old cars and things like that,? Steeves recalled. ?And later as he got older I had re-met with him again and I asked him to show me his old cars, if he had any, and he said he had a couple.

?Anyway, we went over to his old garage; it was a run-down place and we went in and this Hudson Terraplane was the first car we?d seen and it kind of went from there.?

The Terraplane was a low-cost, high-volume car produced from 1933-1938. Aside from being affordable, it came with some nifty engineering features. The clutch, for example, was a wet, corked-clutch; wet because it sat in oil in an enclosed hub; and corked because, well, it had some 40-odd wooden corks poking through the clutch plate (think wine corks through a thin circular metal disk and you have a very good idea what it looks like). This provided the car with very smooth shifts at the time, not to mention it was much lighter and just as reliable as a regular clutch.

During the ?30s Hudson had expanded to Canada, contracting Canada Top and Body to assemble Hudsons in their Tilsbury, Ontario plant. Steeves? Terraplane was one of them.

?It?s a Canadian-made car which makes it rare, as well as the child seat,? he said. ?They called it a two coupe with a ?child-seat.? The back-seat just floats there.?

After World War 2, Hudson, like many American car companies (the ones that survived the Depression at least), faced a tidal-wave of brand-new customers in a post-war North American car market. People had money, North America was building roads and the public hadn?t seen a new car since 1942.

Unfortunately, Ford, GM and Chrysler got the bulk of military contracts and had a brand-spankin? new infrastructure to produce hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cars each year. Meanwhile, Hudson and the others were still stuck in thirties plants.

In 1954, Hudson Motors merged with the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation which would go on to form the American Motor Company (AMC) in the ?60s until finally withering away in 1988.

Nash: ?Give the customer more than he has paid for.?

The brain-child of a former GM CEO, Charles W. Nash, Nash Motors was established in 1917, shortly before the first World War ended. Forced out of the GM hierarchy in 1916, Nash was a farm-boy from Illinois who worked his way up through the ranks as a highly respected mechanic and a true 'blue collar' individual and executive.

Unlike many large car companies and their executives at the time, Nash had the foresight that the over-congestion of roads and thoroughfares in the cities during the 1920s and ?30s would increase demand for small-to medium-sized cars.

Although Nash died in 1954, the epitome of his vision was none other than the 1954, Nash Metropolitan; a very small, 42-horsepower, two-seat coupe.

Charlie Morton from Dieppe has been infatuated by the small sub-compact classics for some time now.

?This one here?s a ?55, I?ve had ?60s, 1962s, I just sold a completely original one that went down to Nova Scotia,? Morton explained. ?Sold that one for around $55,000.?

The unusually small car (for its time) has become somewhat of a cult-classic among auto-enthusiasts over the decades. From 1954-1963, Nash (which had just merged with Hudson Motor Company in ?54) only managed to sell 95,000 Mets? during its nine-year run. In comparison, the Volkswagen Beetle (which was larger in every sense than the Met') sold over 200,000 units... in 1954!

While both cars may have had similar power outputs back-in-the-day (both had about 55hp), Morton has made a few modifications to this Met? to ensure he has the edge against any VW driver.

?The original ones had about 55 horsepower and this one has around 450,? a boasting Morton said. ?The engine is a hemi-engine and I found that one (the engine) in a scrap yard out of a 2005 Dodge truck.?

Nash Motors was also a pioneer in automotive heaters and air-conditioning systems, thanks to the joining-of-houses between kitchen-appliance giant, Kelvinator, forming the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation in 1937. As you may already know, Nash-Kelvinator merged with Hudson Motors in 1954 and eventually became AMC. Models like the Nash-Rambler and Javelin would keep AMC afloat during the late ?50s and ?60s, as well as a by-out by Frances' Renault in the ?80s, until finally declaring bankruptcy and entering receivership in ?88.

Packard: ?Ask the man who owns one.?

Packard was one of the better known of the now defunct American automakers, mostly because of their production of high-end luxury cars in the early 1900s. Facing competition from GM?s newly acquired Cadillac division in 1909, Packard was quick to let everyone know they were still the premier luxury auto maker in the States.

Fortunately, the company had already established a very loyal following. Cars like the 1932 Packard ?Twin Six? (later known as the ?Twelve?) was the epitome of luxury in the automotive industry at the time, despite Cadillacs? opulent and daring V-16 model in 1930. Of course the strain the Depression was making on the auto industry was too great for Packard and subsequently began launching smaller more affordable cars. In 1935 they unveiled the car that would save them, but ironically tarnish their prestigious image; the Packard One-Twenty.

?I came here with a trailer and I wanted to come here this year because there?s a lot of cars and I knew there would be none like this one; there's only four in Canada.?

Edgar Godin from Sept-Iles, Quebec (directly north of New Brunswick) has a rare 1937, Canadian-built One-Twenty and has brought it to the Atlantic Nationals 100 per cent restored to its original form, slowly but surely.

?Four years during the winter time, but not every day because it?s too tough,? Godin said. ?You got to do a little bit at a time and stop when you?re tired and just leave it there. Cost me around $50-$60,000, when I bought the car, but I paid a lot of money for special things like the (external) suitcase and mirror, the mirror was missing.?

Godin literally jumped at the opportunity when he heard that the Packard was for sale. To him the car is priceless.

?I knew there was one in Sept-Iles, that car, and somebody told me that he wanted to sell it, so I went right away and bought it right away.

?I have to keep it, not sell it. I?ll never sell it,? Godin said. ?I'm going to leave it to my son or grandson, one or the other.?

When America finally came into World War II it awarded tens-of-billions of dollars in military contracts to the automotive sector. This mandated that they cease all production of customer vehicles to contribute to the war machine. In addition, Ford, GM and Chrysler built massive assembly plants for the tens-of-thousands of tanks, Jeeps and aeroplanes, while companies like Packard produced aircraft and marine engines.

After the War ended this gave the ?Big Three? a huge advantage over the smaller independent car companies. Unfortunately, Packard missed the opportunity to get back to their ?roots? and start building high-end luxury cars, now that Cadillac had a switched to the higher-volume, medium-sized luxury market. Instead, they tried to compete directly with GM. The Packards of the ?40s and ?50s weren?t bad cars; being one of the first companies to mass-produce cars with unit-body chassis (or uni-body). They just couldn?t build enough of them. This move to higher-volume cars also destroyed whatever following they had left of the high-end luxury segment.

In 1954, just like Hudson and Nash, Packard merged with Studebaker to form Packard-Studebaker Corporation. In 1962, the Packard name and brand was dropped and became simply the Studebaker Corporation.

Other car companies like Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Mercury and Plymouth to name a few are the most recent companies to be sacked and disappear from the roadways. Like Hudson and Nash and Packard, economic and internal instability, as well as rickety gas prices and poor business decisions were the main cause of their disappearance. It just goes to show how competitive and fleeting the automotive industry is, regardless of timeframe.

Ironically, because of their companies? failures, cars like the Terraplane, Metropolitans and Packard One-Twenties have become even more valuable and prestigious. Hudsons and Nashes are selling for over $20,000 in the States while Packards like Edgar Godins?, are going for over $100,000 to $250,000.

Events like the Atlantic Nationals give us the opportunity to discover these rare and forgotten collectables. If you do some exploring and keep an open mind you may just find a car that doesn?t have a bowtie or blue oval on it that is truly one-of-a-kind... or one of four in the entire country.

Source: http://thechronicleherald.ca/wheelsnews/118746-hidden-gems-at-moncton-auto-show

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