Development
During development of the Hudson Jet line, chief designer Frank Spring wanted to bring a low-slung stylish car to Hudson's model range. Lacking sufficient capital to develop a new model, Hudson reached an agreement for a prototype to be built in Milan by Carrozzeria Touring. A complete Hudson Jet was shipped to Italy. A new aluminum body design, based on sketches by Frank Spring, was formed over tubular framing. Modifications by Touring were under the supervision of Spring and Hudson's vice-president, Stuart Baits. The price paid by Hudson for this concept car was reported to be only $28,000. The car was on display at Hudson dealerships across the country by late 1953, and received positive customer reaction. It was on exhibited at automobile shows in the U.S. and some in Europe, as well as at the International Sports Car Show held in January 1954.
.This car first appeared under the "Super Jet" name and featured numerous advancements including its aluminum body, wraparound windshield (reminiscent of the 1953 Corvette), doors that cut 14 inches (356 mm) into the roof (also called aircraft doors) for easier entry and exit. In part because of Hudson's "step-down" floorpan, which dated to 1948, the Italia was 9 in (229 mm) lower than the Jet, but shared its 105 in (2,667 mm) wheelbase. The prototype also featured Borrani chrome wire wheels and its column mounted three-speed transmission included an overdrive unit.
The Hudson Italia was similar to the concept developed by Ford for its original Mustang, as it was "a small, sporty, eye-catching coupe that fairly bristled with styling innovations. The Italia was about the same size as the Mustang, and like Ford's "pony car" it borrowed its mechanical components from the company's existing compact sedan. But it pre-dated the Mustang by a full 10 years."
The concept was an effort by Hudson to capitalize on the notoriety of show cars, as the Chrysler Ghia had done.
Read more about this topic: Hudson Italia
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“On fields all drenched with blood he made his record in war, abstained from lawless violence when left on the plantation, and received his freedom in peace with moderation. But he holds in this Republic the position of an alien race among a people impatient of a rival. And in the eyes of some it seems that no valor redeems him, no social advancement nor individual development wipes off the ban which clings to him.”
—Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911)
“The proper aim of education is to promote significant learning. Significant learning entails development. Development means successively asking broader and deeper questions of the relationship between oneself and the world. This is as true for first graders as graduate students, for fledging artists as graying accountants.”
—Laurent A. Daloz (20th century)
“I hope I may claim in the present work to have made it probable that the laws of arithmetic are analytic judgments and consequently a priori. Arithmetic thus becomes simply a development of logic, and every proposition of arithmetic a law of logic, albeit a derivative one. To apply arithmetic in the physical sciences is to bring logic to bear on observed facts; calculation becomes deduction.”
—Gottlob Frege (1848–1925)