Jaguar MkVII vs Hudson Hornet: big cat in America

By Andrew Roberts

| 6 Sep 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Jaguar MkVII vs Hudson Hornet: big cat in America

In the early 1950s, the well-heeled American customer who appreciated the finest in engineering, and who craved superlative performance and refinement from a large saloon, had two main choices of transport.

One was the Jaguar MkVII, a key car in the history of the British marque, and the other was one of the greatest sporting saloons to ever hail from Detroit – the Hudson Hornet.

As the legend goes, William Lyons first thought of a new engine to power the ultimate sports saloon when he was fire-watching during the Blitz.

The XK120 was subsequently devised as a shop window for the 3.4-litre powerplant because production difficulties delayed the MkVII’s launch until 1950.

‘The Jaguar MkVII’s styling is faintly louche and conveys an air of Mayfair glamour’

To gain an idea of its impact at the London Motor Show, just look at the newsreel coverage, for in those faded black-and-white images you can see the awestruck expressions of visitors at the sight of the light metallic blue Jaguar that was then the world’s fastest production saloon car.

There was a small number of British motorists, however, who were innately suspicious of how an impressive machine such as the MkVII could cost a sizeable but still achievable £1600.

When The Autocar tested one in 1952, it noted that the latest Jaguar ‘demonstrates to the die-hards who support traditional style that a modern body can be both functional and beautiful’, but there were still dark mutterings of how the MkVII bore the curse of caddishness.

After all, the styling is faintly louche and the luxurious saloon effortlessly conveys an air of Mayfair glamour; if suave actor George Sanders never owned a big Jaguar, he should have done.

The Jaguar MkVII’s swooping lines echo the XK120 sports car

In short, the MkVII was guilty not only of being elegantly decadent in an England of demob suits, but also of having dynamic abilities that were almost indecently good for a car with such ample dimensions.

Yet to the traditionalists, the central problem with the Jaguar was not so much that its size and appearance gave it instant appeal to all Sydney Tafler clones who were looking for a getaway car, but more that it was evidently aimed at those dashed Americans.

It was a point made in The Autocar road test with the somewhat snide observation that the MkVII went ‘quite a lot faster than some cars of a similar body size with an engine of around five litres’ – that is, the potential rivals in Jaguar’s vital American market.

When the MkVII made its debut in the USA, crowds blocked the streets around Jaguar’s New York showrooms and its appearance at the city’s 1951 Motor Show resulted in orders worth some $20million.

The Hudson Hornet got twin carburettors and dual-manifold induction with the ‘Twin H-Power’ pack

At a cost of $4000 – a decent annual salary for a blue-collar worker but considerably less than a Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn – a motorist could own a car that was both a technical marvel and the embodiment of British good taste.

The impact of the Jaguar MkVII in the USA also created a template for any would-be exporter.

The superlative performance and the appearance – if not quite the reality – of Bentley standards of interior finish were encased in coachwork that was at once large enough for the American customer but still idiosyncratically British.

Jaguar would not make the mistakes of Austin, whose A90 Atlantic was a bold attempt to seduce affluent American motorists, only to be the first of a succession of products – varying from cars to Diana Dors films – that were what UK marketing managers erroneously believed the American consumer really wanted.

‘A select number of drivers began to realise the Hudson Hornet’s racing potential’

Longbridge discovered that US drivers were largely immune to the charms of a Pontiac clone powered by a mere four cylinders.

Within a few years, however, Jaguar was to be the fifth best-selling imported marque in the USA.

The MkVII’s Stateside price placed it in the Cadillac/Lincoln bracket, but for a saving of $1500 the slightly more cash-conscious motorist could have bought the newly launched Hudson Hornet.

Its origins date from 1941, when Hudson’s president, AE Barit, rejected a design because it was deemed too radical for the company’s customers.

The prototype was exiled to the factory roof, but the post-war demand for new cars led to it being retrieved and re-presented to Barit. After one drive, he gave the order that it would go on sale in 1948.

The Jaguar MkVII’s interior is full of traditional wood and leather

When the new Commodore Eight range made its debut, potential customers were amazed by the low coachwork, as styled by Betty Thatcher, the first female American car designer.

The floor was mounted several inches below the top of the frame members and, although short drivers were prone to tripping on the sills and falling into their new Commodores, this was a small sacrifice for the car’s vast headroom and such sleek lines.

The experience of Hudson’s chief body engineer Carl Cenzer with wartime aircraft design had convinced him of the virtues of monocoque construction, although the Commodore Eight still employed a separate and massively over-engineered frame in a chassis referred to as ‘Monobuild’.

The Jaguar MkVII’s doors feature drop-down toolboxes

Hudson was flooded with orders, but by 1950 the post-war sellers’ market was coming to an end.

Unlike the Big Three, Hudson was unable to spend its limited resources to either give the Commodore an annual facelift or to offer the V8 power that was already available in the rival Oldsmobile 88.

The solution was the 1951 Hornet, available in sedan, convertible, Hollywood Hardtop and Club Coupe forms, all of them powered by Detroit’s largest six-cylinder engine.

A charming detail was the chrome rocket shooting through the letter H, thereby ensuring that the average Buick owner knew that he/she was being overtaken by the ultimate Hudson.

The Jaguar MkVII’s cabin has an atmospheric glow thanks to rear courtesy lights

The Hornet was built to withstand the worst of America’s dirt roads, and had such a low centre of gravity that a select number of drivers began to realise its potential on the nation’s race tracks.

In 1951, a Club Coupe owned by Marshall Teague won the 1951 NASCAR race at Daytona Beach – one of 13 victories that year.

Hudson quickly responded, offering such racing accessories as high-compression heads, a dual exhaust and heavy-duty suspension under the diplomatic catalogue name of ‘severe usage’ parts.

There was also the option, later standardised, of ‘Twin H-Power’ with twin carburettors and dual-manifold induction.

Teague himself helped to develop the 220bhp 7-X engine, featuring larger bore, bigger valves, polished combustion chambers, high-compression head and a hot cam.

Jaguar’s famous twin-cam 3.4-litre XK engine gives the MkVII impressive performance

In 1952, the Hornet won 27 out of 34 races, as compared with a maximum of three victories from other marques, perplexing Detroit industry veterans as to how this was achieved by such a heavy, dated-looking car powered by an archaic engine.

Tom McCahill’s famous road test in Mechanix magazine succinctly provided the answer – the Hornet was ‘America’s finest road car from the very important standpoint of roadability, cornering, and steering’.

The Hudson might have looked as stately as a galleon, but it was one of the best-handling American saloons of its era, the combination of its suspension geometry and the rigid body resulting in able cornering that could shame many a sports car.

One area that where the Hornet did follow conventional Detroit thinking is in the seating, for the Hudson, as so many of its contemporaries, has vast benches devoid of any lateral support.

For most American cars of the 1950s this was of little matter because few drivers would have envisaged the need to corner at speed, but the Hornet’s performance would entice the enthusiastic motorist to exuberant progress.

The Hudson Hornet’s interior hints at the upcoming rock ’n’ roll era

This is not always practical, for despite the lack of body lean the driver has nothing but the wheel to anchor themselves in place.

‘Our’ Hornet is fitted with a three-speed manual transmission with overdrive, while the Jaguar MkVII has the optional Borg-Warner automatic ’box introduced for the US market.

The Hudson’s standard equipment was comprehensive, as befitting a top-of-the-range car, with the lights for the footwells and a vast rear armrest that can double as an adult booster seat being especially fine touches.

The speedometer, calibrated in Hudson’s trademark single digits, and the unabashed use of chrome create an overall impression of Art Deco magnificence, while the Jaguar’s cabin is almost self-consciously traditional.

The standard appointments range from a sliding roof to adjustable steering, complemented by a seemingly endless array of minor details, from the toolboxes in the front doors to the footwell air vents.

The single-digit speedo is a stylish touch in the Hudson Hornet’s interior

This last touch hints at the Jaguar’s antediluvian approach to heating compared with the Hudson, but the sound of that XK engine upon pressing the Bakelite starter button is worth any amount of minor discomfort.

Seeing the freeway disappear beneath the V-windshield or just cruising through narrow lanes and spinning the four-spoked steering wheel is enough to make you wonder how the MkVII could ever have been described as elephantine.

By the mid-1950s, the Jaguar was fully displaying its multi-faceted character, simultaneously starring in the British film noir The Good Die Young, winning numerous rallies and, as an elegant riposte to those who dismissed it as the Wardour Street Bentley, becoming an integral part of the Royal Mews as personal transport for HM The Queen Mother.

Hudson was by then in debt to the tune of more than $10million, a disaster that was due to both the failure of its new Jet compact and to changes in the American car market.

A vast armrest divides the Hudson Hornet’s comfortable rear seats

‘Win on a Sunday, sell on a Monday’ was no longer the case with the Hudson Hornet and sales had fallen from 43,656 units in 1951 to 27,208 only two years later.

Both cars were the antithesis of planned obsolescence, but while the Jaguar MkVII’s largely unchanging appearance until the demise of the MkIX in 1961 was acceptable and, indeed, almost de rigueur for an imported prestige car, the Hudson was competing in a market sector that was to become known in Eisenhower’s America as ‘The Status Seekers’.

The Jaguar’s customer base was more concerned with the MkVII’s progressive development than the mere vagaries of fashion, but corporate climbers cared less for competition victories than the fact that the Hornet’s fastback styling and six-cylinder engine were redolent of the previous decade.

Ironically, the Hudson’s famed construction meant that any change to its lines would incur a vastly expensive redesign.

A minor facelift plus an increase in power for the standard engine in 1954 did nothing to stem the collapse of sales and, in that same year, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator to form the American Motors Corporation.

The Hudson Hornet engine was widely tuned in period

The step-down body was dropped in ’55, and the marque died in ’57, by which time the Hudson Hornet was merely a V8-powered version of the decidedly unfabulous Nash Ambassador.

The respective appeal of these two examples of the automobile engineer’s high art is complementary.

The Jaguar is a six-seater mobile drawing room, ideal for purring between yellow cabs along 44th Avenue or making a discreet, classy arrival at Times Square’s The Algonquin Hotel, the driver ever-mindful of the XK power at their command.

As for the Hudson, it is a prime example of how US car companies outside the Big Three that can least afford to take risks are often the most willing to try.

For racing or for transporting occupants in coachbuilt levels of comfort across the America of rural two-lane blacktop and dirt roads, the Hornet has few peers.

Images: Tony Baker

Thanks to: The Jaguar Drivers’ Club; Twyford Waterworks

This was first in our May 2012 magazine; all information was correct at the date of original publication

Factfiles

Jaguar MkVII

Sold/number built 1951-’56/6212
Engine 3442cc dohc straight-six; 160bhp @ 5200rpm; 195lb ft @ 2500rpm
Transmission three-speed automatic, RWD
Suspension: front independent, by wishbones and torsion bars rear live axle, semi-elliptic springs
Steering recirculating ball
Brakes drums, servo
Length 16ft 4½in (4991mm)
Width 6ft 1in (1854mm)
Height 5ft 3in (1600mm)
Wheelbase 10ft (3048mm)
Weight 3866lb (1754kg)
0-60mph 13.6 secs
Top speed 104mph
Mpg 19
Price new £1693

Hudson Hornet

Sold/number built 1951-’57/156,008
Engine 5047cc ohv straight-six; 145bhp @ 3800rpm; 275lb ft @ 2600rpm
Transmission three-speed manual, overdrive, RWD
Suspension: front independent, by wishbones, coil springs, anti-roll bar rear semi-floating axle, semi-elliptic leaf springs
Steering worm and roller
Brakes drums
Length 17ft 5in (5308mm)
Width 6ft 5½in (1968mm)
Height 5ft 1in (1549mm)
Wheelbase 10ft 4in (3149mm)
Weight 3600lb (1632kg)
0-60mph 14 secs
Top speed 101mph
Mpg 14
Price new $2568