To Be OFFERED AT AUCTION WITHOUT RESERVE at RM Sothebys' Auburn
Fall event, 3 - 5 September 2020.
Estimate:
$40,000 - $50,000
- Offered from the Walter Miller Estate
- A large, powerful, and impressive Brass Era Hudson
- Representing the company's only true "high-end" model
- Very few examples known to survive
- Attractive older restoration, ideal for tours
"The New Ideal of a Distinguished Car," Model Six-54 represents the
Hudson Motor Car Company's largest and most prestigious offering
ever. While the firm would produce other grand models, notably
during the Classic Era, the Six-54 was a true luxury car for its
time, with a 135-inch-wheelbase chassis and a 421-cubic-inch inline
six-cylinder engine, cast in pairs, with a self-starter, and
producing 55 horsepower-sufficient, it is said, for a top speed of
70 mph. The successor Super Six of 1916, the basis for the
company's models for over a decade, was more powerful but
dimensionally smaller in virtually every way, and arguably not as
visually impressive. Further, the Six-54 was Hudson's first
left-hand-drive model.
Writing of his Hudson in 2019, a year after purchasing it, the late
Walter Miller commented, "I have admired the Six-54 for many years
and jumped at the chance to acquire one. This car is fully
restored, luckily well-documented going back many years and was
previously owned by several well-known early antique car
collectors, including some in New York State." While that
documentation has yet to be uncovered at the time of cataloging,
the car does retain a plaque from the 1964 Texas Tour in Kerrville,
hosted by the Alamo City Horseless Carriage Club, as well as a
second identifying its owner at the time, Don McKay.
A very nice older restoration, the car is finished in the correct
black and blue two-tone livery for the model, with an interior that
almost certainly dates to more recent decades; it remains in
well-preserved condition for touring. Wooden artillery wheels,
finished in cream with black striping, add a jaunty accent, with a
pair of spare tires hung off the driver's side. The car retains a
Carter carburetor, Delco lighting system, and Stewart combination
odometer/speedometer, as well as a Hudson-badged Waltham clock,
Spartan electric horn, and Hudson "Six" Moto-meter. A small luggage
trunk at the rear is best suited for containing the jack and crank
handle, which it does to this day. An original Hudson service
manual also accompanies.
Any collection of Hudsons really demands a Six-54, perhaps the
grandest automobile that the company ever built, and a machine that
can hold its own on Brass Era tours against the likes of Peerless,
Locomobile, and Pierce-Arrow.To view this car and others currently
consigned to this auction, please visit the RM website at
rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/af20.
