In the early 50s, the Hudson Hornet was the King of the Road, in both the back streets and on the Nascar circuit, with a record-setting 27 wins out of 34 starts. It was simply the car to beat, with the only real hug-the-road ride and chrome for days.

The Hornet first came into existence in 1941, but its radical design was rejected by the Hudson Motor Car Company’s president, A.E. Barit. Hudson’s attention turned to the manufacture of naval engines and aircraft parts, and the Hornet was relegated to the factory roof for the duration of World War II. In 1948, the Hornet’s innovative “Step-Down” design and superior handling won Barit over, and the car finally debuted in 1951 to rave reviews. The Hornet’s “Monobilt” body and frame made it stronger than a brick house. Although normal today, the Hornet was the first factory car to mount the floor pan at the rails, so a person had to ‘step down’ to get into it. This gave the car seating for six with plenty of headroom, and more importantly, the lowest center of gravity of any car on the road.

A self-described Hornet fanatic, Jay wasn’t planning on buying a second one, until he was contacted by a 93-year-old California woman, who still had this 1951 four-door in her garage. Her husband bought the car new, and used it to pass all the other cars on the road while moving his family from New Jersey to California. With over 300,000 miles on it, everything on the car was worn out except the chrome, but Jay and Bernard decided to undertake a full-scale renovation. And it was no simple job - in order to add air conditioning, they had to replace the generator with an alternator, taking the car from six volts to negative ground 12, which meant that the horn, ignition coil and starter had to be upgraded as well. And while they were under the hood, they decided to use a 308 cubic engine for more compression, along with the Hornet’s signature Twin-H carbs, which weren’t yet available in 1951.