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About Me
My work has appeared in a number of major publications either as writer, photographer, or source. I enjoy talking about all things automotive. Recent Posts
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CarSpace Hudson's BlogAll around the car world there are stories and these are just a few of them. A new blog is posted every Monday. Sometimes more often. Dec 8, 2007 - Hudson's Book Club: Holiday EditionI've decided to take advantage of my prime location among CarSpace's bloggers and use my influence in much the way that Oprah does on her little TV show. Sure, she has somewhere around 7 million viewers and I've got somewhere around 30 readers each week, but I'm trying to convince myself that I've got the same kind of influence as the aforementioned media queen. Like Ms. Winfrey, I'm starting my own little "book club" and just in time for the holidays! This month, I'm pulling two books from the archives: a classic and an overlooked gem. In the 1990s, there were a series of books written on various automotive topics. In each of these tomes, the writer became part of the story and embedded themselves (much like their braver cohorts did in warzones before) as the main characters went about their daily routine. And some great books came out of this first-hand, in-depth reporting. Probably the most noteworthy of this group is James Schefter's "All Corvettes are Red" (Simon & Schuster, 1997). It follows the development, from nearly day one, of the "fifth generation" Corvette. The starts and stops of the process of developing the next-generation of one of the world's most famous models are covered. While every car nut knows that the world-class "sixth generation" Corvette has been in production for a few years now, the landmark "fifth generation" model generated such a great story that this book remains a very important work. If you like Corvettes, General Motors, engineering, bureaucracy, the auto industry, or just the development product in general, this is a must-read book. Less well known than "All Corvettes" is my other choice. And a little background may be necessary. I was at the annual banquet for the Society of Automotive Historians in the mid 1990s when I struck up a conversation with another attendee. Our conversation rambled around our various automotive interests and somehow centered on our common affection for Subaru products. My fellow historian mentioned a book that I just had to read. So as soon as I could get to Gene's Books (don't look for it, Borders killed it years ago), I picked up a copy. The book is Randall Rothenberg's "Where the Suckers Moon" (Knopf, 1994). Where Mr Schefter followed the development of a particular model, Mr Rothenberg followed the development of a particular advertising campaign, in this case Subaru's search for a new advertising firm. In the advertising world, an automotive client ranks up there among the most elusive goals. If you have one automotive client, your company has reached a certain level of status among your peers. Car companies spend billions on advertising each year in the United States and there are relatively few of these brands spending that money. This could be compared to an everyday Joe/Jane marrying a supermodel...many Joe/Janes out there looking for those precious few Heidi Klums or Cindy Crawfords. So the competition is fierce. And Subaru was courted by many of the big names and a few of the aspiring big names in the business. The tales of what these companies would do to woo a "supermodel" (even an aspiring one like Subaru) go a long way to showcase what goes on before "What to Drive" hits the airwaves. There's a brief history of Subaru at the beginning of this book, but the rest of the book goes into the search for a new ad firm and the results of that company's creative developments. It's definitely the book for those hard-to-shop for car fans on your holiday shopping list. I've got other books in my library that I'd like to tell you about, but I'll leave that for a future edition of.... Hudson's Book Club!
Aug 30, 2007 - Somewhere West of LaramieAn old friend of mine was cleaning out his library. Since I'm a sucker for books and magazines, I obviously accepted when he asked if I wanted his excess. Some of these books were redundant in my collection. Some of them are extrodinary additions. Some are so rare that I never imagined seeing one let alone having one. Reading through these books (only the first load, I've been promised), I thought of things that I wanted to share. As an automotive historian, I feel a need to make sure some important bits of automotive history are passed on to others. On occasion, I remember something (or learn something new) that I feel is a key ingredient in history. And here I get to spread the knowledge. Today's lesson: Advertising. One of the greatest advertisements in automotive history was from a car company you might not know about. The company was the Jordan Motor Car Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The product was the 1923 model called the Playboy. The advertisement appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in June 1923 and consisted of a drawing by Fred Cole accompanied by 63 words.
It reads: SOMEWHERE west of Laramie there's a broncho-busting, steer-roping girl who knows what I’m talking about. She can tell what a sassy pony, that’s a cross between greased lighting and the place where it hits, can do with eleven hundred pounds of steel and action when he's going high, wide and handsome. The truth is—the Jordan Playboy was built for her. Today's advertising peole could learn a thing or two from the past. Don't you think?
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