1955 Hornet Custom Hollywood

Dark blue Hudson Hornet stock car with number 92 and FABULOUS HUDSON HORNET lettering in a museum — Shown: Herb Thomas's "Fabulous Hudson Hornet" No. 92 stock car at the Darlington Raceway Stock Car Museum. No photograph of this model year is on file yet. Photo: APK, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Factory statusFactory configuration

Body styleCustom Hollywood hardtop

Trim / packageHornet Custom

Engine308 cid Championship Six with Twin H-Power

InductionTwin H-Power twin carburetors

Published power170 hp · Hudson advertised rating; basis not identified

Published torqueUnknown

Forward gears3

Transmissionthree-speed synchromesh manual

Matched period road testUnknown

What this record proves

The badge is only the beginning.

The Hornet Custom Hollywood hardtop paired the 308-cubic-inch Championship Six with Twin H-Power twin carburetors and a standard three-speed synchromesh manual. This is the showroom car that shared a name with the racing program, not the racing program's equipment.

1955 is the year the badge outlived its maker's independence. Hudson and American Motors presented the line jointly after the Nash-Hudson merger, so a 1955 Hornet is an American Motors product carrying Hudson engineering identity.

This record makes no claim that the earlier step-down platform continued unchanged into 1955, and torque, curb weight, and period performance remain unknown. The competition results that made the Hornet famous belong to earlier seasons and to the racing program, not to this configuration.