Terraplane

Terraplane De Luxe Series 61 Sedan (1936)

Terraplane Super Limousine (1937)

Scrap-ripe Terraplane Cabriolet in Kathmandu , ( Nepal ) (1980).

1934 Terraplane near Klein- Aus , Namibia .

Terraplane was a car brand of the Hudson Motor Car Co. in Detroit and existed from 1932 to 1938. In the first year the car was called Essex-Terraplane , in the following year the name Essex was dropped and from 1936 the brand was fully integrated into the Hudson range. The Terraplane was an inexpensive but powerful vehicle for town and country. There were cars and trucks of that name. The car was also available as a convertible .

Market changes

Hudson manufactured the inexpensive Essex line since 1919. In 1922 the Essex Motor Company was integrated into the Hudson Motor Car Co. Essex is generally credited with making closed automobiles affordable.

Decreasing sales of the Essex and the increasing financial pressure of the Great Depression forced Hudson to replace the Essex with a newly designed car with lower manufacturing costs and a lower sales price. The newly designed car from 1932 was called the Essex Terraplane . Hudson asked the well-known aviator Amelia Earhart to help launch the first Terraplane. Because it was a small but very powerful car with a very precisely built steel frame, Orville Wright bought one of the first cars. The 1932 model looked very similar to its Essex predecessors. The 1933 model still bore the name Essex Terraplane on the grille, but was already marketed as the Terraplane .

Terraplane years

The Terraplane models 1933 and 1934 were optionally available with an eight-cylinder engine. The Terraplane Eight had an eight-cylinder in-line engine with 244 cu in. (3998 cc) displacement. (The Hudson had a comparable engine, but with 254 cu in. (4162 cc) displacement). The Hudson Eight engine had a 3 "(76.2 mm) bore and the Terraplane engine had a 2 15/16" (74.6 mm) bore. Both had a stroke of 4.5 "(114.3 mm).

The Terraplane Eight had a longer chassis, a longer bonnet and longer front fenders to give the large engine enough space. In contrast to the six-cylinder, it had ventilation openings on the side of the bonnet. It is said that a Terraplane Eight Coupé from 1933 set a record in the hill climb on Pikes Peak that lasted for more than 20 years. The Terraplane was used as the preferred getaway vehicle by gangster John Dillinger .

The Terraplane was manufactured until 1938. Then Hudson named its simplest model the Hudson 112 . The number was based on the wheelbase in inches.

The chassis and engine of the Terraplane were also used for the British Railton (built from 1933 to 1939). This company was bought by Hudson in 1939.

Influence in music

The Blues singer Robert Johnson wrote and sang the famous song Terraplane Blues , in which the Terra Plane was a metaphor for sex. In the lyrics, the car won't start, and Johnson suspected that his girlfriend was letting another man drive the car while he wasn't there. Johnson describes some mechanical problems with his Terraplane, creating a barely disguised sexual innuendo in front of the listener.

Terraplane Blues became something of a blues standard; Elliott Sharp named his blues band after this song.

The Led Zeppelin song Trampled Under Foot is based on Robert Johnson's Terraplane Blues, as Robert Plant uses auto parts as sexual metaphors.

Rory Gallagher refers to the Terraplane in his song Middle Name from the album Fresh Evidence .

Foghat covered Terraplane Blues on their album Fool For The City .

Marc Bolan of T. Rex refers to this car in at least two songs, Children of the Revolution and Rip Off .

Web links

Commons : Terraplane vehicles - collection of images, videos and audio files