It's an evocative name: Terraplane. In 1933 it might also have been known in the US as Terrorplane.
For the 1933 Terraplane 8 was the transport of choice of gangster, John Dillinger. The reason for this was simple: it was supposedly faster than a V8 Ford. It was reported Dillon and girl friend, Billie Frechette fought a running machine gun battle with police while escaping in his Terraplane 8, in St Paul, Minnesota. Fast cars have always been a target for criminals.
Remember in the mid 1990s how the Subaru WRX became Australian crooks' vehicle of choice? Not that they owned them. They just found WRXs before they were lost. The rate of theft caused WRX insurance rates to skyrocket and forced Subaru to put an unwieldy coded lock into WRX models in Australia, until security problems were sorted in later models.Our featured car is the more sedate 1934 Hudson Terraplane sedan with a straight six cylinder engine.
How sedate? It was owned by a bank manager in Mittagong on the New South Wales south coast, which is about as far as you can get from the notorious John Dillinger. This car is in superb unrestored condition and we found it in a small collection of cars housed at the Sunshine Coast's Yandina Ginger Factory – a themed park dedicated to all things ginger.
The car has just 31,000 miles (49,600 kms) on the clock and is simply in magnificent condition, a genuine black beauty. While it's not over the top in appearance it has some classic features. It's chrome wheels are large hub, of spoke wire variety, that set off the black, Hudson-built body. The spare wheel sits in a cradle in the front passenger side mudguard and has its own matching cover, with the chrome hub cap with the word Terraplane emblazoned across the cap.
The Terraplane swept back grille, with fencing mask styling, is simply wild and distinctive for this era.
On either side of the grille are the rather large headlamps and just beneath them a pair of twin horns squeezed in between the rising mudguards. Capping off the front is a chrome bumper with a dipping V in the centre.
Sitting atop the bonnet is the Terraplane emblem, a hexagonal shape with the word Terraplane written across it and a pair of sweeping wings that look like an afterthought. Hudson launched the Essex Terraplane in 1932 and dropped the Essex name in 1933. The car, with its six and eight cylinder engines, was powerful in more ways than one. Terraplane single handedly saved the Hudson company in the wake of the Great Depression.
Sales were strong, some 51,000 in 1934 and 1935 rising to 87,000 in 1936 and more than 90,000 in 1937. Terraplane was the tail wagging the dog and in 1938 the Terraplane was badged Hudson, although it was no longer the low cost car it started out as. While this sedan is a conservative member of the Terraplane stable, there were far more exciting models produced, including a stunning Terraplane coupe and convertible.
FEEDBACK: My first car was a 1934 Terraplane 6 cylinder. I paid $10.00 for it in 1956.
Incidentally the “dipping V “ in the front bumper was so you could insert the
crank if the starter didn’t work. Handy in the Minnesota cold weather.
User Name: Wayne R. Lazorik
FEEDBACK: My father owned a 1934 Terraplane Coupe 6 up until the late 1960s. He regularly raced, and beat a 1934 Ford Coupe V8. He was most impressed by the wind-down rear window for speaking to the passengers in the Dicky seat. He regrets selling it to this day.
John Tozer
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