The American Motors Corporation was created when the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and the Hudson Motor Car Company merged in 1954. New cars with AMC badges did not appear up to model year 1966, Nevertheless; before that, the old brand names were kept alive for some time. Cars with Nash badges survived until 1957while Rambler (formerly a Model name Nash) became the primary AMC brand until 1967 (although the Nash feature name “Weather Eye” from the 1930s went on AMC dashboards well into the 1970s). The name Hudson got the ax along with Nashbut an AMC machine managed to get of them brand names just before: the Hudson Rambler Custom Cross-Country station wagon. Here is one of these rare machines, spotted a few months ago in a Wyoming self-serve yard just across the border from Colorado.
It’s hard to miss Cheyenne Auto and Metal when heading down I-25 from Colorado, as the yard is located very close to the fireworks store with this memorable logo.
The only visible difference between the Rambler Custom Cross Country and the Hudson Rambler Cross Country was the grille badge. Otherwise, the two were identical.
You can see the shadow of that Hudson badge on the grille of this car, but it’s long gone. The Hudson badged version of this car was only available for the 1955 and 1956 model years. Some paint schemes got pretty wild.
The only clue that allowed me to determine that this car was sold new as a Hudson was the number on that firewall tag. Guess Hudson fanatics don’t consider this Nash one of their own, just as much Packard aficionados turn their backs the rebadged, fish-faced Studebakers of 1958.
This engine is an inline six cylinder flat head with a displacement of 196 cubic inches (3.2 liters), called Nash’s “Flying Scot”. It was rated at 90 horsepower in 1955. This engine had a long career with American Motors, available as a flat head until 1965. It is not mechanically linked to the last AMC inline six-cylinder overhead valvewhich was still being installed in new Jeeps up to 2006but I consider it to be witty ancestor of the Jeep 4.0.
This car could be purchased with an automatic transmission (a GM built Two-speed Powerglide), but the basis three-on-the-shaft column change manual came in most ’55 Ramblers.
There’s only one gauge (not including the clock), and that’s this well-designed all-in-one unit.
I thought about buying the dashboard clock for my nest egg collectionbut mechanical car clocks that sit outside for decades tend to get completely rusty inside.
These cars are very cool, but the cost to restore one to this condition would be mind-blowing (especially considering that a nice example with the Buick V6 swap sold for only $21,000 Last year).
CMA kept the Cross Country name for wagons across at least 1967.