Some car nameplates are ‘retro’ cool in new roles

Woe is me. Many U.S. automobile brands that were once quite popular are now defunct. 

But car buffs relish that a few have been “reborn” as fictional movie stars, to appear in the contemporarily clever “Cars” film series, which “debuted” in 2006 – produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. 

One of the nostalgic lead characters in the first “Cars” is “Doc Hudson.” He looks like a dark blue 1951 Hudson Hornet.

 

Drawing from prose penned by publicists at Pixar and Disney, we learn that in a former life, Doc was a three-time “Piston Cup” racing champion (1951-53). He crashed early in 1954, marking the end of his career in the fast lane. 

Now residing in Radiator Springs (the “shining gemstone of the Mother Road” – Route 66), Doc is the community’s judge as well as its only physician. 

Doc runs the local mechanical clinic. His shingle touts him as “Doctor of Internal Combustion.” The script reads: “If you’ve got a bad spark plug or a rattle in your engine, his door is always open.” 

(The Hudson Hornets were introduced as a “family car,” but Hornets earned 64 stock car racing titles and three NASCAR championships during its brief three-year career.) 

One of Doc Hudson’s sidekicks in the “Cars” is “Sheriff,” who keeps the peace in Carburetor County. Sheriff likes to hide behind the “welcome to Radiator Springs” billboard and nab speeding motorists. Usually, though, it’s nap time for the old 1949 Mercury coupe. 

“Sheriff” is a classic black and white cruiser, with a “rotating gumball light on his roof, two sirens, and curb feelers. His grille resembles a mustache.”

(The 1949 Mercury coupe was a classic. It was featured in the 1955 film “Rebel Without a Cause,” starring James Dean and Natalie Wood. The model also was known as the evil “Hell’s Chariot” in the 1971 musical “Grease,” a love story with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John playing the leading roles.) 

In “Cars 3” (2017), movie fans are introduced to Louise “Barnstormer” Nash, a Piston Cup racing legend. Louise is a beige 1950 Nash Ambassador with a reddish-pink roof. No. 94 is painted on her doors. She lacks a grille due to the fact that she’s a female.

Nash’s character is inspired by driver Louise Duvall Smith of Barnesville, Ga., who was a “natural” as stock car racer…but prone to crash a lot.

 

(The Ambassador was a large aerodynamically clean family car that rode low to the ground.) 

Hudson and Nash automobiles date back to the early 1900s. Hudson Motors was formed by Joseph L. Hudson, a Detroit department store entrepreneur, and seven other partners in 1909. Nash Motors was founded in 1916 in Kenosha, Wis., by Charles W. Nash, who had formerly served as the CEO of General Motors. 

In early 1954, Nash and Hudson joined forces to become American Motors Corporation (AMC), with Hudson continuing to build full-sized vehicles while Nash focused on its Rambler line of small cars. Hudson and Nash cars went out of production in 1957. 

The Mercury brand was introduced by the Ford Motor Company as a mid-level marque between Ford and Lincoln. 

The name was selected by Edsel Ford, the only son of Henry Ford. Mercury was the Roman god “symbolizing speed, skill, dependability and eloquence.” 

The brand was eliminated by Ford in 2011…but lives on in an “oldie goldie” country song – “Mercury Blues.”

 

Sing along with Alan Jackson: 

“Well if I had money / I’d tell you what I’d do / I go downtown / Buy a Mercury or two.”