Last month, on my way to the fantabulous Curbside Soiree is Iowa City, Iowa, I stopped by the annual Loafer’s Car Show in downtown Hannibal, Missouri.
While this is the first of my findings that has been given any real coverage, this car is also one that has really been pestering me.
Hupmobile only produced around 500 cabriolets in 1934;
this one is claimed as being the last of its kind. But is it really a Hupmobile? That is the crux of my internal debate.
It is presumably on a Hupmobile chassis (though I suspect otherwise) with a Hubmobile hood ornament. Yet under the hood beats a 5.7 liter hemi – something Hupmobile did not produce.
So, is it a Hubmobile or a mongrel of assorted parts? It’s claim of being the sole survivor is the only reason it is being brought forth.
Nope, it’s a Hupmobile-based hot rod, and just speaking for myself, I’d rather see it as a rusted out but original hulk than what it is now.
Amen, brother.
Thank you. Survivor my butt. It seems as though “survivor” and “barn find” have taken over where “rat rod” and “tribute” left off.
(Back from banging my head against the wall.) Yes, I know Hupmobiles are far and few between, and the parts are rare to put another one together, but this is exactly what pisses me off. Another rare vintage car turned yet into another fugitive from American Graffiti. I’ll slightly tone down my disdain by the appreciation that it wasn’t painted 1970 Dodge Plum Crazy or some other such obnoxious color.
I was almost ready to cry ‘error’ on calling it a ’34 – although obviously the open cars continued the’ 32 and ’33 stylings while the ’34 eight and high-line six cylinder sedan used a Raymond Lowey designed streamliner that was only slightly less radical than the Chrysler Airflow. And a lot more attractive. Article with picture can be found here:
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hupmobile-cars1.htm
It still annoys me that, over the past twenty five years, I’ve seen four pictures of rebuilt, streetable, early ’30’s Hupps (and none in the metal). And three of those four are street rods! Grumple, bitch, piss and moan.
I’m amused by the owner’s claim “only survivor of this year and model.”
Sorry, zombies aren’t survivors.
“Zombies aren’t survivors”
That one made my day. I too complain about the lack of restored/preserved 30’s and off-brand cars, but by the same token you don’t see me restoring one either. That would be difficult compared to a 60’s car, or even a resto-modded 30’s car.
It’s not a Hupmobile; it’s a Hupmobile body obviously sitting on a more modern chassis (see front suspension poking out) with a modern drive train and modern interior…etc… Hardly what I’d call a “survivor”. Better to have used a fiberglass tub and called it good.
With no license plates and no turn signals – a trailer queen not driven on the street? At least they saved the body.
Seems a shame if it really is/was the last of its kind. At least it is very tastefully done and not a crude rat-rod. If it was a fiberglass ’32 Ford with SBC or SBF under the hood I wouldn’t pay it much attention, but I would certainly stop to admire this at a show. Aside from a minor issue with the oversize wheels, I like it.
I think it’s interesting that a ’59 Edsel HOT ROD with a modern turbo 4-cylinder gets kudos here, but just about any pre-war hot rod gets such a dour reaction.
That old Edsel still does service as a motor car this, not so much.
This is kind of like “George Washington’s axe.” The handle’s been replaced five times, and the head three, but yes, it’s still George’s axe!
An excellent analogy, which also applies to the “over-restored” Fords post from last week. This is also known as the Ship of Theseus paradox: If every plank of a ship was replaced over time as it needed repair, is it still the same ship?
That Ship of Theseus paradox is quite the, er, paradox. A real thumbsucker. Is there a (generally accepted) answer to it?
Reminds me of when I reunited with an old friend I hadn’t seen in over 10 years. I noted that we were both literally different people when we’d last seen one another, since (to my understanding of the situation) no cell in the human body goes more than seven years without dying and/or regenerating itself.
As for the Hemi Hupmobile, what I want to know is how that enormous hood ornament affected the drag coefficient in the wind-tunnel tests (assuming they had wind-tunnel tests in 1934, which they probably didn’t).
I can see a lynch mob from the owners club looking for this guy!How difficult would it be to turn back to original(and expensive)?
And on the other hand . . .
Sure, it would be nice to see an all-original Hupmobile, a car I have never seen that I can recall in the metal, but the resto-modding/Frankensteining helped something of this car survive. I think it’s better that SOMETHING of it survived than nothing of it, and what has survived is in beautiful condition. “Survivor” might be stretching it. How many reproduction or original parts are available today or within recent memory for Hupmobiles? Not to mention that in 1934, a lot of custom coachworks built their own bodies over commonly available chassis. Even if Hupmobile didn’t, it is somewhat in keeping with the spirit of the time?
While not the rare Cabriolet model, this is an ACTUAL restored 1934 Hupmobile. It resides in the Kenosha area, and is seen pretty regularly at shows and cruises.
Now this car is a peach!!!!!!!!!!! I just bought the same model/year and it very complete and original except for a repaint. She is a beauty in her own right and I will NOT rod it!!!! Help with parts/ repair literature would be greatly appreciated Thad 619-417-0770 (San Diego)
Here is a slightly later Hupmobile I shot at a LeMay open house in 2009. It looks stock with the exception that it seems to sit pretty low. Couldn’t find the owner so I don’t know if it actually is a stocker, but at least I didn’t see any body or interior modifications.
Odds are that’s the same year as the car above. The Aerodynamics were only made in ’34 and ’35, then Hupp sorta went on hiatus the next two years before attempting to comeback in ’38 (right in the middle of the mini-recession). That Aerodynamic is (was?) either an eight cylinder or the high line six cylinder. The model above it is the low line 1934, which had the same styling as the ’33.
For the record, if it is modified, that Aerodynamic doesn’t piss me off nearly as much. At least it lets the viewer see what a REAL 1934/35 Hupp Aerodynamic looked like.
…and a rear view.
Note the dual pipes….
Not knowing the as-found condition of the subject 1934 cabriolet, I won’t offer a judgment on whether it should have been rodded, in that it truly may have been a little too far gone for a reasonable restoration project.
Aside from the generally slightly weird styling there is one unusual feature of the four-door sedan I posted pics of – both doors are hinged on the B pillar. I don’t see that very often. (I should have added this to one of the posts above but for some reason the edit window came up blank.)
Maybe it’s a generational thing, but I find generally find prewar hot rods to be about the most boring category of cars, besides the typical crate motor in a Nova “muscle cars”, that show up to car shows and cruises.
Generally, I prefer the prewar classics original… BUT… this thing is gorgeously done. If someone wants to go out and waste 100’s of thousand of dollars restoring a Hupmobile to like new condition, they could still do it to this hot rodded version 100 years from now. Like others have said, at least the body isn’t rotting in a field.
I don’t get it. My favorite thing about an old car are the sounds, the smells, the feel, the vibrations. Operating a piece of archaic machinery is a thrill. I don’t understand why someone would want to replace those experiences with an air conditioned 5.7 hemi automatic transmission disk brake modern car. You can drive one of those every day, just sign on the dotted line for $xxx/mo. for a new 300 or Challenger. I’m sure it would be an enjoyable drive. But with any car from an earlier era, there is so much more.
Perfectly stated! This car may as well be a PT Cruiser. I love old cars because of the way they look, smell, sound, and perform — the true “experience”.
Big chrome wheels, PCM-controlled drivetrains, high-power stereos, fast-ratio steering boxes, aftermarket sway bars, lowered suspensions etc. just don’t belong on what I consider classic cars.
For arguments sake, I’ll probably go for a dual-chamber master cylinder on our ’67 Mustang and its future whitewalls will be radials instead of bias-ply when(if) I get around to it. It will keep its 200 cu. in. 6.
+1 to you both
Dropping a car until the tyres touch the fenders is just stupid. Without some suspension travel, a car is not really a car.
Maybe it has air springs to raise the body for driving.
Proof is in the serial number (later called V.I.N.) number… and/or title.
Are any of the Mustang/Camaro/Chargers/Jeeps/Broncos re-bodied with modern reproduction steel bodies using the original VIN ~really~ the original vehicle?
The kit car guys have struggled with this for years as have the reproduction street rod guys to the point that SEMA got involved with the special build laws etc.
What a mess that was once a Hupmobile Ive seen one real one this lifetime, there are plenty of old 30s wreck just waiting for this sort of treatment never mind chopping up the last known survivor. Considering what I have seen restored starting from a bare frame what would be so hard about restoring a Hupp.
I can’t help thinking about Miss Agnes, the electric blue Rolls Royce driven by fictional sleuth Travis McGee. Prior to McGee’s ownership. it had been crudely converted into a pickup truck. As a concession to the increasing speed and density of Florida traffic, McGee eventually replaced the factory running gear with the drive train from a late-model Lincoln. Miss Agnes was rendered more practical for everyday use, but McGee lamented the loss of some of the car’s original features.
Transplanted engines may not be the best solution for preserving vintage vehicles. but. at least they can safely be operated in the midst of a sea of anonymous lookalike cars. I would be uncomfortable driving a car with bias-ply tires and stopped by (perhaps)mechanical drum brakes. Vacuum-operated windshield wipers and weak headlights also pose challenges.
At a certain point, if your collectible car is too fragile to be driven, why not collect stamps instead?
Stamp collectors don’t use their stamps either. 🙂
Agreed on all points – why someone would prefer this thing to either the 1934 Hupmobile as its’ engineers intended or/and a late model Mopar as itself (I’d look for a clean Hemi Magnum) is beyond me, but it’s beautifully done and better than it having been crushed and reborn as two Falcons 50 years ago (nothing against Falcons…)
“I’m too lazy to do it the right way, but I have a truckload of money.”
If that isn’t bad enough, the same guy has a coupe version of this (yes, ANOTHER Hupmobile street-rodded, arrgh!) in the exact same colors. And, with a late-model moonroof tacked on.
Both of them make the rounds in the Quad Cities. A friend of mine knows the guy, And no, he doesn’t know why the guy chopped up such a rare car. I don’t know if they’re in the same hands, as the guy who did them (or wrote the checks, at any rate) passed away last year.
Hot rods are fun and can be reasonably driven and enjoyed to a much greater extent than a restored 1934 Hubmobile can be. If they cut up a nice original car, then I get it all the outrage (to an extent)—-in all likelihood, they started with a basketcase that needed many nearly unobtainable original parts.
I had a similar reaction when I saw this: an obviously heavily modified Model A with a V8 from a 740i and a transmission from an M5 http://www.crankandpiston.com/on-the-road/bmw-powered-1928-ford-model-a-the-art-of-hot-rodding/
On one hand, the guy obviously devoted a great deal of effort to it, and the donor car wasn’t much more than a collection of parts, so he didn’t destroy anything in the process. On the other hand, it sort of bothers me, for reasons that I can’t quite put my finger on.
Prejudice showing here I just don’t like rat rods,not as much as I dislike “tribute” cars though.The Huppmobile rod is beautifully engineered but hot rods aren’t my cup of tea. I’ve never seen a Huppmobile in the metal rodded or original
A pity.
Folks who are complaining about street rodding these old vehicles always have the oportunity to buy the car, first and restore it to original condition. As for me , I have seen this 34 Hupp in person and it is beautiful and it is on a Hupp frame. It just has a modern front clip. I am 75 and have been a purest classic collector for over 50 years, At age 66, I street rodded a Packard 12, that was one of 7 left. I had a ball with it. You know, disc brakes, power steering, a/c, etc. I recently sold it at an auction where a pristine example of the same car sold for less money, than my street rod.. The times , they are a changing!.
hi i live in australia down under i found a 1934 same as the hot rod i am waiting for delivers from inter state i own a 1933 k321 sedan witch is being restored the chap has owned the cabriolet for a long time it needs a lot of work but he sais it is a 1934 421 cabriolet roadster so it will be restored all origenal we have 8 sedans on the road at the moment
It’s always cheaper to Hot Rod than do a proper restoration .
That being said, I meet a lot of guys who have Hot Rods and claim they’re better to drive and safer too but then balk when I offer to fill the tank and buy lunch 30 minutes away up a mountain highway…..
I call B.S. .
Is Thad still here ? did you ever get your car going ? .
-Nate